Editor’s Note: Fahed Abu-Akel, former GA moderator, Presbyterian minister, and executive director of the Atlanta Ministry with International Students, was speaking in the Richmond, Virginia area recently. He sat down with Martha Skelton, OUTLOOK associate editor, to answer a few questions. This is part one of a two part interview. Part two was published in the Outlook Feb 6 issue.
Q. Because Ariel Sharon is no longer expected to be the leader of the nation, what impact do you see that having in relation to Palestinians both those who are Israeli citizens and those in the area of the Palestinian Authority?
A. First, I am praying for the recovery of Ariel Sharon. We need to pray for his family, for the nation during this critical time. As you look at the history of the prime ministers in the state of Israel, you can call it a land of miracles. You never dreamed that Menachem Begin would do peace with Egypt. He is the key founder of the Herut party, an extreme party. … The next person, Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister of the state of Israel, is the one who ordered the Israeli military to break the bones of Palestinian children. The same general … to oppress the first Intifada stood with Yassir Arafat on the White House lawn and said we need to do peace. And both got the peace prize in Oslo. You go to the next, Sharon, has a mixed history. He was born in Palestine, a fighter from the beginning, fought in every war of the state of Israel, but was also responsible for the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut. He was the architect of the Israeli-Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. (He) becomes the prime minister, as an extreme person. (Yet) he is the one who forced eight thousand settlers to get out of Gaza. I have mixed feelings on that situation. One, if he drew out of Gaza, to control the West Bank, it is not going to work. … Second–only one that will have the power with his military background could say to the Israeli Jewish people that withdrawing from Gaza is best for the Jewish people.
Right now the state of Israel is moving toward two decisions: 1) Continue to occupy the West Bank against the will of the indigenous Palestinian people or withdraw. Israel is facing two questions: Do we continue to be a Jewish state and forget about the dream of Zionism, or become a secular democratic republic. A secular democratic republic means ending the military occupation, having Palestinians have equal rights with the Israeli Jews, and the constitution will be the rule of law. Right now if we take the U.S. Constitution and apply it to the State of Israel, it will blow it to pieces.
Q. How?
A. The Constitution of the United States says it is not your ethnicity, it is not your religion, but the Constitution is the rule of law. America is a secular democratic republic. There is a difference.
Q Do many Americans know that there are ethnic Palestinians who are citizens of Israel?
A. Pre-1967-Stae of Israel (1948 to 1967) had 6 1/2 million people, 5 1/2 Jewish and 1 million Palestinian Arabs citizens in the state of Israel. In the West Bank, occupied illegally under international law, (there are) 2.7 million Palestinians, Gaza has 1.3 million Palestinians. … Three years ago President Jimmy Carter wrote an article in the New York Times saying Israel needs to decide what it wants. –land or peace. The issue is will Israel end the occupation and help to create a Palestinian state or continue occupying it. The problem right now in the United States, the Christian Zionist movement is getting more powerful. –politically and religiously and that’s where to me, theology matters. Baptists, Pentecostal, Independent churches in the U.S. have something called dispensational theology. That says the world ticks on seven dispensations–Adam, Jesus, the church. In 1948 when Israel became a state, this is a new dispensation. Everything starts ticking, zooming fast toward the Battle of Armageddon. That’s very strong theology that is preached from our American pulpits. So for a man like Pat Robertson to say that God did strike Sharon because he gave the land back, that is out of this theology, the land exclusively belongs to the Jews.
So a Palestinian Arab Christian with a 2,000 year-old church has zero rights. That, to me, is becoming more dangerous than ever before because it has become an accepted theology, it is a preached theology and the lay people swallow it like honey with complete ignorance of history and the biblical prophetic mandates of how we treat other people. So that’s a very dangerous theology. Instead of we Christians saying Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs need to be reconciled, we are saying we need the law to end the deal, we are becoming little gods–a very dangerous American theology, and speaking from a seat of power is different. We (America) have political, economic and military power. For us to say that, it’s the most dangerous times.
By the way, masses of Israeli Jews do not accept American fundamentalist theology. I will never forget I invited the Israeli consul to speak at a Kiwanis Club meeting … and this person (member of a Baptist church) said to the consul, “We believe the land belongs to the Jews. What do you say?” The consul replied: “This is news to me. I did not know that God is a real estate man.”
Q. How we should relate to our brothers and sisters in Christ in Israel? Many American Christians travel there, but do not try to go to the churches, or meet the Christians, most of whom are Arab.
A. Most American tourists, Americans sitting in our churches, are completely ignorant of the church history in the Middle East, and of the presence of Palestinian Christians.
I always like to repeat what happened to me at Ebenezer Baptist Church when Mrs. King asked me to do the invocation at the Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration in January 2002. The program had on it the Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, underneath that, Presbyterian minister, and I began to pray, “God Almighty, God of non-violence, I come to you in the name of Jesus …” And while I’m praying a (radio broadcast) journalist introduced me to the nation as a Muslim clergyman. That journalist had three journalistic evidences: Reverend, Presbyterian, and praying in the name of Jesus. What was more powerful? My last name. My last name said I was an Arab, and an Arab is a Muslim. So most American people look at these two contexts: An Arab is a Muslim, an Israeli is a Jew, and in one stroke we eliminate Christianity where it started . . . Jesus was born in Bethlehem and that is where Christianity started, and in one stroke, we eliminate Christianity where it started. So, it is normal to have Christians where Jesus started.
The danger there would be, a hundred years ago, 25 to 30 percent of the Palestinians were Palestinian Christians. Today, they are between two to three percent. That means as a result of war, occupation, and economic hardship, the Palestinian Christians have been squeezed out. I yearn for our churches to have a sister church in Israel, to have a sister church in Palestine, to have a sister church in Egypt, to have a sister church in Lebanon, or Syria, or Iraq, or other places; for us to at least pray for these Christians, who are the minority of the minorities, and have solidarity with them, hear their voice, their needs, their mission opportunities. We need to work on that as never before.
Q. If you are an Arab Christian in the Middle East what pressure do you feel from the Israeli/Jewish side, and from the Arab/Muslim side?
A. In the Israeli state, Palestinian Christians and Muslims have the right to vote, have the right for movement. The issue is you do not have the same opportunities. The situation in the West Bank is different. In Israel, Muslim or Christian, you are a citizen of the state of Israel. If you are a Palestinian in the West Bank, you are an occupied person. So if you are Christian or Muslim, you do not have the right of movement from your town.
As Presbyterians, historically we have always supported the state of Israel and people need to realize that. And after 1967, the GA always had actions that the Israeli occupation needed to end. At last year’s GA, the only three things we added were, 1) The wall that Israel is building in the West Bank is illegal under international law and must stop … because the wall is built to protect Israeli illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank. If you want to build a wall, you build it on your border, you don’t build it in the land of other people … Nobody got angry at the Presbyterians. Second, we said
that Christian Zionism is not biblical and not Reformed. Nobody got angry with the Presbyterian Church. A third thing we said: because we have been praying 38 years for the occupation to end, the overture that came from Florida concerning divestment and the divestment issue said we are not going to divest from Israel proper. We are going to divest from American companies that are doing harm in the West Bank. If you take the issue of divestment from occupation, it is meaningless. The Presbyterian Church is not anti-Israel, we are not anti-Semitic, and we are not anti-Jewish. We are anti-occupation. That overture brought our attention to the illegality of occupation . . . (The pastor of the Florida church that sent the overture told me) “Americans will wake up when you talk about the dollar.”
Q. Would not Arab Christians also have some struggles living in the predominately Muslim areas, under the Palestinian Authority?
A. I would say at this point of history, the only ones who can give us a glimpse of Muslims and the Arab world would be Palestinian Christians and Arab Christians. They have lived with Muslims all their lives and they understand how to talk to Muslims, they understand the theology, and they understand how to live as a minority of minorities. We as American Christians need to learn about the 15 million Arab Christians. The majority would be Coptic of Egypt, Orthodox Christians, Maronite Christians, and Catholic Christians. Among the Protestants, Presbyterians are the largest body because the Presbyterians went to mission in the Middle East in 1823. We have a half-million Arab Presbyterians that we know zero about.
When Presbyterians went on mission they focused on three areas: first, evangelism. As a result, we have a half million Presbyterians. We are the largest Protestant body in the Middle East. Second, emphasis, medical missions. Third focus, education. Every American University in the Middle East (Beirut, Cairo, Istanbul,) was established by the Presbyterian Church.
As Presbyterians, we have 15 million Arab Christians to connect with, second, we have half a million Presbyterians to connect with, and as supporters of the state of Israel, we need to find a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Palestine-Israel conflict is the powder keg of the Middle East. My thesis goes like this: We are the friends of Israel who helped Israel to make peace with Egypt, helped Israel to make peace with Jordan, I hope we can help Israel make peace with Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc. My thesis says make peace with every Arab country you want. But unless you reconcile an Israeli Jew and Palestinian Arab, the deal is not going to work. Solving the Palestinian crisis, creating a Palestinian state and helping the reconciliation of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs is crucial.
Q. During this time of insecurity, doesn’t it seem that people in America or the Middle East are reverting to their family, clan types of identities — ethnicities?
A. Unless you have a constitution, like the U.S. Constitution that protects, you cannot play the game. Here the Constitution is calling every individual that you need to go by the Constitution, not your ethnicity, not your religion. There is not a decent constitution in the Middle East. Israel does not have a constitution. When you don’t have a constitution, you play any way you want. The U.S. Constitution has survived for 200 years. That was the genius of Martin Luther King Jr. He had three anchors: his faith in God, his teaching of non-violence, third, he called the American people to live up to what the Constitution said. A constitution is an excellent instrument to help us live and co-exist.
I believe that God wants people to co-exist. I believe God wants people to respect one another. And the danger all throughout history is that people use God to destroy one another. That’s where we need a new theology to deal with our context.
Q. What do you mean by our context?
A. American history to Middle Eastern history. People use God to oppress other people … to do acts of racism against one another. The New Testament says the opposite. The Word of God is revolutionary–to be liberated myself, to accept another human being and respect another human being. All through history, ancient history to present American history, people use God for their own agenda and that has nothing to do with it.
In the city of Jerusalem, Christianity, Judaism and Islam have a bloody history. No one can say, “I have a clean hand.” Learning from history, we need to say in the 21st century, can we be reconciled and live together without destroying each other? (Not say) “I will use God and destroy you.” In Europe, we did it, in America, we did it, and in the Middle East we did it. In the 21st century, can the Word of God liberate me to accept another person?
Q. As Presbyterians get together preparing for the General Assembly this year where they face the election of a new moderator, issues such as divestment and the Task Force report, what do you think they need to be doing to prepare?
A. I would like members, elders, and our congregations to be in a mood of prayer, fasting .,. I would like for the commissioners the moment they hear on what committees they are serving to immediately start studying the material that is coming for that committee. The moment we elect a moderator, we divide all the commissioners into 15 to 20 committees. And from my experience, the legwork, the discussions and decisions are made in committees. Ninety percent of the decisions that come from the committees are accepted in the plenary. For us to be spiritually tuned, we need to understand the pro and con of that committee, to do some research and really do your work for your committee. And don’t be overwhelmed by everything, be effective in a spiritual way in that committee. And as you vote, you are asking the Holy Spirit to lead you and you are voting about the life of the whole church together.
As moderator, I focused … on our unity in diversity, and that is what the Task Force is doing. Every voice of the church is present, and if the local sessions and presbyteries will struggle together in the name of Jesus Christ the way that Task Force struggled, God will heal us.
