SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIANS -- 16

+ WallWritings offers "I Must Write As Long As Israeli Settlers Burn Palestinian Schools" by James Wall.  Wall is as informed and courageous as anybody on the planet when it comes to telling the truth about The Middle East and advocating for peace and justice around the planet.   

SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIANS -- 14

+ ICAHD-USA offers "Is Israel an Apartheid State?" by Frances H. Remillard. ICAHD stands for Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.  Here's an excerpt from the article:

Apartheid regimes rely on three “Pillars of Apartheid” to maintain their domination:

■Pillar 1: The state codifies into law a preferred identity, and then establishes adjunct laws that grant preferential legal status and material privileges to the preferred group on the basis of their identity while discriminating against the non-preferred group on the basis of the inferior status afforded them.

■Pillar 2: The state segregates the population into geographic areas based on their identity. The favored identity receives preferential access to land, water, other resources, and to government benefits and services while the non-preferred group is confined to ever shrinking non-contiguous besieged territorial enclaves.

■Pillar 3: The state establishes security laws and policies designed to suppress any opposition to the regime. The system of domination is reinforced through assassinations; administrative detention; torture; cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment; and arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of the non-preferred group.

SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIANS -- 13

+ Recently the General Assembly of The Presbyterian Church (USA) dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Breaking Down the Walls," a Report by the Middle East Study Committee was received and mostly accepted. Before the Assembly met, an article in The Christian Century appeared accusing the Committee of an anti-Jewish orientation.  The article is "Habits of anti-Judaism" by Ted A. Smith and Amy-Jill Levine, both Professors at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

I wrote them a letter and await a response.  Here is my letter:

Dear Professors Smith and Levine,

This is a response to your recent article in The Christian Century, "Habits of Anti-Judaism". I applaud you for writing the article even though I profoundly disagree with much of your analysis.

You have motivated me to actually read the report which you criticize. Thank you!

Full disclosure from the start: I'm a retired Presbyterian Pastor who has long been an outspoken advocate for the Palestinians. I am not anti-Jewish but I will admit right from the start that I do find the creation of Israel in 1948 very problematic.

You accuse the report authors of bad theology. I think I would agree with you that there is some bad theology but I think you picked out parts of the report -- what I would call cherry-picking -- rather than deal with all of the report in its full context.

I think I detect some bad theology on your part.

It seems clear to me that you embrace the view that the Jewish people have a special place in God's plan for the planet and, thus, deserve a homeland long denied. Maybe. Maybe not.

I wonder why your crtiticism was so weak on the twentieth century history of the land we now call Israel-Palestine. No matter what we believe about the Bible and the theology of the Chosen People, it seems clear to me that twentieth century politics has far more to do with the development of Israel as a nation-state than does ancient history.

The United Nations recommendations of 1947 were not at all fair to the Palestinians. The seeds were planted in those recommendations for a tragedy. But the 1947 recommendations were far more fair than the facts on the ground since 1948 and especially since 1967. A tragedy indeed.

It seems to me that one can not avoid dealing with the current situation. I understand that Jewish-Christian relations have been horrible for most of the past 2000 years. But creating Israel and unconditionally supporting the slow but steady ethnic-cleansing of Arabs in Israel-Palestine is not necesarily the best way to mend Christian-Jewish relations.

So, I see your criticism's neglect of current international politics as a significant flaw in your analysis.

Theology is fluid, dynamic, not static. How Jews and Christians believe and behave in our times is very important. An honest look at what really happened in the twentieth century is vital.

In one word: COLONIALISM.

What many of us Presbyterians find so erroneous in the unconditional and special support of Israel is the colonialism which made it possible to be created and continues to make it possible. The UK and then the USA created and continue to maintain Israel. (The UN of 1947 was dominated by Colonial Powers; it was not the UN of today).

Israel for all practical purposes is our colony just as South Africa continued to be a colony until the Black majority finally took control. The Native Arab population far outnumbered the Jewish immigrant population in 1948. And, to use a term now so widely used, many of them were Illegal Immigrants.

So, try to look at what has happened and is continuing to happen from the Arab point of view. And then come up with a theology which affirms their rights with as much passion as you affirm Jewish rights.

Finally, the more I look at the Report of the Committee, the more I see how much cherrry-picking you did. You simply failed to deal with the document as a whole. Yes, you found some flaws which do indeed need to be pointed out.

And so do yours!

I may have more to say as I continue to reflect on this very important conversation about very important human beings, Jewish and Palestinian and Presbyterian and many others.

I welcome your continuing contribution to the conversation with the hope that you definitely will do theology with a passion for justice for the Palestinians as well as the Jews.

love, john + www.abundancetrek.com + "Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." -- Martin Luther King, Jr. (a speech containing this famous quote is found at http://www.indiana.edu/~ivieweb/mlkwhere.html)

SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIANS -- 12

+ Wall Writings offers "War Destroys Jabra Home on Baghdad’s Princesses’ Street" by James M. Wall. It begins: "The Nakba has claimed another victim. This time it was not the death of one of the millions of Palestinians driven from their homes by the 1948 creation of the modern state of Israel. In this case, the loss was a private home on Princesses’ Street in Baghdad, Iraq, an ending that might have passed unnoticed under a pile of rubble, in spite of that home’s importance in the cultural history of both Palestine and Iraq."

SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIANS -- 11

+ Haaretz offers "When Israelis degrade Israel by humiliating Joe Biden" by Bradley Burston.  Excerpt: "What conceivable advantage is there in the Interior Ministry choosing the occasion of a high-profile visit by Joseph R. Biden, Jr., a mission aimed at soothing strained relations between Israel and the Obama administration, to announce the approval of 1,600 new homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem?"

In case you don't know it, Haaretz is an Israeli newspaper.  Why is it that the Israelis can have an informed conversation about Israel's controversial policies in their major media outlets and we can't here in the USA?

SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIANS -- 9

+ Boycott Israeli Goods is a UK organization devoted to educating the world about the illegal and immoral occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  "Why Boycott Israel?" is found on the homepage.  Here's why:

The Palestinian people are experiencing their 42nd year of military occupation. The siege by the Israeli army and the economic blockade have devastated their daily lives so that 'normal' life is impossible.

Israel operates an entrenched system of racial Apartheid against its own non-Jewish inhabitants and has been illegally occupying Palestinian land in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights since 1967. It has sought to further annex these lands and has systematically transferred its own civilian population into these occupied territories in contravention of international law. Israel continues to build the illegal Apartheid wall, annexing vast swathes of Palestinian land in the West Bank and creating Palestinian ghettos, despite the ruling of the International Court of Justice that it is illegal.

SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIANS -- 8

+ Israeli occupation a 'sin against God', say Palestinian Christian leaders

Jerusalem (Ecumenical News International) - Palestinian Christian leaders have issued a call for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, which they described as, "a sin against God and against humanity", and have appealed for support from the world's churches. " Injustice against the Palestinian people, which is the Israeli occupation, is an evil that must be resisted," the Christian leaders said in a document that was almost two years in the making. "Resistance is a right and a duty for the Christian. But it is resistance with love as its logic," they said. "It is thus a creative resistance, for it must find human ways that engage the humanity of the enemy." The initiators of the statement, made public at ar meeting in Bethlehem, have referred to the text as the "Kairos Palestine" document. "Kairos" is a Greek word used in the Bible for a God-given time of challenge, grace and opportunity. The organizers said that their statement echoes the Kairos document that South African churches issued in the mid-1980s, and which helped galvanise churches and the wider public in a concerted effort that eventually led to the end of apartheid.

A more detailed report is offered by ENI at http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=3612

SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIANS -- 6

+ Here are several items dealing with what the Palestinians are up against: 

• Haaretz offers "Why is Israel laying claim to an Arab home in Jaffa?"' by Dana Weiler-Polak. An email from a former resident of East Jerusalem says:

This kind of enterprise is going on all around E. Jerusalem and the Old City- with Palestinians being removed and losing their ancestral homes. In 2006 when I lived there one of the staff members at Sabeel was in the midst of a similar struggle. The Israeli authorities said that since his elderly mother was the only name on the deed when she died it will go to Israel. This shows so well how "the law" can be part of the systematic oppression of a people under occupation- and justify theft.

• The history of what is now Israel/Palestine is the subject of an upcoming book, Across The Wall, which offers us a new and hopefully constructive way to deal with the conflicting narratives of the Israelis and the Palestinians.  The blurb at Palgrave MacMillan says:

Across the Wall arose from a unique collaboration between scholars from Israel and the Palestinian territories, seeking to arrive at a shared framework for studying the history of this troubled land. Ilan Pappé and Jamil Hilal, top academics in Israel and Palestine respectively, bring historians from both sides of the wall together for dialogue on history, identity, and the meaning of the conflict. In the volume, they argue persuasively for the concept of a 'bridging narrative', a historiographical discourse which can accommodate seemingly incompatible national meta-narratives. Proceeding from this innovative theoretical framework, Across the Wall then goes on to offer critical examinations of some of the most contested issues in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the 1948 Nakba, the 1967 war, the occupation, and the formation of the PLO. The result is a radical new take on the history of Israel/Palestine which transcends the biases inherent in both countries’ national narratives and points towards a new model for the historiography of conflicts. 

• Haaretz offers "Israel stripped thousands of Jerusalem Arabs of residency in 2008" by Nir Hasson.  It begins: "Last year set an all-time record for the number of Arab residents of East Jerusalem who were stripped of residency rights by the Interior Ministry. Altogether, the ministry revoked the residency of 4,577 East Jerusalemites in 2008 - 21 times the average of the previous 40 years."
• Haaretz offers "EU envoys: Israel trying to sever East Jerusalem from West Bank" by Barak Ravid. It begins: "A classified report drafted by European consuls in East Jerusalem and Ramallah slams Israeli policy in East Jerusalem and recommends that the European Union take steps to strengthen the Palestinian Authority's status in the city."

+ See my previous "Supporting the Palestinians" posts:
Go to #1
Go to #2
Go to #3
Go to #4
Go to #5

SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIANS -- 5

My friend and colleague, J. Mark Davidson, Pastor of The Church of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill, NC offers these important thoughts on the video, I AM ISRAEL, which was removed from the website of The Israel/Palestinian Mission Network which is closely affiliated with The Presbyterian Church (USA):

I looked at the video yesterday, and it stayed with me all day, and I thought about my reactions to it, and about what to say about it to you. Then this morning, I read that it had been taken down off the IP Mission Network webpage.

Basically, I think it is best that it was removed. Here's my thing:

a) it wasn't "anti-semitic," because anti-semitism, at least the way it functions in the public mind, is hatred of Jews because of their Jewishness; this is reprehensible and we should always repudiate it and renounce the anti-semitism in Church history, etc. But this video was not hatred of Jews because of their Jewishness, it was rage against Israel because of 60 years of oppression and dispossession;

b) I noticed that the question of whether the video should be kept on the site or removed tended to get played out on the plane of Israeli-Palestinian power politics: AIPAC and its allies might have been behind the accusation that it was anit-semitic, therefore we should stand against AIPAC's tactics and kept it posted on the site, etc. We have to find a way to get past this rut-worn polarization; it only feeds the conflict, and distracts thought and energy from the central issues;

c) everything said in the video about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is accurate; the case for keeping the video up on the site is to get the word out about the Palestinian rage and frustration about Israel's oppression; the Palestinian viewpoint is a narrative and a perspective largely shielded from the American public;

d) my problem, though, with the video was that although the words were accurate, they weren't "true." Truth is something larger and deeper than facts. Laying out all these Israeli atrocities and violations of international law under the banner of the Israeli flag and a dark sound track and the words, "I AM ISRAEL" engages in what I call "enemy-speak". It can only invite defensive and self-justifying rhetoric from "the other side" and we end up keeping the conflict well-fed, we strengthen the well-worn conflict grooves in the brain;

e) one could as easily have done a video "I AM PALESTINE" and pictured the Palestinian flag and a dark sound track and 6 minutes of shrieking Israeli mothers mourning, like Rachel, their lost children, and said that Palestinians were bloodthirsty terrorists who brainwash their young and turn them into suicide bombers and send them onto crowded buses to kill Israeli seminarians and schoolchildren. And we would be outraged on behalf of the Palestinians, because that does not tell the whole truth about who the Palestinians are;

f) if we are going to post an "I AM ISRAEL" video that is not filled with "enemy-speak", wouldn't it have the face of Jeff Halper, ICAHD founder and my candidate for a modern Isaiah in our midst, or historian-in-exile Elan Pappe who wrote courageously about Israel's campaign of "ethnic cleansing", or for that matter, the conductor of the Israel Philharmonic or Israeli poets or Rabbis for Human Rights, etc. In the same way, we would insist that an "I AM PALESTINE" video should show the face of Naim Ateek or Jonathan Kuttab or Hannah Nashrawi, or gifted Palestinian pianists and poets and painters, and their centuries-long connection to the olive trees, and so forth.

g) there will be no true, just, and lasting peace in this deeply troubled land until everyone refrains from "enemy-speak", yes, speak truth to power, yes, challenge our own government to pressure Israel to end the occupation, return the dispossessed land, tear down the wall, etc., but not, in the process and in the name of so much suffering, dishonor that suffering by engaging in half-truths and distortions that undermine the Golden Rule and in the end break the commandment not to bear false witness.

So, I think we have to get beyond the video sound-bite, feel-good, enemy-speak, lash-out "journalism"; it cannot sow the seeds of peace which are built on the foundation of truth, justice, and love.


+ See my previous "Supporting the Palestinians" posts:
Go to #1
Go to #2
Go to #3
Go to #4

SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIANS -- 4

+ The I AM ISRAEL video was removed by IPMN and called a "mistake." I just posted the following comment on the page where the video had been:

I can understand and even appreciate the decision to remove the video. The edge of anger was hard to take and it was clearly unbalanced. However, people in the USA need to hear that anger and need to hear that pain. I appreciate Barb Shuck's comment and I am going to put it on my blog. She has been there and has seen and felt the pain. What Israel is doing with huge support from our government is wrong, horribly wrong. The video is an understandable reaction to the nightmare Barb describes. And she is only describing the little piece of it that she saw.

The charge of "anti-Semitism" is all too freely thrown about these days and should not be used in the context of this kind of outrageous oppression against the Palestinians. I am sick of hearing the label of "anti-Semitic" aimed so often and so erroneously at all of us advocing long overdue justice for the Palestinians.

I really do believe that the video is not anti-Semitic but a legitimate cry for help and for justice that we need to hear and feel.

You can see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4gymxY2zM8&feature=player_embedded

+ See my previous "Supporting the Palestinians" posts:
Go to #1
Go to #2
Go to #3