The Electronic Intifada – by Ryan Rodrick Beiler
The heads of Palestine’s major Christian traditions recently met with leaders from 24 church denominations for a two-day summit in Atlanta featuring an address by former president Jimmy Carter.
Leaders of Palestine’s Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Armenian and Lutheran churches participated.
The historic gathering, hosted by The Carter Center, culminated in a statement committing those assembled “to act for justice and peace in the Holy Land.”
“We need to focus on bringing an end to the many elements of occupation including second class citizenship that is affront to Christ’s message of love and inclusivity,” declares the statement, which was endorsed by representatives from Palestinian and US church-related and civil society groups in attendance.
Noting that next year marks five decades since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the statement asserts that “In the Bible, the 50th year is a year of jubilee when land is given back to its original owners.”
According to Mitri Raheb, a Lutheran priest from the West Bank city of Bethlehem who helped organize the event, the summit was “unprecedented” and encouraged church leaders to foster stronger relationships between US and Palestinian communities.
Commitment
While the summit statement stops short of explicitly endorsing boycott, divestment and sanctions measures to hold Israel accountable, it does call for exerting “economic leverage” on businesses or governments that “violate international laws and conventions.”
“This is a major step for some churches,” Raheb told The Electronic Intifada. “It is enough? No. But things are moving.”
Raheb is one of the key authors of the 2009 Kairos Palestine document, a declaration by Palestinian Christian leaders that condemns the Israeli occupation and calls for “boycott and disinvestment as tools of nonviolence for justice, peace and security for all.”
G.J. Tarazi, representing the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, described the summit as an “entry point.”
“The heads of churches and supporting groups did not all speak the same language about the military occupation and how to respond to the injustices,” Tarazi told The Electronic Intifada.
“Even though I wanted and expected more, I came away challenged and optimistic,” he added.
His church, the Alliance of Baptists, recently endorsed boycott, divestment and sanctions and has begun the process of divesting from companies linked to Israel’s occupation.
Authentic pilgrimage
Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said in a press release, “Our people in America do not know the situation on the ground.”
Holy Land tours popular with Christian pilgrims typically focus on sacred sites and ignore what Palestinian churches often refer to as “the living stones” – the people who still live in the land and face the daily realities of occupation.
The summit statement calls for pilgrimages that include stays in “Palestinian towns and villages in order to engage with indigenous communities, to experience firsthand their hopes and fears.”
Former President Jimmy Carter, who became the center of controversy with his 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, made the concluding address at the summit.
Carter told summit participants that their goals would “not have any effect unless the churches and members here work on them jointly, enthusiastically and aggressively.”
Raheb said that “the success of the summit depends on the follow-up that should come. I think that we were able to push the envelope.”
Several religious groups in the US are set to debate divestment initiatives at their respective upcoming nationwide gatherings – including the Methodists, Presbyterians and Unitarian Universalists.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ryan-rodrick-beiler/us-churches-call-economic-pressure-israel?
“In the Bible, the 50th year is a year of jubille, when the land is given back to it’s original owners.”
Native American Indians had no concept of land “ownership.” They believed it belonged to all. Yep, we had to kill ’em.
Idol worship, supposed sin, burn in hell for. Well, just go stand in the Mideast sand and tell me you ain’t in hell!
Somebody “bitch slap” Jimmy Carter and these “dirty church” leaders.
Holy Land Tours? F’ you people. You can keep your F’N sand! If I ever get there, they’ll be some piss foam on it!
The Israelites and Jews didn’t follow the Jubilee year ordinance from God then, most of the time, and they sure as hell ain’t following it now. God’s Chosen my foot! (And Christ fulfilled the chosen-ness!)
So, refreshing to see like-minded smart leaders finally taking a stand- that is truly justified and overdue for mass support…The boycott will continue and increase against any corporations aiding and abetting the psycho-Israelis system of occupation….Take care all.
they complain about the jew genocide of arabs while they accept money from jewmerica to destroy american nationals through unregulated immigration? kill them. hang their asses…. CHRISTIANS MY ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What is it about these “crooked nosed” son’s of bitches? They reek slime and stench, pray you won’t have to shake their greasy, slimy palm, or catch a whiff of their sewer breath, lowest form of life to walk on 2 legs, just to be in the vicinity of one of these low-life creatures churns my stomach. “We be poor, unfortunate victims” , been booted out of over 100 countries worldwide, stink to high heaven, and should be shot on sight.
I’m not a hateful person, but when you learn what these son’s of bitches have done over hundreds of years, you come to the realization that there’s no doubt, whatsoever, who has dictated our foreign policy since WWII.
“Could it be, could it be ISRAEL?”
Weasley, slimey, vomit swallowing vermin, just waitin’ for the light to turn green.
It is LONG past time for the leadership of authentic Christian churches (as opposed to frauds like Hagee’s outfit) to speak out strongly against the evils of Zionism. “Christians” Zionists routinely misuse the Bible to justify their support of Israeli evil. True Christians who have a proper understanding of the Bible are in a unique position to fight this ignorance.