Donald E. Wagner

How does an ordained Presbyterian minister with a German-American national organization dedicated exclusively to defending the rights of Palestinians? Put this question to the only man who fits the description, Donald E. Wagner, and he begins by saying that he was once "very pro Israeli." It was only when he sought to present both sides of the Arab Israeli conflict to his own congregation that he began to understand the problems Palestinians face in simply stating their case to Americans.

Since 1981 Rev. Wagner has been the national director of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC), a coalition of church, peace, and human rights organizations, as well as individuals, committed to helping Palestinians in Israeli occupied territories, and to explaining the Palestinian cause within the U. S.

"I was brought up in very conservative evangelical circles in the Buffalo area," says Rev. Wagner, explaining how his childhood shaped his decision to pursue an ecclesiastical career. it was this "almost fundamentalist" upbringing, he adds, that contributed to his unquestioning support for Israel through the early 1970s: "I was very much a Zionist, but without a clear understanding of what that meant or the implications."

Coming to Grips with Poverty

What shaped his political thinking " tremendously," he says were the anti war and black power movements of the late 60s. Not yet thirty years old at the time, Rev. Wagner saw at firsthand the problems faced by urban blacks on the west side of Newark, New Jersey, where he took his first ministry in 1967 the same year he received a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. This experience was a real eyeopener, forcing him to come to grips with "poverty and justice issues." During his four years there and at his second church in Ridgewood, New Jersey, where he spent another two years he worked in youth and adult education programs. By 1969 Rev. Wagner had also managed to earn a master's degree in theology, again from Princeton.

Ironically, it was over zealous defenders of Israel who first led Rev. Wagner to question his support for the Jewish state. He had left his second congregation in 1973 to become associate minister at the First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Illinois. As part of an adult education program the following year, Rev. Wagner organized a series of evening lectures on the Middle East. Up to that time, he says, he had had only a casual interest in the region, stemming in part from his Zionist beliefs and the biblical significance he attached to Israel's formation. To present a balance of views in the lectures, Rev. Wagner invited both Palestinians and Zionists to speak. "Half way through the 10 week program I started getting threatening phone calls from the Zionist community," Rev. Wagner recalls, with some of the disbelief still in his voice. "This just blew me out of the water." But his troubles were only just beginning. Later, an Israeli Consul General who was scheduled to speak called just 30 minutes before the start of the meeting to say that he would not be coming because a certain Palestinian scholar also was participating.

The second turning point leading to Rev. Wagner's "conversion" took place in late 1976, when, as chairman of a task force within his Presbytery, he organized "one of the first" symposiums of Arab and non Arab theologians designed to address a whole host of Palestinian related issues. This experience, together with a month long trip to the Middle East in 1977, dealt the coup de grace to his support for Zionism.

Returning with Conviction

"I came back from that trip with the conviction that the Palestinian problem underlies the tensions in the area," Rev. Wagner says. During his trip he was especially affected by walks through several refugee camps in Lebanon, including Tal Zaatar, where more than two thousand Palestinian men, women and children had died at the hands of Israeli armed Maronite militiamen just months before his visit. He returned to the U. S. with the realization that "as an American Christian I had an enormous responsibility" to help solve some of the problems.

Rev. Wagner left his congregation in 1981 to take charge of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, which at that time was only three years old. One of his first steps was to move its headquarters from Washington to Chicago, where Rev. Wagner continues to operate with the help of three full time assistants. While not primarily a membership organization, the PHRC has organized chapters in 25 U.S. cities.

It fulfills its mandate through educational outreach and casework. It comes as no surprise that, in Rev. Wagner's view, the "best means" of educating Americans is to send them on tours of the Mideast. In the last two and one half years the PHRC has sponsored, separately or with others, a dozen such visits, including one early this year for congressional aides. The PHRC also publishes a newsletter eight times per year, as well as quarterly bulletins on specific issues. Much of the casework consists of helping individual Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons.

As for what he might do in the future, Rev. Wagner replies: "I expect I'll probably go back into a church at some point." But for now, he says, his work for the Palestinians is his ministry, and his Christian calling.