For it is clear that [Jesus] did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect." (Heb. 2:16-17a, from epistle appointed for Presentation of Our Lord, Candelmas, Feb. 2)
NOTE: Only items identified as from Churches for Middle East Peace speak for the CMEP coalition. Other news/opinion pieces herein do not carry CMEP endorsement but are shared for your information. This edition has 5 items:
ONE. CMEP Commends House Members, CBS News, Church Leaders
TWO. CMEP Advocacy Days in DC: June 7-9
THREE. U.S. Academics Call for Boycott of Israel
FOUR. Israel Denies Gaza Access to Anglican, Lutheran Bishops
FIVE. Upcoming Events
ONE. CMEP Commends Reps, '60 Minutes,' Church Leaders
64 House Members Sign Letter to Sec. Clinton on Gaza Humanitarian Crisis
Two weeks ago, CMEP told us that 7 House members (including Keith Ellison, MN-5) had spearheaded a letter to Secretary of State Clinton expressing "deep concern for the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and to request immediate action by the United States to address this crisis." By the Jan. 27 deadline, 64 Members of Congress had signed the letter.
These Members came together to bring attention to the needs of Gaza's residents and to provide support for the Obama Administration's early and public commitment to addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Congressman John Olver (D-MA), the initiator of the effort, said in a press release, "The eyes of the world cannot turn away now that there is a ceasefire in effect. The borders must be opened and the international community must ensure that the people of Gaza have the resources they need to treat their wounded and rebuild. While the situation on the ground is dire, the failure to address this humanitarian emergency has the potential to produce a crisis of even more unspeakable proportions."
MN Reps among the signers, in addition to Ellison: Betty McCollum (MN-4) and Jim Oberstar (MN-8). Calls from constituents to their home offices expressing thanks would be appropriate.
Peace Now and '60 Minutes' on Settlements
Peace Now, the respected Israeli NGO that monitors Israeli settlements, has released a new report showing a sharp increase in settlement activity in 2008. According to the report, both settlements and outposts in the West Bank expanded more quickly last year, following the launch of the Annapolis peace process, than in 2007. At least 1,257 new structures were built in the West Bank in 2008, compared to 800 new structures in 2007. In addition, 261 new structures were built in settlement outposts and not a single outpost was removed. To view Peace Now's full report, go to: www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&docid=3508
And on Jan. 25, CBS news' respected program, 60 Minutes, aired a powerful report on the danger that Israeli settlements pose to the chances for Israeli-Palestinian peace and a two-state solution. The program has prompted broad debate and controversy.
CMEP has long urged the U.S. government to press Israel to fulfill its obligation to freeze settlement activity. The existence and growth of settlements weakens those Palestinians who seek peace and undermines the two-state prospect. If peace efforts are going to be effective, both Israel and the Palestinians must abide by their obligations and work to create a climate conducive to meaningful negotiations.
Interreligious Leaders Urge Sustainable Cease-fire and Mideast Peacemaking
In a letter sent to the White House on Jan. 27, American Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders, including several CMEP heads of churches, pledged support for President Obama's "commitment to make Arab-Israeli-Palestinian peace a high priority from the start of his Presidency." They commended him "for calling Arab and Israeli leaders on his first day in office and for appointing George Mitchell as special Middle East envoy."
The leaders, part of the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East, said, "Urgent U.S. diplomacy, in cooperation with Egypt and other parties, is needed immediately to help assure that the cessation of violence by Hamas and Israel is maintained and developed into a truly effective and sustainable ceasefire." Noting that their communities had responded in different ways to the recent Hamas-Israel war, the leaders declared that they are "united in support of the following elements as necessary to a sustainable ceasefire...: Hamas' agreeing to stop all rocket attacks on Israel; international measures to prevent smuggling/resupply of rockets through the Sinai; Israel's agreeing to halt all military operations in Gaza, withdraw its forces, and open Gaza border crossings; and all parties' committing to provision of substantial humanitarian and economic assistance to...Gaza."
View the full letter: www.nili-mideastpeace.org/downloads/2009_01_PresObamaLetter.pdf
TWO. Save the Date for CMEP Conference 2009: June 7-9
The 111th Congress and incoming Obama Administration provide a new opportunity to help Israelis and Palestinians stop the tragic cycles of spiraling violence and diplomatic stalemate, moving forward on a path toward peace. Your elected officials need to hear from American Christians who care about the two peoples of the Holy Land and expect robust U.S. diplomatic action in 2009. We are pleased to announce that CMEP's Advocacy Conference 2009 will be held June 7-9, 2009 at the Kellogg Conference Center in Washington, DC. Please plan to attend. It will be an exciting opportunity to meet fellow Christian advocates, hear from experts and policymakers and receive advocacy training - all leading up to Lobby Day on Capitol Hill! Additional information about registration and the agenda will be available soon.
THREE. U.S. professors call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel. This article by Raphael Ahren appeared in Israeli daily, Haaretz, Jan. 29, 2009
In the wake of Operation Cast Lead, a group of American university professors has for the first time launched a national campaign calling for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.
While Israeli academics have grown used to such news from Great Britain, where anti-Israel groups several times attempted to establish academic boycotts, the formation of the U.S. movement marks the first time a national academic boycott has come out of America. Israeli professors are not sure yet how big of an impact the one-week-old movement will have, but started discussing the significance of and possible counteractions against the campaign.
"As educators of conscience, we have been unable to stand by and watch in silence Israel's indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip and its educational institutions," the U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel stated in its inaugural press release last Thursday. Speaking in its mission statement of the "censorship and silencing of the Palestine question in U.S. universities, as well as U.S. society at large," the group follows the usual pattern of such boycotts, calling for "non-violent punitive measures" against Israel, such as the implementation of divestment initiatives, "similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era."
The campaign was founded by a group of 15 academics, mostly from California, but is "currently expanding to create a network that embraces the U.S. as a whole," according to David Lloyd, a professor of English at the University of Southern California who responded on behalf of the group to a Haaretz query. "The initiative was in the first place impelled by Israel's latest brutal assault on Gaza and by our determination to say enough is enough."
"The response has been remarkable given the extraordinary hold that lobbying organizations like AIPAC exert over U.S. politics and over the U.S. media, and in particular given the campaign of intimidation that has been leveled at academics who dare to criticize Israel's policies," Lloyd wrote in an e-mail to Haaretz Monday. "Within a short weekend since the posting of the press release, more than 80 academics from all over the country have endorsed the action and the numbers continue to grow."
Asked if the group would accept the endorsement of Hamas supporters, Lloyd said, "We have no a priori policy with regard to the membership or affiliation of supporters of the boycott so long as they are in accord with the main aims stated in the press release."
He argued that, "on several occasions Hamas has sought direct negotiations with Israel, a pursuit that constitutes de facto recognition of Israel, and has openly discussed abandoning its call for the destruction of the state of Israel conditional on reciprocal guarantees from Israel."
The idea of an academic boycott against Israel originated in 2001 at the "World Conference Against Racism" in Durban, South Africa. A first attempt to implement a boycott was undertaken by British professors in the wake of Israel's 2002 Operation Defensive Shield and the Jenin massacre claim. Since then, British academics tried several times to establish boycotts, with the latest such effort failing because legal advisers a few months ago pointed out that academic boycotts are discriminatory and thus illegal. Yet, analysts say that another British boycott campaign is to be expected in the follow up of Cast Lead.
In the U.S., on the other hand, only a few professors have supported the idea of an academic boycott. In 2006, the American Association of University Professors declared its objection to the British boycott, saying members, "especially oppose selective academic boycotts that entail an ideological litmus test."
In 2007, nearly 300 university presidents across the United States signed a statement denouncing the boycott, under the motto "Boycott Israeli Universities? Boycott Ours, Too!"
First indications that the climate might change in light of the Gaza operation could be seen earlier this month when the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario proposed: "Israeli academics be barred from speaking, teaching or conducting research at the province's universities unless they condemn Israel's actions in Gaza."
Israeli academics are hesitant to sound the alarm bells in light of the recent development. "One has to look at this with some degree of caution," said Gerald Steinberg, the American-educated chair of Bar Ilan University's political studies department. "Yes, the organization's declarations are coming from the United States, but this is not at all yet a mass movement."
FOUR. Anglican & Lutheran bishops denied entry to Gaza. This press release was issued Feb. 4 by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.
Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, while denied entry to Gaza at the Israeli EREZ Crossing Point, reaffirms his commitment to peace and reconciliation among Palestinians and Israelis.
The Right Reverend Suheil S. Dawani, the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem and Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem that includes Gaza, after two hours of waiting, was denied entry into the Gaza Strip at the Israeli EREZ security Crossing Point this morning, along with Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan.
Both bishops were on a pastoral visit to include the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza, an institution of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, and to members of their communities as part of a five-member delegation of Jerusalem heads of churches. The decision for the visit was made two weeks ago and negotiations for the permits were begun with the Israeli authorities for that purpose. They had been informed that their request to enter Gaza had been granted.
The stated decision to deny them entry into the Gaza Strip by the Israeli EREZ authorities was that they were Palestinians, even though both hold Jerusalem Israeli ID's. Among those from the delegation allowed to enter the Strip was Archbishop Aris Shirvanian of the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem (who holds the same Identification card as both bishops), Ethiopian Archbishop Abba Matias, and Latin Church Patriarch Fouad Twal.
Bishop Dawani in a statement on arrival back at his Diocesan Offices at St. George's Cathedral stated:
"I deeply regret the decision by those at the EREZ Crossing Point to deny me, a recognized Anglican Bishop of the Church in Jerusalem with pastoral responsibilities in Gaza, this important pastoral opportunity during the present quiet in the Ceasefire, to visit my diocesan Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. The hospital has been carrying a great responsibility for the diocese in providing high quality healthcare to the Gaza communities for over a century of exemplary medical and humanitarian services.
"With sense of great sadness" he said, "and having just returned from a Washington D.C. visit yesterday, I deeply regret such a denial of entry, on whatever grounds so stated, by the authorities. Gaza remains a portion of my diocese in the administration of my pastoral duties and responsibilities as a Bishop of the Church for the care of my staff and people. The denial of entry to myself and Bishop Munib Younan, a close colleague who has been a collegial and active partner in the ministry which began between our two Churches Lutherans and Anglicans since 1841, is reprehensible. I say this because it reflects badly on those in authority at these crossing points which the international community had demanded be open to humanitarian endeavors—and most certainly pastoral care is an important factor in such services."
FIVE. For Your Calendar
• Sunday, Feb. 8, 8pm: TPT (KTCI) Ch. 17: edited version of Dec. 2 forum at U. of St. Thomas, "Healing Wounds and Building Bridges: An Interfaith Dialogue on Peace in the Holy Land." Scheduled for re-broadcast later on public TV stations across Minnesota, it will also be available to stations nationwide. Forum featured both national and local voices representing the three Abrahamic faith communities; yours truly was the local Christian voice. Other locals: Makram El-amin, imam of Masjid An-Nur Mosque; Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman of Temple Israel.
• Saturday, Feb. 14, Middle East Peace Now: "Israel's Mizrahi Population and the Palestine Question." Samadar Lavie speaks on the intra-dynamics of Israel which has a direct relationship with the Gaza carnage. A cultural anthropologist, she will discuss the Arab origins of the Mizrahim and how their politics affects Israel's left and right political parties. Come to hear and meet a dynamic Israeli feminist. Dr. Lavie earned her doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a Distinguished Visiting Professor of International Studies at Macalester College, St. Paul. At Lutheran Church of Christ Redeemer, 55th & Penn S., Mpls. Refreshments 9:30am, program at 10. More info: Florence Steichen, 651-696-1642.
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We warmly welcome new readers. To add or remove an address, contact Chuck Lutz, MN coordinator CMEP, 612-861-6648, lutzch@comcast.net.
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