We offer here a few comments and analyses of the current crisis in the Middle East, reflecting a variety of viewpoints and faith traditions.

If you want to suggest other statements, or share you own views, we'll be happy to hear from you, and post them here.

Just send us a note!
 

There is apartheid in Israel
[1-25-07]

Shulamit Aloni, the Israeli Prize laureate who once served as Minister of Education under Yitzhak Rabin, wrote an article for Yediot Acharonot, Israel's largest circulating newspaper, in which he describes a new decree banning the conveyance of Palestinians in Israeli vehicles. Such a blatant violation of the right to travel joins the long list of human rights violations carried out by Israel in the Occupied Territories. It's one more proof, he says, that Jewish attacks on Jimmy Carter’s recent book are unjustified, since apartheid is in fact being imposed by Israel on the Palestinians.

He continues: "Apartheid is defined [in the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, to which Israel is a signatory] as an international crime that among other things includes using different legal instruments to rule over different racial groups, thus depriving people of their human rights. Isn't freedom of travel one of these rights?"

Commissioners preparing for the coming General Assembly have received great heaps of letters and other communications from people and groups wanting them to hear their point of view. And there may be just a few among those commissioners who have not quite kept up with the paper flood.

But one letter in the flood is worth reading, whether you’re a commissioner or not.

Norman G. Finkelstein, who teaches political science at DePaul University in Chicago, has long paid attention to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and has worked for lasting peace between the two nations.

Witherspooner Dr. Arch Taylor sends this note:

I have been trying to call attention to the fact that Israel possesses nuclear weapons of mass destruction as an important factor in the present international expression of concern about Iran. Nobody seems willing to listen. People in general don't know this truth about Israel, and the major media aren't interested in getting the word out. I am currently trying to get the local newspaper stirred up about it. Please do your part.

In peace, for peace,

Arch

Taylor refers to an article by Malcolm Lagauche in Uruknet, a website devoted to providing "information from occupied Iraq"

A New York theater is pressured to cancel a play as too sympathetic to Palestinian cause
 [3-13-06]

An article by Jeremy Gerard, published by Bloomberg, tells the sad story. It begins:

Rachel Corrie is back in the news, transformed from unlikely martyr to the Palestinian cause into something more mundane: poster girl for the culture wars, in the battle over art, with a capital A, and its responsibility to truth, with a capital T.

Corrie, an idealistic 23-year-old from the state of Washington, died in March 2003 when an Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer crushed her as she protested the razing of Palestinian homes in Gaza. Outrage followed, as Corrie’s pretty blond visage stared out from the front pages of newspapers around the world.

Now the contretemps has moved beyond international politics. "My Name Is Rachel Corrie," a solo show distilled from Corrie’s writings by the British actor Alan Rickman (the sinister Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films) and journalist Katharine Viner, was first presented last spring at London’s Royal Court Theatre. It was critically acclaimed and a popular hit.

In the U.S. this season, an off-Broadway company, the New York Theatre Workshop — probably best known as the group that developed "Rent" as well as Tony Kushner’s "Homebody/Kabul" –was to have presented "Rachel Corrie." But artistic director James Nicola announced last week that the production was being "delayed" while the group considered the best way to"contextualize" the play. Translation: People are complaining that presenting this work gives a bullhorn to Israel’s enemies, and that makes us very nervous. So we’re going to see if we can render "My Name Is Rachel Corrie" toothless or, barring that, postpone it and pray really hard that the problem eventually just goes away.    The rest of the article >>

Also ...

By Maureen Jack, member of a Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron, in the Israeli occupied West Bank of Palestine  [posted here 11-25-05]

[A note from your WebWeaver: I am not able to confirm this account, but I have had previous contacts with the Christian Peacemaker Teams which lead me to trust them. I have also heard similar stories from other Palestinians.]

23 November 2005

I'd not met him before. He's perhaps slightly older than I and he was wearing a green cap, not unlike my red CPT one. By his accent he was clearly originally from London, though he now lives in a settlement. I said hello. 'Fuck you. Screw you,' he said.

We were standing across the street from an entrance to the Israeli settlement of Beit Hadassah in Hebron. I was there with Anne and John (both in their late seventies) and some other internationals on school patrol at the foot of steps leading up to Qurtuba School, a school for Palestinian girls. We were waiting for the girls to come down on their way home. He was there with a group from Women in Green, an organization committed to support for Israeli settlements. They were also there waiting for the schoolgirls.

The girls and women teachers started to make their way nervously down the crumbled steps. The Israeli visitors pushed forward taking photos. We got in between them as best we could. I didn't document at all. I took no photos. I have no idea of what went on around me. All I could see was the fear on the faces of the women and girls. All I could feel was the tremor in their hands as I helped them down. All I could hear was my faltering Arabic as I tried to find something reassuring to say.

And then it was over. The girls and the teachers were all on their way home. But the Israeli ex-Londoner was not finished. 'Have you got cancer yet? I hope so,' he said to me. 'Please don't say that. My husband died of cancer six years ago,' I replied. 'I am happy about that,' he said.

What has this man's life been like that he has such hatred? How is he feeling now? Is he thinking of me, as I am thinking of him? Is he weeping now, as I am? And am I weeping for myself, or for him?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Presbyterian Church’s Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) committee , meeting last week in Seattle, chose five multinational corporations — Caterpillar, Citigroup, ITT Industries, Motorola and United Technologies — for "progressive engagement" about business practices believed to contribute to violence in Israel and Palestine.

After several hours of discussion on Aug. 5, the MRTI committee unanimously selected the five companies and agreed to begin discussions with them about their involvement in the conflict.

See the Presbyterian New Service report >>

Also, about 20 members of the PCUSA went to Seattle to express support for the General Assembly’s decision to start a process of "phased selective divestment."   The article >>

And officials of firms on ‘engagement’ list defended their business practices in Israel-Palestine, with some expressing puzzlement, others sticking to earlier statements.   The story >>

"This is a brilliantly organized political campaign to hurt Israel, and it's not going to help a single Palestinian," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish watchdog group based in Los Angeles. "When you look at the list of companies, this is basically a recipe for Israel to disarm."

The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., said in an interview: "It's not a campaign to divest from the state of Israel. We're fully committed to the state of Israel. But it is a campaign to divest from particular activities that are doing damage and creating injustice and violence, whether that's the building of the separation barrier, construction related to the occupation, or weapons and materials that lead to suicide bombings."

Doug,

The Times piece on MRTI's announcement is only slightly better than what I would expect from the Layman. It gives lots of attention to what other people are saying and studiously diminishes both the content of MRTI's statement and the expertise behind it. Like so much of what we have seen, it manages to imply that selecting targets and topics for engagement is tantamount to proceeding with taking our money out of Israel sometime this week. The Times needs to be called on the carpet for buying in to an hysterical side show so fully that it appears to be unwilling to present either the case MRTI has made or the reality of the process our church has undertaken. On Saturday the piece was one of the top five articles that people had looked at on-line.

The assumption that these big serious companies will not engage our silly little church is both ill-informed and debilitating. The news that our church might influence its targets with holdings so small as $60 million total in companies whose market capitalization amounts to tens or even a couple of hundred of Billions is a serious enough matter to excite all that blather makes it real clear that a lot of folks who are real good at getting access to the news media do not agree with the assumption.

Perhaps someone should explain to some folks that the PCUSA's holdings in these companies stocks are the PCUSA's property, and the church has property rights to make decisions about its holdings based on its own perception of its interests and responsibilities.

Jonathan Justice

New DVD series tells stories of Palestinian Christians in West Bank 

Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders announce the completion of their series
[3-16-05]

Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders lived in the mostly Christian Palestinian village of Zababdeh from August, 2000, through December, 2003. Volunteers with the Presbyterian Church (USA), their ministry was one of ecumenical support to the Church in the land of its birth. Salt of the Earth documents the lives of nine Palestinian Christians living in the northern West Bank. This film grew out of a desire among their Palestinian neighbors to share their stories, and a desire among Christians in the West to hear them. The Sanders describe the project as "a labor of love, a response to the graciousness, warmth, hospitality, and welcome we received from our Palestinian neighbors and colleagues." Clips from nine of the segments are available online.

You can order your copy/copies by visiting the webpage:
http://order.saltfilms.net.

The Sanders are also developing study guides for each of the segments.

We’ve posted earlier reports from them ...

Thirty-five Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have appealed to President George Bush to resume peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.

The National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace (NILIP) in the Middle East is a collaboration of the U.S. leadership of the three Abrahamic faiths -- Christians, Jews and Muslims -- and is a first in this arena.

The national leaders and heads of 28 organizations are also mobilizing local religious communities in U.S. cities to back this appeal to the president and to request support for it by their senators and representatives to Congress.

If you're in the New York area, you'll have opportunities this week to join in events this week with the Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb. Mitri is a Palestinian Christian and the pastor of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. Despite the growing violence, Mitri remains an ardent advocate for peace in the region.   He will be speaking on three occasions, sponsored by the Presbyterian UN Office and other groups.

Dean Lindsey, pastor of Salem Presbyterian Church in Salem, VA, recently reported in the local paper on a talk by the Rev. George Conn, a retired Presbyterian pastor, recently returned from a visit to Israel-Palestine.  He explored the reasons for the deep hostility felt by so many in the Middle East toward the US.

US continues favoring a "one-state" solution to the Israel-Palestine struggle, ignoring all UN mandates and legitimate interests of Palestinians.

Some 60 former U.S. diplomats and other government officials who served overseas have signed a letter to President George W. Bush, protesting his support for the Israeli government's position in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The letter was inspired by a similar protest signed by 52 former British ambassadors and senior government officials and sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair last week. That letter warned that Blair's strong support for Bush's policies in both Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were "doomed to failure."

The US diplomats' letter, which applauded their British colleagues' initiative, is focused far more on the Israel-Palestinian issue, noting in particular Bush's Apr. 14 endorsement of Sharon's plan to unilaterally withdraw Israeli settlers from the Gaza strip while consolidating five large settlement blocs on the West Bank.

The Israel-Palestine settlement is being undermined by recent administration actions to give one-sided support to the Israeli government under Ariel Sharon .

"Holy Land" - What is it and who owns it? A Christian transformation of the question   [8-30-03]

Land - "holy land" - and who owns it is at the center of the terrible, seemingly endless conflict in Israel/Palestine.

The Rev. Thomas C. Davis, pastor of Hanover Street Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, decided to preach two sermons exploring the notion of holy land in the Hebrew scriptures, and its radical transformation in the New Testament. In the first sermon, "God's Abode," he points to Jesus' insistence that God's presence was now to be found not in a place - the Temple or the Land - but in the Person of Jesus (the Way), and thus in all persons.

And in the second sermon, "Everywhere Lies Holy Ground," he traces the pattern of "ethnic cleansing" from the ancient Hebrews' conquest of the Promised Land, through their Puritan descendants' conquest and extermination of the native peoples of North America, to the apartheid system in South Africa. He shows how, again, Jesus overturns the idea of a "holy land" as the property of one people; now all land is holy, for God moves among all peoples.

"The Jews can't lay exclusive claim to [the Holy Land] any more than they can to holy ground. Everywhere lies holy ground, because the spirit blows where it wills." And so, he concludes, "Christianity, in Luke's view, is not tied to any specific land. It''\s mission is to the ends of the earth."

What can be done to realize any kind of peace in the Middle East? 

Rabbi Michael Lerner of the Tikkun Community has posted a letter that people may want to send (with any alterations they might choose to add) to their Senators and Congresspersons. In it he sets forth a number of concrete suggestions, including:

One young American woman, Rachel Corrie, was crushed to death March 16 by an Israeli army bulldozer as she attempted to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian family's home. Two young men, one American and one British, have been seriously wounded by Israeli army gunfire. All have been serving in Palestinian areas with the International Solidarity Movement, the peace group that uses such non-violent means as positioning activists as "human shields" around the occupied territories to protect Palestinian civilians.

Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian, notes that these recent incidents appear to be "part of a pattern, and that Israel is deliberately targeting internationals, so that it can carry out human-rights abuses unobserved. Whatever the truth, Americans and other foreign citizens are falling victim to Israeli tactics that have killed and injured thousands of Palestinians. A lack of accountability means that such incidents could increase."

This article was first published in the Chicago Tribune on 22 April 2003.

Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders are American Presbyterians working in the Palestinian Christian village of Zababdeh, near Jenin.

They share a close-up look at a West Bank community, and the Christians and Muslims for whom it's home. And they try to explain why, even now, they haven't left for the safety of the United States.

The answer? "We're still here because we believe. We came here out of a commitment to serve the Church in the land of its birth, to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ. What our American government says or does cannot change that calling, or pry us from this place. ... We're still here because we hope. We hope that war will be avoided, for nothing made by human hands is inevitable. ... We are still here, because we love. We love the people of this region. From Baghdad to Beirut, we have visited them, eaten with them, laughed and cried with them, worshiped and prayed with them. Having done so, it's impossible for us to think of them as the enemy - or as candidates for collateral damage."

The inns are empty, but they couldn't get into the town because Israel has closed it to all visitors. 

Sojourners' editor Jim Wallis offers an interesting view of Rowan Williams, the new Archbishop-Elect of the Church of England. This leads to thoughts on the need for people to raise their voices - through letters, calls, petitions - against the impending American invasion of Iraq.     [8-29-02]

What should we be doing about the threatened invasion of Iraq?

Please send a note, and let's talk about it!

Arch Taylor, retired Japan missionary, shares a letter he recently sent to the Louisville Courier-Journal, laying out briefly and powerfully the alarmingly unilateral and aggressive policies of the present Bush administration.

[5-7-02]

Arch Taylor, a former Presbyterian missionary in Japan, along with a Palestinian-American and a Jewish-American, published an open letter on May 4 in the Louisville Courier-Journal, with the headline: AN END TO PALESTINIAN DEVASTATION.

The writers place much of the responsibility for the current violence on Prime Minister Arial Sharon, under whose leadership "Israel is systematically destroying not only the Palestinians' present but also their future."

But US policy (or lack of policy) is also responsible: "Mere words calling for Israeli withdrawal and eventual establishment of a viable Palestinian state will avail absolutely nothing so long as unconditional support for Israel and Sharon continues."

Citing the example of the 435 Israeli combat officers and soldiers who have refused to fight beyond Israel's1967 borders, the three authors call on people on both sides to "take risks for peace." They conclude: "We believe that peace can come only when both Israel and Palestine co-exist as viable, independent states side by side, each with recognized and secure borders."

A delegation of US church leaders has returned from a 12-day visit to Israel, Palestine, and neighboring countries, under the auspices of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Calling on both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to agree to an immediate ceasefire, they "condemn equally and unequivocally both the suicide bombings and Palestinian violence against Israeli society and the violence of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories."

Among other steps toward a resolution of the conflict, they call for:

Religious leaders spoke out in January to condemn all religious violence, and offered an "Assisi Decalogue" to give form to their call for peace. Was anybody listening?

Witherspooner Darrel Yeaney has sent one account of the devastation wrought by the Israeli forces in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin. Yeaney says that Phil Reeves was formerly a staff writer for the Orlando paper, and is now Middle East correspondent for the London Independent. Adds Yeaney, who has made numerous visits to the Middle East himself, "You can count on [his report] for accuracy.]

The report begins:

A monstrous war crime that Israel has tried to cover up for a fortnight has finally been exposed. Its troops have caused devastation in the centre of the Jenin refugee camp, reached yesterday by The Independent, where thousands of people are still living amid the ruins.

A residential area roughly 160,000 square yards about a third of a mile wide has been reduced to dust. Rubble has been shovelled by bulldozers into 30ft piles. The sweet and ghastly reek of rotting human bodies is everywhere, evidence that it is a human tomb. The people ... say there are hundreds of corpses, entombed beneath the dust, under a field of debris ...

For instance: "Until two weeks ago, there were several hundred tightly-packed homes in this neighbourhood called Harat al-Hawashim. They no longer exist."

Read the full, wretched story on the ZNet on-line news magazine.

In the Name of God, Seek Peace and Pursue It  [4-15-02]

The immediate question is how to stop the current violence. ... The United States should immediately work to bring about the creation of an international protection force to shield both Israelis and Palestinians from further violence, and call a regional peace conference including Israel, the Arab states, along with religious leaders and civil society organizations.

There has been enough killing - it's time for peace.

He also offers some hope: voices on both sides of the conflict calling for peace.

PVJ's Facebook page

Mitch Trigger, PVJ's Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!

John Shuck’s new "Religion for Life" website

Long-time and stimulating blogger John Shuck, a Presbyterian minister currently serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton, Tenn., writes about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and lightening up.

Click here for his blog posts.

John Harris’ Summit to Shore blogspot

Voices of Sophia blog

Heather Reichgott, who has created this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:

Got more blogs to recommend?