PITTSBURGH, July 2, 2012 – A member of the General Assembly’s Middle East Peacemaking Issues Committee said during the panel’s opening session Sunday that this past spring, he went on a trip to Israel sponsored by a U.S.-based organization dedicated to the safety and security of Israel.
Kenneth Page, a teaching elder commissioner from Grand Canyon Presbytery, said that “tough questions were asked” during the tour, sponsored by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. He said that during a visit to the Israeli security barrier, he asked, “Why this could possibly not be considered a land grab?”
Page’s committee will take action on several controversial overtures likely to affect the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s relations with Israel and with the American Jewish community. They include calls for divestment from three companies that supply equipment to the Israeli government and its defense forces.
The website of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs describes the organization as “the representative voice of the organized American Jewish community” in addressing the rights of Jews worldwide, the safety and security of Israel and justice, and pluralism and harmonious relations among ethnic and religious groups in the United States.
Page, the pastor of Orangewood Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, told the members of his committee that during a prior trip to Israel, when he was “young and stupid,” he had been tear-gassed by the Israeli Army when he participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
He volunteered to step down from the committee if anyone thought his impartiality had been compromised. No one took him up on the offer.
Page said in an interview after the committee meeting that when he took the tour last spring, he did not yet know he would be asked to serve on the Middle East Peacemaking Issues Committee during General Assembly.
The committee’s moderator, Jack Baca of San Diego Presbytery, told the members before Page spoke that “a lot of folks have taken advantage” of offers to tour Israel and that the General Assembly “has no policy on that.”
The propriety of commissioners participating in the tour also was publicly raised as a question presented to the candidates for General Assembly moderator in a question-and-answer session before the election June 30.
Baca also announced during Sunday’s session that he expected the committee would be assigned a commissioners’ resolution dealing with Syria.
A resolution on “prayer and action for Syria,” offered by Jeff Krehbiel of National Capital Presbytery and Frances Daniel of the Presbytery of Providence, describes current turmoil in that country as “a virtual civil war.” It urges the U.S. government to “support a mediated process of cessation of violence by all perpetrators,” calls for non-intervention by all outside parties and urges support for a United Nations role that may include observers and peacekeeping forces.
The resolution also calls for a “full, public congressional debate of any potential U.S. intervention … to examine carefully the possible humanitarian benefits, costs, and outcomes,” including impacts on religious communities and those imprisoned by the Assad regime.
The resolution also calls for Presbyterians to donate through One Great Hour of Sharing to an account dedicated to Syria.
The committee will formally vote on all the business before it over the next several days.
