wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Delegation's meeting with Hezbollah 'misguided' and

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8547 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04477
October 21, 2004

Delegation's meeting with Hezbollah 'misguided' and statements
'reprehensible,' PC(USA) officials tell Jewish leaders

Kirkpatrick, Detterick, Ufford-Chase plead for continued dialogue

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - Three top officials of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have
written a letter to Jewish leaders with whom they met last month, renouncing
a meeting earlier this week in southern Lebanon between a PC(USA) delegation
and representatives of Hezbollah.

	General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, General Assembly
Council Executive Director John Detterick and General Assembly Moderator Rick
Ufford-Chase said the meeting between members of the church's Advisory
Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) and Hezbollah representatives
during a two-week fact-finding mission to the Middle East was "misguided at
best" and denounced statements made by delegation members after the meeting
as "reprehensible."

	At a post-meeting press conference telecast widely on Arabic
television in the Middle East, ACSWP member Ronald Stone, a recently retired
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary professor praised Hezbollah's "expression of
goodwill towards the American people," and "initiative for dialogue and
mutual understanding," saying, "As an elder of our church, I'd like to say
that according to my recent experience, relations and conversations with
Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish
leaders."

	Relations between the PC(USA) and Jewish groups had been strained
since the 216th General Assembly in early July voted to "initiate the process
of phased, selective divestment" from corporations contributing to the more
destructive aspects of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, such as
the bulldozing of Palestinian homes and farm lands and the construction of a
"security wall" Israel and occupied territories.

	PC(USA) and Jewish leaders met in New York on Sept. 28 to try and
clear some of the air over the divestment decision.

	But news of the ACSWP delegation's Oct. 17 visit with Hezbollah at
the Khiam Detention Center in southern Lebanon drew immediate condemnation
from an array of Jewish groups and threatens to unravel whatever progress was
made at the Sept. 28 gathering.

	In an Oct. 20 letter to Kirkpatrick and Ufford-Chase, two Reform
Jewish leaders who attended that meeting - Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of
the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Paul Menitoff, executive
vice-president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis - wrote: "There
can be no religious justification whatsoever for words that serve to
encourage terror and justify terrorism ... We hope and pray that you will
exercise the moral leadership required at this moment and repudiate these
deplorable words spoken in the name of your church."

	Kirkpatrick, Ufford-Chase and Detterick pleaded for ongoing dialogue,
direct communication in response to press reports and continuing cooperation
in efforts to eliminate violence by all sides in the Middle East conflict.

The full text of the Oct. 21 letter:

To Jewish leaders at the New York City meeting on September 28, 2004

	We, along with John Detterick, Executive Director of the General
Assembly Council, who was unable to be with us in New York, were distressed
to learn of the visit of the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s Advisory Committee
on Social Witness Policy to the Khiam Detention Center and the meeting with
Hezbollah leaders. We were particularly distressed about this, given our
meeting with you in New York last month.

	The time we spent with all of you in New York moved us very deeply,
and we made several commitments as a result of our time together. One was to
commit ourselves to a continued dialogue with those of you whom we met on the
national level, as well as with our Jewish colleagues at local levels. We
were particularly moved by the comments during our meeting about the
importance of listening to, respecting, and including the Jewish narrative as
we lift up our concern for peace in Israel and the Middle East.

	Another commitment we made was to press as hard as possible with our
colleagues in the Presbyterian Church (USA) to investigate and take advantage
of any and all pressure points that we might have as a denomination to make
our opposition to the use of terror tactics by Palestinian organizations. We
are convinced that such possibilities for pressure must exist, and that the
only credible stance that we as a denomination can take is to make absolutely
clear our conviction that Palestinian violence is never acceptable and that
citizens of Israel must be able to live free of the fear of terrorism.

	The recent visit of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy
to the Khiam Detention Center and its meeting with Hezbollah there was
misguided, at best. The group's specific itinerary was not authorized by any
of us; in fact, once we learned of it, we asked the group to drop this visit
from their plans. Furthermore, the comments attributed to Presbyterians
there, as we understand them, are reprehensible.

	As a church, and as individuals, we know at the core of our souls
that terrorism, especially terrorism against civilians, is one clear source
of the lack of peace in the Middle East. Even when we identify and condemn
the occupation as another key source of violence and lack of peace, we in no
way condone the terrorism of groups such as Hezbollah, or of individuals or
other actors in the region. Terrorism in all of its forms is morally
abhorrent and completely inexcusable in our eyes.

	Our prayer is for the following. First, that you will continue to
work with us to create avenues of communication for that dialogue. Second,
that we will find a way to communicate directly about this matter rather than
confining ourselves only to what is being communicated through the media.
Third, that we as a denomination will find ways to continue our insistence
that we side both with Palestinian victims of the occupation and its
violence, and with Israeli and Jewish victims of violence and terrorism.

	We trust that we have a great deal more to learn, and we believe that
our continued relationship with you is critical for that learning to take
place.

With faith in our common God,

Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator, 216th General Assembly (2004) of the
Presbyterian Church (USA)

Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly

John Detterick, Executive Director, General Assembly Council

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