Editor’s note: As Presbyterians continue their quest to promote peace and justice in Israel-Palestine, we offer for our Outlook readers’ reflections both this letter prepared by the Advisory Committee on Racial-Ethnic Concerns and the essay by John Wimberly that follows. The letter was sent to leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in mid-August when the Lebanon-Israel conflict of last summer was front-page news.
The Rev. Joan Gray, Moderator of the 217th General Assembly
The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk
The Rev. Allison Seed, Chairperson, General Assembly Council
Ms. Linda Valentine, Executive Director, General Assembly Council
Dear Friends and Colleagues in the Mission and Ministries of Christ’s Church;
Sadly and painfully we are all very aware of the seemingly endless cycles of vengeance, violence, destruction and death among the peoples in the Middle East. Time and time again we have called ourselves in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) family to pray and work for the peace and justice of God-in-Christ among all peoples. We write to call for a stronger witness now for justice for all peoples in the Middle East, in the interest of long-term peace and the restoration of fairness and balance to U.S. foreign policy. We urge you as leaders of the Church to share the following letter with the full Council and the church as a whole as a contribution to that witness.As Christians, we begin with prayer to understand the depth of hurt and grievance among all children of Abraham caught up in the current crest of hatred and war. As the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns, we are directly called to stand with peoples who suffer from discrimination, second-class status and outright victimization at home and abroad. In this case, we are called to hear the suppressed voices of the millions of innocent Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, in Lebanon and Palestinian territories, whose suffering has been given less value in the U.S. media than the suffering of Jewish Israelis. We believe that each person is of unique and equal value before God. We reject all actions that violate human rights or international law, deploring all bombings of innocent civilians, all forced removals of populations, all actions that constitute collective punishment of communities and societies, and the essential barbarity of war itself.
As we write, a cease-fire has been brokered in the UN Security Council, after a long month of massive bombing and steady, if limited, missile fire. Nonetheless, the delay in a cease-fire for four weeks and 1100 plus deaths and massive destruction in Lebanon, Gaza and Israel, is a judgment on the use of power without empathy, and a testimony to the supremacy of unilateral militarism over multilateral diplomacy. We have seen the horrific consequences of unilateral military action in Iraq and now see similar hatreds reinforced in both Lebanon and Gaza. Years of border violations and mutual shelling, occupation and resistance, domination and terrorism lie behind the recent captures of soldiers by Hezbollah and Hamas and the thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese held captive in Israel. The current massive and disproportionate retaliation by Israel is not likely to alter cycles of violence that began and continue in the taking of land and the humiliation of enemies. We stand with Middle Eastern Christians, with the worldwide ecumenical community of churches and in the tradition of our own Church to call for a renewed regional peace process that continues Israel’s return of all occupied Arab territories, in accordance with international law and U.N. resolutions, and correspondingly discourages the resort to terrorism.
At the core of our faith is an antipathy to bullying and oppressive uses of power in all forms, and an understanding that no child of God responds well to coercion. We also believe that the stronger party always bears greater responsibility, and that includes not only Israel but the United States. We grieve that the United States, by actively re-supplying Israel with high technology munitions and resisting calls for a ceasefire, has thoroughly allied itself with a policy that is one-sided, short-sighted and enduringly cruel to the nation of Lebanon and to the majority of Lebanese and Palestinian people who, like the Israeli people, want to live in peace and security. It is the ultimate hypocrisy to keep pointing the finger at Iran and Syria for supplying or facilitating passage of arms to Hezbollah while our government continues to ship loads of lethal smart bombs to Israel–to shower destruction indiscriminately on innocent civilian populations. We lament that public opinion in much of the Arab world and beyond is mixing anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and anti-Americanism, seeing even justifiable actions as motivated by imperialism, scorn, and greed.
Enduring peace can come only when the United Nations and the larger community of nations can separate the combatants and their enablers. While praying for justice and security for all peoples in the Middle East, we remember especially the fragile Christian minorities in all countries of that region. We urge our Church leadership to remember our responsibilities to our partner churches, to continue efforts of public policy witness, and to pursue responsible corporate engagement by shifting resources from occupation and war to development and peace. In addition, certainly much of the three billion U.S. tax dollars given annually to Israel should now be redirected for the rebuilding of Lebanon and Palestine.
The world community, and the Christian community within it, is called to hammer swords of all kinds into plowshares of sustainable development. In that hope, we urge you as leaders of the church to share this letter with the General Assembly Council, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as a contribution to our common prophetic witness.
Grace and Peace,
Adel Malek, Chair
Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns
