General Assembly will consider resolution on Israel and Palestine By John H. Adams The Layman Online Monday, May 12, 2003 The 215th General Assembly will be asked to approve a 16-page document on one of the thorniest issues in global politics – the relationship between Palestinians and Jews in Israel and its surrounding territories. The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) submitted the document, which is titled "End the Occupation Now." The report is on the agenda of the Assembly Committee on Peacemaking. 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 has often been gleaned from Scripture. But ACSWP also seeks to cast the ancient rivalry between the Jews and Palestinians wholly in today's secular terms without Biblical reference. It "categorically rejects 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, expansionist pro-Zionist ambition, 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 ACSWP report was prepared before recent news developments, including President George W. Bush's announcement that he favors a Palestinian state and Secretary of State Colin Powell's current mission to secure political support 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," ACSWP 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 ACSWP proposal 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," ACSWP wants 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: Seek out other Christians, Jews and Muslims, in their own areas, to work together through interfaith peacebuilding, and in support of every effort made, whether by Israelis, Palestinians, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the Christian churches, and/or other religious and secular organizations that aim toward bringing about a just, honorable, secure, and viable peace in the Middle East. Take individual and collective initiatives to tell the truth, having "listened with both ears," and to advocate for a just peace in the Middle East with their representatives in Congress, the administration, United Nations officials, local/regional/national newspaper editors and other opinion makers. Participate and/or promote participation in the international Christian "Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel" (EAPPI), organized through the World Council of Churches, in partnership with Palestinian Christians. Supporting the resolutions of the United Nations, affirming the right of Israel to exist within secure borders, and the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, including the establishment of their own sovereign state and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

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