wfn.org | Palestinian Christian leader calls for shared Jerusalem

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Note #6128 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

19-July-2000
00265

Palestinian Christian leader calls for shared Jerusalem

Ateek seeks U.S. churches' support for Palestinian homeland drive

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- An appeal for U.S. Christians to support sovereign and
democratic states of Israel and Palestine as well as a shared Jerusalem
dominated the closing plenary of "Sound the Trumpets! Proclaim Jubilee," the
2000 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women.
	The Rev. Naim Ateek -- director of the Palestinian Christians' Sabeel
Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem -- said his political
reasoning was theological at heart:
"Our life, our action, must always demonstrate our concern for justice."
	Citing Micah 6:8 ("and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice,
and to love kindness -- some interpreters say ‘mercy' -- and to walk humbly
with your God"), Ateek told more than 5,000 Presbyterian women that too many
Christians opt to reverse God's order: doing acts of kindness first and
loving justice second.
	"It is important to do mercy . . . but God's order is important.  Do
justice.  Love mercy.  Without mercy justice can be harsh, unjust.  But
mercy without justice is cheap and absurd," he said, adding that the
Gatherings' theme of proclaiming Jubilee -- the ancient biblical mandate to
free slaves, forgive debts and restore confiscated land to its rightful
owners every 50 years -- with the sounding of trumpets is timely.  "I ask
you," he said, "to sound the trumpets and proclaim Jubilee for
Palestinians."
	Ateek told a subdued audience that three-quarters of a million Palestinians
were displaced from 77 percent of the land of Palestine when Zionists
forcefully acquired what is now the state of Israel in 1948.  Since then, he
added, Israel has refused the right of those refugees to return to their
homes. The 150,000 Palestinians who reside within Israel's borders, Ateek
said, live as second-class citizens, and those who reside on the West Bank
and in Gaza have lived under what he called a "brutal" and dehumanizing
military rule since the territory was occupied in 1967.
	 Further, 325,000 more Palestinians were displaced as a result of the 1967
war.
	"In those days," he said, referring to establishment of the state of Israel
in the wake of World War II, "the story of the Palestinian catastrophe was
not heard. The sympathy of the world was with the Jews who had suffered
terribly. And most people remained unaware of the great injustices (done) by
Zionists who used the Holocaust to justify (their actions).
	"Palestinians have paid the price for European anti-Semitism," Ateek said,
quoting a scholar who has called Palestinians the "victims of the victims of
Europe."
	Referring to the summit meeting at Camp David where President Clinton,
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat, are
working to negotiate a framework agreement between Israel and the
Palestinians on the issues of refugees, borders and the sovereignty of
Jerusalem, Ateek laid out what he called principles for a "just peace," the
only kind of peace, he insists, that will hold in his turbulent homeland.
	Noting the presence of exclusively Jewish settlements on Palestinian land,
the refusal of the Israeli government to compensate Palestinian refugees for
lost property and the ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes in Israel,
Ateek insisted Israel must:

	* admit it has perpetuated an injustice against the Palestinian people and
take responsibility for it;
	* accept shared sovereignty of Jerusalem by the two states of Palestine and
Israel;
	* return the whole of areas captured in 1967 — the Gaza Strip and the West
Bank, and including historically Arab East Jerusalem — so that a small,
sovereign Palestinian state may be formed;
	* must allow Palestinians the right of return to their homeland and be
compensated for their  losses according to international law; and
	* must accept that exclusively Jewish settlements on the Gaza Strip and
West Bank are built on Palestinian soil and must be part of Palestine; Jews
who remain there will live in a Palestinian state.
	 "Peace cannot be built on confiscated land.  Peace cannot be built on an
apartheid system of ‘bantustans,'" Ateek said, comparing enclosed
Palestinian communities separated by Israel's military checkpoints as
similar to the system of control once imposed on the black population of
South African by the ruling white Afrikaaner minority.  "We need to share
the Holy Land and enjoy it and live it.
	"But unless we live as neighbors . . . we are doomed to destroy each
other," Ateek said.
	He chided North American Christians for their ignorance of the struggles of
Palestinian Christians and for their failure to challenge the claims of U.
S. Christian Zionists who "blindly support" the state of Israel and who
await a violent end to the world.
	Calling such an apocalypse "bad theology," Ateek said that with the coming
of Christ, God, the people of God and the land were all "de-Zionized."
	"God does not belong to one nation or one people, but is the creator of all
the world," Ateek said. "The people of God are not limited to one nation or
one group of people . . . The land of Palestine is only a symbol of how God
expects people to live in every land.  In Christ, the whole world is holy
and sanctified and any government that dehumanizes and discriminates against
people is a heresy and we must oppose it.
	"And any government that rewards freedom and liberty, respects the humanity
of every person, we must believe it and support it."
	Ateek reminded his listeners that the Christian church began in Jerusalem
and has witnessed there for 2,000 years, surviving against tremendous
religious and political odds.  He said the Sabeel Center is articulating a
theology that says the faithfulness of the Christian church is "not to any
political party or leadership but to God alone.
	"To be faithful to God," he said, "is to be faithful to justice for opposed
people in the world. And it takes precedent over loyalty to any individual,
institution or country."
	A portion of the $83,615 Presbyterian Women Offering taken up at the
Gathering will be sent to the Guidance and Training Center for the Child and
Family in Bethlehem, Palestine, which provides treatment for emotional and
mental disorders caused by the stress of difficult and often violent living
conditions under the Israeli military occupation.
	The offering will also assist Lincoln County Community Service, Inc., in
North Platte, Neb., a organization that assists homeless people; and the
Daughters of Zelophehad in Richmond, Va., a transitional shelter for
homeless women and children.
	As participants left the plenary, petitions supporting a shared Jerusalem
were available for them to sign.

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