wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Tear down this wall

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Note #8298 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Tear down this wall
GA04008
June 26, 2004

Tear down this wall

Palestinians urge U.S. Christians to do more than just talk

by Alexa Smith

RICHMOND  Christian leaders in Palestine are urging mainline U.S. churches
to talk less and do more.

Education is fine, they say, but action must follow.

They want concrete strategies that have a real impact on Palestinian life 
such as helping imigris return home and boycotting U.S. companies that invest
in Israels illegal settlements.

To have statements is not enough, says the Rev. Mitri Raheb, a Lutheran
pastor from Bethlehem. They might be good for discussions within churches 
but theyre not much help to us on the ground.

Thats part of the message Raheb will deliver Thursday morning when he is the
featured speaker at the Worldwide Ministries Division breakfast at the
Marriott Hotel here.

Israeli bulldozers are circling Bethlehem with a 40-foot wall that will
threatens to strangle the city of 150,000 residents, trapping Palestinian
civilians inside, cutting them off from jobs, families and medical care.

Governments dont care if you issue a statement, Raheb says. The problem
is: Churches didnt develop an action plan to be implemented here on the
ground.

Raheb said he wishes U.S. and Palestinian church leaders would develop a
10-year plan for Palestine, addressing the questions: What are the needs?
What is required? And where can we make a difference now?

Strategizing on Palestine has been slow in the churches  there and here.

Youre fighting a war on about three fronts, says the Rev. Eileen Lindner,
a Presbyterian who is the associate general secretary of the National Council
of Churches of Christ.

Lindner says it is harder for U.S. churches to work strategically in the
Middle East because Christian aid agencies have no infrastructure there, as
they do in Europe and South Africa.

She says church people fear being labeled anti-Semitic and upsetting
ecumenical relationships if they criticize Israel. Plus, they have to fight
U.S. policy in a head-knocking way.

Theyre not afraid of being called anti-Palestinian, Bishop Riah Abu-Assal,
the Episcopalian Bishop of Jerusalem, says in a telephone interview  and who
is plainly frustrated by the anxiety. (Speaking out) is not anti-Semitic.
Its not anti-Jewish. It is anti-Israel-government policy.

Abu-Assal proposed during a recent General Assembly of the World Council of
Churches that it launch a boycott of corporations that profit from businesses
in Israels illegal settlements. If you impact the goods produced in the
settlements, he told the WCC delegates, it will put an end to business
there.

He says his remarks drew applause  but no action.

The Rev. Victor Makari, the PC(USA)s liaison to the Middle East, has empathy
for Abu-Assals bind. He says the PC(USA) has worked hard for decades to
educate its members about the realities of Israeli policy and about life in
Palestine.

Such cumulative constituency education has helped changed the attitude in
our churches, he says.

The PC(USA)s strategy so far has been education and accompaniment  travel
to Palestine to support the Christians there and to learn about the situation
on the ground.

The denomination conducts travel/study seminars and produces study materials.
Missonary Douglas Dicks works full-time in Jerusalem setting up trips for
Presbyterians. Two former missionaries, Elizabeth and Marthame Saunders, will
work in the Presbyterian Center in 2005 to help deepen Presbyterians
understanding of Palestinian life.

The denomination also has also helped meet the financial needs of historic
partners, such as a Christian hospital in war-torn Gaza.

The problem now, Makari says, is that, with the peace process stalled for the
past four  years, things are deteriorating with such rapidity that it is
hard to tell what strategy will be most effective.

The Palestinian economy has ground to a standstill. Many families are living
on less than $2 a day, according to the United Nations. And the wall is under
construction now on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Abu-Assal is proposing that U.S. churches help imigri Palestinians return
home  just as the Israelis help Jews establish themselves in Israel. We
need to do exactly what the Jews do  Pay for their travel. Give them (money)
to begin over. Provide them housing. Try to find them a job. I think we can
do the same. But we cannot do it alone.

Abu-Assal says the Episcopal Diocese owns vacant property, but doesnt have
money to build on it. He envisions shelter not only for imigris, but for
Palestinians who would otherwise be cut off from Jerusalem by the wall.

What do we need here? he says. We need to bring back those whove
emigrated. Otherwise, I fear for the Christian presence in the area.

Ann Hafften, coordinator of Middle East Networks for the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America  (ELCA),understands that some Lutherans are content to work
within the churchs system, but others need to engage issues in less
traditional ways. We have a traditional strategy. But then, were a
traditional church, she says.

She says some individual Lutherans have joined secular groups like one in
Texas that is trying to launch a boycott of Caterpillar tractors, the
U.S.-made equipment the Israeli army uses to demolish Palestinian homes on
the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

The Lutheran Bishop of Jerusalem, Munib Younan, told the Presbyterian News
Service that hed also like to see housing for Palestinians built on
Lutheran-owned property on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

Palestinian leaders often liken the situation in Palestine to that in South
Africa under apartheid. The situation here is worse than in South Africa,
Abu-Assal says, yet the international church equivocates instead of acting.

Raheb, who was a book tour in the United States when former President Ronald
Reagan died, says:

Id like to hear the church telling Bush and Sharon, Tear down this wall.
Especially now.  The moment of truth has come. Id like for churches to
speak very clearly about the wall, and the apartheid system.

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found at http://www.pcusa.org/ga216.htm.

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