 Report backs calling on Israel 'to end the occupation now' The Layman Online Wednesday, May 28, 2003
The relationship between Palestinians and Jews in Israel and its surrounding territories. Is one of the thorniest issues in global politics. The Committee on Peacemaking unanimously approved, with modifications, the "End the Occupation Now" report prepared by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy. Even though the proposed policy statement expresses opposition to violence by both Palestinians and Jews, it is weighted toward condemnations of Israel's response to suicide bombings and other terrorist acts. Palestinian suicide murders are described as "desperate acts of terror," while "innumerable Palestinian civilians have experienced pain, suffering, degradation, and death under the yoke of Israel's heavy-handed occupation." The report calls on the Israeli government to end the occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Right or wrong, Israel has long had the support of Christians in the United States. Again, right or wrong, the reason for that relationship often has been gleaned from Scripture. But the report also seeks to cast the ancient rivalry between the Jews and Palestinians wholly in today's secular terms without Biblical reference. It "challenges and encourages discussion of theological interpretations that confuse biblical prophesies and affirmations of covenant, promise, and land, which are predicated on justice, righteousness, and mercy, with political statehood that asserts itself through military might, repressive discrimination, abuse of human rights, and other actions that do not reveal a will to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God." The report was prepared before recent news developments, including President George W. Bush's unveiling a road map for peace in the Mideast. But the report does not support a significant U.S. role in the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Instead, it blames the United States for much of the turmoil in the region. "Israel claims more support than ever from the United States," the report says. "With its military and economic subsidies from Washington, amounting to a quarter of the entire U.S. foreign aid budget, Israel has requested an additional $4 billion in military aid, and $8-10 billion in loan guarantees from U.S. taxpayers. That money would help sustain Israel's illegal occupation. Under this occupation, Palestinian civilians suffer under twenty-four-hour-a-day shoot-to-kill curfews. Israeli settlement expansion continues. Nearly 45 percent of West Bank land has already been expropriated from Palestinians for settlement purposes. Arbitrary arrests, detention, humiliation, torture, and harassment continue to the point of desperation." The report acknowledges Yassir Arafat as the titular head of the Palestinian Authority, while the Bush administration has declared that it will not recognize Arafat as a legitimate leader because of his support for Palestinian terrorists. While "[c]alling on the Israelis and Palestinians to cease their acts of violence against each other," the report calls on Israel to make the greater concessions. Its proposed resolution urges "the Israeli government to end its expansionist policies of confiscation of land and water resources and the building and enlarging of settlements, and of collective punishment of Palestinians, such as is exercised through administrative detentions, demolition of homes, mass house imprisonment ('curfews'), uprooting olive trees, setting up road blocks and checkpoints, and other forms of harassment and humiliation." Some excerpts from the resolution:
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