PCUSA-Israel conflict heats up
The Layman, December 14, 2010
Although opposing sides found a way to make peace at the 219th General Assembly with regard to the Israel-Palestinian discussion, the debate has again fired up.
The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Israel Palestine Mission Network, which lobbied the 219th GA on behalf of a controversial report entitled “Breaking Down Walls” authored by the Middle East Study Committee, responded last week to an article published in the Dec. 3 edition of the Wall Street Journal. The article, which IPMN called “an attack,” was written by Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
The network’s advocacy chairman, the Rev. Jeffrey DeYoe, fired back last week.
“In a world where an occupying nation with the most powerful standing army in the Middle East can claim victimhood, even while it effectively inflicts apartheid on an entire indigenous people, Rabbis Hier and Cooper have much to try to defend … or spin to say nothing of their Center’s entanglement in the controversial ‘Museum of Tolerance’ project in Jerusalem – a museum being built on the site of an ancient Muslim cemetery,” DeYoe said in a news release. “Whether Rabbis Hier and Cooper like it or not, the real facts on the ground in Israel and Palestine are human and plain to see: the land is made up of Israelis and Palestinians who are Jewish, Christian and Muslim on both sides of the Green Line. The vast majority of all these peoples are peaceful and law-abiding. It is the conviction of our network, and our church, to work for the security, peace and human rights of all God’s people in the Holy Land.”
In addition to outlining mainly Palestinian perspectives, the Breaking Down Walls report also included a copy of the Kairos Palestine document, which calls for economic boycott against and divestment of companies that do business with Israel. Critics of Kairos Palestine claim it denies any connection between Biblical covenants and Israel, and places blame for the conflict on Israel. When presented to the GA in Minneapolis in July, it was heavily revised to acknowledge the suffering of Israelis, reaffirm Israel’s right to exist and created a new 7-person monitoring group to create a new study document.
The Wall Street Journal article, which appeared in print and online, accuses liberal Protestants of engaging in historical revisionism and claims that the Kairos Palestine is silent on the evils committed by Palestinians.
“The Simon Wiesenthal Center will soon meet with the president of the World Council of Churches to urge an end to its campaign against Israel and the Jewish people,” the article states. “Like anti-Israel diplomatic and academic campaigns, such religious calls and writings won’t improve the life of a single Palestinian. But they will certainly embolden terrorists and anti-Semites, and cast carefully nurtured interfaith relations into darkness and disarray.”
While defending itself from so-called attacks, the IPMN has rolled out a three-week congregational study plan to go with the Kairos Palestine in celebration of the document’s first anniversary. Calling it the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail of our time,” an advertisement for the study says it offers background material on the Israel-Palestine conflict as well as theological context.
The study is available for $2 through the PCUSA online store.
PCUSA leadership also entered the fray in a statement released Dec. 10 entitled “The hopes and fears of all the years.” The article begins with a brief statement on Bethlehem being the town of Jesus’ birth and the peaceful imagery commonly used in the Christmas season. The article, written by PCUSA Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons and General Assembly Mission Council Director Linda Valentine, then shifts to discussion about the Israeli security wall and its impact on Palestinians and the denomination’s “peacemaking” strategies.
The article echoes the IPMN’s admonitions of the Wall Street Journal article, and offers a similar clarification of the PCUSA’s position.
“Our approach has been to seek to persuade Jewish friends, neighbors and relatives to support a two state solution that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live in dignity, peace and prosperity,” Valentine and Parsons said. “Much is stake, as the familiar Christmas carol notes regarding Bethlehem: ‘the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.’ The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) calls for prayers that hope for peace will cast out fear and lead to better future. The security of Israelis and Palestinians is inextricably linked to a just peace for both peoples.”
In a letter to Church and World, PCUSA pastor and regular Layman contributor the Rev. James Berkley responded by questioning why denominational leaders would use the Christmas season to talk about Middle East politics.
“Jesus was not born in Bethlehem so that political parties could liberate Palestine by running the Romans back to Rome,” Berkley said. “He was born in Bethlehem so that humankind would have a sorely needed Savior. Jesus carefully avoided the political, because there was something far greater for Him to do: save the world. … And is it any wonder that our denomination is falling into irrelevant hopelessness, when those who lead us can talk politics but neglect the most redeeming message the world has ever heard? We have heavenly gold to give the world. Why do we insist on giving it more earthly dross?”
Christmas card drive
In related news, the PCUSA’s Office of Public Witness, in its Dec. 13 Witness in Washington e-mail, is encouraging Presbyterians to send a Christmas card to President Barack Obama as part of the Peace For Jerusalem campaign.
The card, which was designed by a Palestinian Christian, features a verse from Matthew 5, “Prince of Peace” written in three languages and a message of encouragement for the president. The card can be sent electronically or printed out for traditional mailing.
The effort is being organized by the Churches for Middle East Peace.