 Panel discusses divestment issue By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Saturday, June 17, 2006
Speakers included Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, Salam Al-Marayati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and Mark Pelavin, associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Younan was the first panelist to speak. "The church cares always for two things," he said. "One for humanity because God created all of us equally in his image and he saved all equally on the cross." The second, he said was "justice for all. The church works for justice. It sometimes has to swim against the waves of this world. … To work for justice is not political. It is Biblical." Younan said that to be a prophetic church is to "condemn violations of human rights and to expose and condemn sins of all kinds." "We also condemn the occupation," he said. "For us, it is a sin against God and humanity. … When I say end the illegal occupation I want to liberate the Palestinians and Israelis and give them both justice." He said that his vision for peace and justice is a "clear two-state solution, which means having the state of Israel and the state of Palestine along the 1967 border." "Sometimes when I lose sleep at night I ask, 'Will I and my children live in justice and peace … will my children and Israeli children live together in peace? I call on Israelis to see God in the face of Palestinians, and I call on Palestinians to see God on the faces of the Israelis." Each needs to see the other's humanity, he said, and "only then will the Holy Land become the promised land of milk and honey." "I don't call you to be for Israel or for Palestine. I call you to be for justice, for truth … It is time for us to realize there has been enough hatred … Let God use you to be instruments of healing." The second panelist to speak was Al-Marayati, who also favored a two-state solution. He said the U.S., as the sole mediator, does not act as an honest mediator, since it serves as Israel's largest donor of military equipment and other material. He said the Muslim Public Affairs Council believes that Palestinians have the moral and legal right to resist the occupation, but the council opposes suicide bombers. "We are against the targeting of civilians … non-violent resistance is best." Al-Marayati said Israeli settlements in the occupied areas "must be dismantled. … While settlements have been dismantled in the West Bank, the Palestinians see it as a political move." "There must be an end to the silencing of Americans who are critical of the policies of the Israeli government," he said. He said there must be an end to the defamation of dissidents to the current policies by calling them anti-Semintic," he said . Pelavin said he was on the panel to tell the view of the "American Jew." But, he added, "I can no more tell you what American Jews think about any issue than you can tell me what Presbyterians or Christians think." He said the main point he wanted to convey was that "there is not in fact tremendous disagreement about what peace in Middle East must look like. The challenge is to get from here to there." He said the main impediment to the vision of peace was "terrorism and the daily threat that the Jewish people must live under from those attacks. … I am mindful that even those on the panel would call the main obstacle the Jewish occupation." Pelavin commented on the 2004 General Assembly resolution calling for phased, selected divestment in corporations doing business in Israel. It included the quote "The occupation must end; it has proven to be at the root of evil acts committed against innocent people on both sides of the conflict." "That is a stunning declaration," he said. "The word evil occurs nowhere else … but if the blowing up of Israeli children is not an evil act, then what is?" "Terrorism is the evil haunting the Middle East. Terrorism is the threat under which Israeli men, women and children live every day," he said. "The occupation is a result of that need to provide security for Israel." Pelavin said he believed that the PCUSA's plans of divestment from corporations doing business in Israel "takes us further away" from the vision of two states. He said it would be wrong to "weaken Israel at the very time she needs to feel strong enough to take some risks." A question and answer session was held following the presentations. A sampling of the questions and answers follow: Do you hate the evil more or love the good more? Al-Marayati: "As people of faith love is the default. God created us to represent his values and his will on Earth. … so I would say we are obligated to love good more. When we hate evil we don't hate people. We hate the acts they do." Younan: "If you say you love God and you hate your bother or sister you are a liar. … You love everyone." Is it necessary to differentiate between the terms of violence and terror? Pelavin: "All religions recognize that there may be times when violence is necessary - like self defense. … Terrorism … focused on attacks on non-combatants is a very different thing and requires a different approach. … it is an important distinction." What are the next steps in your perception to end terrorism and occupation? Al-Marayati: "This is the big question -- how do we end the cycle of violence? … One thing is to have peacekeepers along the green line and then let them negotiate the issues." Pelavin: "At the risk of sounding Pollyanish, the next step is not the substance of the conversation … the most important next step is to find those most directly affected to sit down and talk to one another … the U.S. has a critical role to play." How do we deal/work with Hamas? Al-Marayati: "Palestinians and Jews have the right to decide who represents them … it is the Palestinian's job to build a government and it is the Palestinians who must form their government. … We would dialogue with the devil if it is in our best interest. There must be dialogue, there must be discussion." Pelavin: "The Palestinians have chosen a government who wants the destruction of Israel and for whom terrorism is a common use … We must have at least a sliver of common ground on which to build, and I'm skeptical that that sliver exists." Younan: "Being a Palestinian, everyone knows why the Hamas won the election. There was frustration, corruption, division, so Hamas won as a sign of frustration for the Palestinian people. … Even they were shocked when they won." |
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