Episcopals Concerned for Israel and Palestine: A New National Group

By Eugene Bird

Another strong national initiative for Middle East peace has been started with the founding of Episcopals Concerned for Israel and Palestine. Some 30 laity and ministers from eight states met March 21, in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, for an all-day preparatory session. A mid-May national convocation will take up initiatives on human rights, application of the Geneva Convention to the occupied territories, and founding a special Jerusalem Society.

Former Bishop of Michigan H. Coleman McGehee, Jr. will chair this first national grouping of Episcopalians working on peace in the Middle East. It will reach out to as many parishes as possible across the Episcopal Church's nine religious provinces in the United States.

The national group will emphasize pilgrimage to the Holy Land, on a shared feeling among those involved in its founding that "the church cannot be a spectator" to events there. The group will support exchange of clergy, coordination of travel to the area, and ecumenical cooperation. A main theme will be to bring Israelis and Palestinians together, and to emphasize the interest of Christians in sharing the Holy City among all faiths.

Members of the group will network with the 9,000 Christians remaining in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza, and support full opportunities for adherents of all three major faiths to have access to the Holy Places and build up their congregations in the Holy Land.

An important event next year will be the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Anglican Bishopric in Jerusalem. Plans are being made to have substantial numbers of Episcopalians from the North American church visit Jerusalem throughout the coming year, and for proclamation of a National Peace in the Middle East Day for all Americans to celebrate.

Churches March Up Capitol Hill Again

Supporters of 12 of the Churches for Middle East Peace group are planning another three days of dialogue May 13 through 15 with members of Congress and their staffs, in a follow-up to the effort by an Interfaith Group of 400 last November.

This Washington Advocacy Day will include six hours of lobbying with Congress after a training session on effective lobbying. A prayer service will be held on the Capitol Steps at which Representative Lee Hamilton and Dr. Rashid Khalidi of the University of Chicago will speak. Persons wishing to join in this effort on the Hill can call (202) 546-8425.

Bush Administration Plans to Admit More Soviet Refugees

The Bush administration will request an expansion in the number of available refugee visas in 1991 to enable as many as 30,000 more Soviet "emigres" to enter the US under privately funded programs. This would almost double the number of refugee status immigrants from the Soviet Union next year.

The administration has placed a "high priority" on getting Congress to pass legislation later this year to permit an increase in refugee status visas. Refugee visas for Soviets are limited to 40,000 for 1990, but between 60,000 and 70,000 US immigrant visas of all types are expected to be issued this year to Soviet citizens.

Meanwhile, Soviet emigre academician Dmitri Simes of the University of Maryland has charged that the US Embassy in Moscow is deliberately slowing the flow of US visas issued there. Simes also raised in a national newspaper the issue of Israeli involvement in the earlier decision to force all Soviets to acquire visas to the United States before leaving Moscow. By severely limiting Jewish emigre choice of country, the flow of refugees to Israel was increased sharply.

The cost to the United States of resettlement of Soviet Jews in Israel is about double the cost of settling them in the United States.

Although there has been no reaction so far by Israeli lobby forces to administration plans to increase refugee visas available to Soviet citizens in 1991, such organizations can be expected to weigh in heavily against any proposal that might divert Soviet Jews from Israel.

Eugene Bird, a retired career foreign service officer, is an economic and legislative consultant and is active in Episcopal Church affairs in Washington, DC. He has served in Jerusalem, Beirut, Cairo, Riyadh, Jeddah, Dhahran, Bombay and New Delhi.