U.S. and International Church Groups Protest Israeli Deportations

By the Reverend L. Humphrey Walz

Church bodies in the United States and around the globe joined U.N. secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Security Council, and the International Committee of the Red Cross in condemning the government of Israel for its Dec. 17 deportation of some 415 Palestinian Muslim leaders into the barren no-man's land along the edge of the Israeli "security zone" carved out of south Lebanon.

Among the first leaders to protest the expulsions, conducted without formal charges or public trial, was Todor Sabav, acting secretary-general of the World Council of Churches. "We believe," he cabled Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, "that [such] collective punishment is gravely detrimental to the pursuit of peace and severely compromises the continuation of the peace talks."

In Washington, Catholic, Protestant and Unitarian-Universalist representatives met with State Department and Israeli government officials to discuss the deportations. Rev. Mark Brown, spokesperson for Churches for Middle East Peace, called the Israeli action "a violation of international law." He noted that the charter of the Nuremberg Military Tribunal at the end of World War II defined such deportations as "a crime against humanity."

The Lutheran minister referred also to the Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilians in Time of War. Cosigned by Israel, that 1949 international agreement forbids "individual or mass transfers, as well as deportations. . . from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power or to that of any other country," and specifies that residents "accused of offenses shall be detained in the occupied country and, if convicted, they shall serve their sentences therein."

Dr. Ann M. Lesch, a Quaker professor, compiled a record of 1,151 early Israeli violations of these convention articles. She published the name, age, home town, occupation and circumstances of each Palestinian exiled between the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and 1978. The list, which covered Yitzhak Rabin's first stint as Israeli prime minister from 1974 to 1977, was published consecutively in the Winter and Spring 1979 issues of the Journal of Palestine Studies.

Rev. Brown said the religious leaders met with U.S. officials to underscore the churches' concern about the Israeli action and the religious community's belief that the expulsions and the killings that preceded them were "tremendously counterproductive to the peace process."

In a separate action, the National Council of Churches wrote to ask President-elect Bill Clinton and delegates to the Middle East peace talks to "take the necessary risks for peace. " The National Council of Churches proposed "a mutual sending of signals of good will which would change the current dynamic of increasing alienation to one of growing conciliation."

These sentiments were echoed widely by Christian leaders in the U.S. and abroad. In New York, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning urged the Israeli government to "live within the Fourth Geneva Convention and allow the deportees to be returned to their homes and families." He called upon the U.S. president and Congress "to suspend all financial aid payments to the state of Israel until this grave situation is resolved" and asked his membership to pray for "a just peace between courageous people where there is no victor or vanquished."

In Jerusalem, the patriarchs and heads of Christian communities decried "increasing signs of violence. . . affecting the daily life of all inhabitants and their land" and called upon Israeli authorities to allow the exiles to return. "We call upon all people to contribute toward the dialogue for peace, so that love and compassion may prevail," the Jerusalem Christian leaders said. "We ask our congregations to pray for coexistence and reconciliation between all people of the Holy Land."

In Tel Aviv, Peace Now and the Israeli Committee for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, backed by the Alternative Information Center, jointly promoted mass demonstrations in support of the Palestinian demand that the expulsion orders be canceled. Though many, apparently most, Israelis approve the latest deportations, some have spoken out against them. Yuval Gunbar of Israel's Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories accused his government of "panic and paranoia" in its handling of the situation.

Tri-Faith Delegates Urge U.S. Continuity to Sustain Peace Process

Twenty-four American Christians, Jews and Muslims who journeyed together in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria and the West Bank in December are back home with qualified hopes for peace in the area if the new U.S. administration, Congress and the general public become more supportive of positive trends in the Middle East.

Sent by the Philadelphia-based U.S. Inter-religious Committee for Peace in the Middle East "to listen and understand Arab and Israeli views on the possibility of peace and the U.S. role in the peace process," they met with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Foreign Minister Kamal Abu Jaber of Jordan, his Syrian counterpart, Farouk Al-Sharaa, Palestinian leaders Faisal Husseini and Nabil Shaath, Dr. Ahmed Esmat Abdel-Meguid of the Arab League, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin and numerous religious leaders, scholars, journalists, attorneys and ordinary citizens.

"We are greatly encouraged by. . .the genuine desire for peace we encountered . . . and a sense of urgency that this may be the last chance for peace," says their three-page joint declaration. "At the same time, our visit increased our awareness of the continued suffering of so many people on all sides, especially Palestinians living under occupation and Israelis living with deep fears . . . Most Arabs and Israelis we met share an urgent concern during this time of transition to new national leadership in the U. S. that the momentum of the peace process be sustained...Everyone we met agreed that President Bush and Secretary' of State Baker played crucial roles in conceiving and launching the peace process. We applaud the fact that. . . Clinton has clearly affirmed his commitment to sustain the peace process. Recognizing the many pressures on the incoming leadership, we believe it is morally imperative in the coming months that Jews, Christians and Muslims join together to advocate that peace in the Middle East be a very high priority of the new administration and new Congress."