The occupant’s claims that anyone who votes Democratic is being disloyal to Israel, along with his intimations that people think of him as god, show a new level of bizarre behavior. Just when you think it can’t get any weirder he opens his mouth again.
His most recent delusion began several weeks ago when he called Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar anti-Semitic because of their pro-Palestinian stance. Tlaib and Omar spoke openly about their disagreement with US foreign policy regarding Israel. The United States gives Israel over four billion dollars a year. The human rights violations Israel embodies towards Palestinians in the occupied territories would be enough to earn other nations harsh sanctions. Instead, the US just about throws a ticker tape parade for Israel, while ignoring calls from the United Nations and the World Court to cease persecution of Palestinians.
The rhetoric of the occupant, along with US policy shows a lack of understanding of the complex history of the region as well as a deep disregard for the human rights abuses of Palestinian Christians. To speak critically of Israel has long been taboo in the United States; however, there are some issues that need to come to the fore. Mainline Christian churches have long sought to bring a voice of balance and reason.
As early as l967, the United Church of Christ spoke about the Middle East Conflict. In a gathering of national United Church of Christ representatives, the following statement became part of official UCC history and policy: “The UCC General Synod calls on churches to understand the Middle East Conflict and develop public support for the United Nations and call on the US Government to safeguard the aspirations and interests of all peoples involved in the conflict.”
Mainstream protestant traditions joined in a call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Beginning with the unwavering assertion that Israel has the right to exist, leaders called on both sides to engage in peaceful negotiation of internationally recognized borders that create a secure state for both Israel and Palestine. In 1997 leaders called on Jerusalem to remain a diverse city both religiously and politically. The statement further asserted that no party has the right to change the status of Jerusalem unilaterally. In 2015 ecumenical leaders issued a statement that “…Jerusalem should be open to all and shared by all…two peoples and three religions.”
In 2015 the United Church of Christ issued a statement calling for divestment and boycott of companies that profit from occupation of Palestinian territories. This included Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, G4S and Veolia Equipment and all their subsidiaries. This statement had parallels in the Presbyterian, Mennonite and Episcopal churches. Further, the statement called on faith communities to participate in the boycott as a peaceful means of protest.
A 2015 statement from ecumenical leaders proposes a fourfold strategy for addressing the ongoing instability in the region:
- Engage in an education and empowerment study using the Kairos Palestinian 2009 document, “A Moment of Truth: a Word of Faith and Hope from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering.”
- Continuing economic leverage including divestment and boycott of companies profiting from the occupation of Palestinian lands.
- Continued political pressure to ensure that aid to Israel does not violate the US Foreign Assistance Act nor the US Arms Export Control Act.
- Interreligious dialogue among the three Abrahamic faiths aimed at reaching religious reconciliation and achieving political resolutions.
Finally, a 2018 statement from ecumenical leaders to Legislators states the following:
“As churches and church related organizations we all share a hope and desire for an end to occupation, an end to violence and terrorism and for equal rights for all people. If our respective denominations and organizations, through debate and reflection adopt policies that employ economic leverage to advance these policy objectives, as we do with many other policy objectives, we believe it is an assertion of our right as stewards of our financial resources to spend and invest according to our theological and moral conviction expressed in our respective denominational and organization policies.
In this case our assertion of this right is an effort to change unjust Israeli policy toward Palestinians not to delegitimize the state of Israel, nor to marginalize or isolate our Jewish neighbors or their enterprises.”
Amidst the political hyperbole of the times, the quiet witness of the mainline Christian church has been steady and unwavering. It is clearly a minority position, but one that is fervently held by people of deep faith who see the conflict with a more balanced perspective that those who simply have blind allegiance to Israel.
The right of Israel to exist has never been in question. It is important to state that unequivocally. Alongside that claim, however, is an equal assertion that Palestine has a right to exist and that both states have a right to secure borders and peaceful co-existence.
The Irreverent Reverend 