"Peace Church" Team in Hebron Arrested

Rev. L. Humphrey Walz

Known as the "Peace Churches," Quakers, Mennonites and Brethren are especially renowned for seeking practical ways for rooting out discriminatory injustice as a major cause of strife. Among their joint projects they support small Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPTs) to live in troubled areas and work out on the ground nonviolent ways of resolving problems at points of special irritation.

One such team—two men and three women, aged 24, 27, 33, 41, and 45—assigned to the ancient city of Hebron, focused their attention in late July on the Israeli army's blocking and sealing, since 1987, of the main gates to Hebron (Arab) University campus. The sealing requires the 3,000 students, faculty—and whoever else has business to attend to on campus—to go around to a side entrance and walk or drive up a steep dirt road. Every university attempt to reopen the gates has been resisted by the Israeli military government.

The CPT team members elected to call public attention to the problem, which they consider unparalleled in any other country. Early on July 22, aided and abetted by Jewish members of the Hebron Solidarity Committee, they proceeded to sledge-hammer a section of the thick cement-block wall that the Israeli army had built and a metallic extra front gate that the Israeli army had welded closed.

By 10:45 the wall was down and Cliff Kindy (of the Brethren) was using a hammer and chisel to break the welds on the original gate when seven Israeli military and police jeeps arrived containing some 15 soldiers. Although Israeli law forbids any military presence on university property, a Captain Eyal Ziv strode over and forcibly arrested Kindy, charging that he was in a "closed military zone."

Quaker team member Kathy Kamphoefner was clearing rocks from the roadway in front of the gate when the Israeli soldiers arrived. When they asked why she was there, she explained that as a professor of communications she saw unrestricted education as a vital right. She was arrested on the spot, as were Mennonite teammate Wendy Lehman and Jewish colleague Maxine Kaufman-Nunn of the Hebron Solidarity Committee who came to stand by them. (It is to Lehman's detailed report to American Brethren and Mennonite headquarters that this account is most indebted.)

The four were taken to the militarily administered Hebron police station and held in a small room containing only two chairs. Summoned individually for interrogation, all refused to answer questions without the presence of a lawyer. At 8:54 p.m., Kindy was transferred to the dreaded Russian Compound prison in Jerusalem. At midnight the women, still in light summer work clothes, were taken on a chilly, open, two-hour drive to Tel Aviv's Abu Kabeer prison. There, at 3:45 a.m., they could at last sleep, though in a dingy cell on plastic mats on cement beds.

They didn't wake up for breakfast, so that day's nourishment consisted of just two meals, for each of which they were allowed 15 minutes to collect and eat skimpy portions of over-cooked food and return the trays. Between meals they were granted a brief period in the yard with other prisoners. They were permitted no other free activity or association.

At 6 a.m. on the 25th, after seven minutes for breakfast, they were transported to Jerusalem and, at the Russian Compound, handcuffed and shackled to each other until the arrival of Israeli lawyer Linda Breyer (a Jewish convert to Christianity) and Theresa Reach of the U.S. Consulate General. These unexpected helpers stayed with the three women prisoners and Kindy through the lengthy negotiations with the prosecuting attorney. Finally they were released on the guarantee of an Israeli friend to pay the court a thousand Israeli shekels, should they not show up for an unlikely re-summons.

On their return to Hebron the four activists were cheered and feted by residents. The gate, at that time, was still open. Subsequently, in the pre-dawn darkness of August 1, a military construction crew totally restored the blockage. The status quo ante seemingly was re-established. Were there any palpable benefits from the CPT's endeavors?

The teammates had had a sampling of what threatens Hebronite Arabs, daily and indefinitely. The difference was that Palestinian detainees are without recourse to sympathetic lawyers or U.S. consular representation. Astute observers note that on the local scene the image of both Americans and of Christians has markedly improved.

Reverend and Mrs. Alex Awad Win Eight-Year Struggle for Visas

Jerusalem-born, naturalized American Methodist clergyman Alex Awad and his Texan wife, Brenda, are back in the West Bank working in and out of Bethlehem Bible College. It took the Israeli government from 1987 until this spring to authorize one-year visas for Reverend and Mrs. Awad allowing them to work with the dwindling Christian remnants in that Israeli-controlled area. (The stalling tactics of the Israeli bureaucrats and the backing given Methodist negotiators by Israeli human rights activists filled five columns of our June 1993 issue.)

The Awads "trust," as they express it, that this breakthrough may at last open "a new chapter of good will and cooperation between us and the Ministry of Interior that will make it possible for us to renew our visas annually and insure our stay on a somewhat more permanent basis."

Nonetheless, the freedom thus attained is undercut by the lack of freedom of those to whom they are assigned to minister. As a U.S. citizen, for instance, Alex (whose brother, Mubarak Awad, is a Quaker peace activist who was expelled by Israel for organizing Palestinian nonviolent resistance to Israeli military occupation) already has been allowed to drive a borrowed car to nearby Gaza to speak at a local church celebration. However, the Bible College choir, which wanted to accompany him there, was denied permits to exit Bethlehem or enter Gaza.

The inclusion of Bethlehem and East Jerusalem in the general "closure" barring native non-Jewish residents from venturing much beyond their homes obviously adds to the complexity of maintaining a functioning faculty and student body. Israeli seizures of Gentile-owned real estate to enlarge troop-guarded Jewish settlements—and connect them with the new roads that isolate Palestinian remnants from each other—restrict academic, as well as other, freedoms. Also, the ban that forbids Palestinian land owners to sell their property to anyone other than the Israeli government makes it difficult for the College to acquire needed campus space.

Close to two years since the Oslo Agreement's signing, the Awads find their peace-enhancing projects threatened. "The peace process," they feel, "has totally lost credibility among Palestinians." They also note that "when Israel and the U.S. government ignore the pleas of 2.5 million Palestinians for justice, they indirectly cause deep-seated frustrations which can become a breeding ground for terrorism and future armed conflicts."

From the heart of this troubled landscape the Awads have written American friends "not to give up on advocating justice for the oppressed." Since the U.S. government fully supports the state of Israel, they add, "it is the duty of every American Christian to question the moral and practical implications of U.S. Middle East policies." (This is in keeping with the public stances of both national and international Methodist bodies.)

What Lies Behind "Jerusalem 3000"?

The Israeli government's determination to spend from September 1995 through August 1996 celebrating the capture of Jerusalem from its indigenous Jebusites by King David's genocidal General Joab, c. 1005 B.C., has received mixed reactions.

Europe's political leaders, joined by Britain and the Vatican, have refused to participate in the activities because of political implications. The Canadian government also has ruled out official participation. Ehud Olmert, the new hard-line Likud mayor of Jerusalem, calls such opposition "misguided." Yossi Tal-Gaim, director of the year-long event, maintains that it is "simply a celebration of historic fact and not about making any political statement." But, in July, Deputy Mayor Abraham Khila was more forthright about wanting to "make the Palestinians open their eyes to the reality" of permanent, total and exclusive Israeli occupation of the city.

The Middle East Council of Churches' current NewsReport indicates that, in the eyes of the region's Christians, "Jerusalem 3000" is a political statement that "marches in lockstep with other Israeli efforts to assert sovereignty, de-Christianize the city, and alienate Jerusalem from its Palestinian citizens and its pluralistic religious heritage."

Fifteen years ago, ominous indicators of that persistent purpose led me to write a letter which the Wall Street Journal published on Aug. 20, 1980, under the heading "Jerusalem As Capital—and Holy City." It is humbling to realize how apparently ephemeral were its attempts at rescuing Biblical history from its purposeful perverters. Here's the full text:

Apprehensive Palestinians speak of the Zionist determination to transform the Holy Land of three faiths into a ghetto for a single race. By incorporating Arab East Jerusalem into its claimed (but internationally rejected) capital, Israel's Knesset feeds those fears.

It justifies this action by asserting that "all of Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel throughout Jewish history." Neither archeology nor the Bible concurs.

Only under Solomon and in parts of the reigns of David and Rehoboam was Jerusalem—then only a few hundred acres of the present enlarged and expanding city—the capital of the Kingdom of Israel. Before David's conquest (II Samuel 5:6,7; I Chronicles 11:5), Jerusalem—despite Israelite attempts to subdue it with arson and slaughter (Judges 1:8)—had continued as the acknowledged 'city of the Jebusites' (Judges 19:11; Joshua 15:8: Chronicles 11:4). (Jebusites were aboriginal Palestinians whose god, Shalem, is memorialized in Jerusalem's last two syllables.)

Because it was central and had no special ties with any Israelite tribal alignments, David considered it as ideal for his capital. His son, Solomon, built it up magnificently. But when his grandson, Rehoboam, ascended the throne, his oppression and extravagance prompted 10 of the 12 tribes to eliminate both Rehoboam and Jerusalem from the Kingdom of Israel (I Kings 12:1-19). Only the tribe of Judah and its tiny satellite, Benjamin, stayed with Jerusalem as their capital, retaining it until the early 6th century B.C. and the Babylonian Exile.

What makes Jerusalem a uniquely Holy City in Jewish, Christian and Muslim thought is not a matter of ethnic claims to political sovereignty. It is the biblical challenge to establish there an ideal community whose lofty standards and glorious relationships would, under God, attract international attention and inspire world peace (Micah 4:1-4; Isaiah 2:2-5; Zechariah 8:8, 16, 17). One incentive so to live was the warning of divine punishment should Jerusalem's leaders and populace sink instead into immorality, corruption, injustice, dishonesty or insensitivity to poverty (II Kings 21:12, 13; Jeremiah 5; 7:17-20; Micah 1:5, 6; 3:9-12; Deuteronomy 28:15; Luke 13:34; 19: 41-44).

Many people throughout the world have accepted the biblical challenge as applicable also to their own communities. Like William Blake, the British poet who, distressed by the Industrial Revolution's "dark, Satanic mills," longed to "build Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land," they strive to make their home cities holy cities in the spirit of the Hebrew prophets.

Psalm 122:6 tells us to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem." This summons both the Israelis and us to conduct ourselves so that our ways shall be "a light to the nations" (Isaiah 42:6, 7).

Lutherans Ask Israel to Stop Expansion

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has called on Israel to halt its construction in (Arab) East Jerusalem and discontinue both expansion into Palestinian areas and closure of Jerusalem to West Bank Palestinians.

The LWF council, meeting in Windhoek, Namibia's capital, on June 27, endorsed the December appeal by Jerusalem Christian leaders that Israel, the U.S. and Russia, as co-sponsors of the peace process, recognize and support the rights of local Christians and members of all other religions to freedom of worship and conscience and to have their own institutions.

The council had learned that growing "fundamentalist" elements in Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities threatened to jeopardize the peace process. It asked its general secretary to continue joint efforts with the World Council of Churches, the Vatican and other confessional bodies to try to reach an ecumenical consensus and combined Christian action in Jerusalem.

Bishop Herbert Chilstrom of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) commented that the LWF statement hoped to help resist "rather dangerous" groups in the U.S. whose views of Jerusalem have been influenced by "strange interpretations of the Bible." He noted that many politicians were "pandering" to such groups by supporting the proposal to switch the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, even though the Israeli government has advised against this step as untimely.

The black rectangles below, which spell out "Peace" in English, Hebrew (Shalom), and Arabic (Salaam), are used on a larger scale throughout the 36-page ELCA Resource on the Middle East. Together they form its tailpiece: singly they serve as separators between sections on "ELCA Involvement in International Issues," "The Interfaith Context," "Basis for ELCA Action on Middle East Concerns" and "Ways to be Involved in Middle East Advocacy and Ministry." They also visually brighten the text of the seven pertinent Lutheran resolutions which are included in appendices.

ELCA is a major distributor of "Toward a Safer Future for The Children of Abraham," the 1995 ecumenical proposal for restructuring U.S. aid to the Middle East. Its quarterly, Global Contact magazine, published at 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago, IL 60631, features Mark Thompsen's "Respectful Relations With Our Muslim Neighbors" in its Summer issue, which contains articles and book reviews which reinforce that theme in and beyond the Middle East.

Fuller Seminary to Host Conference on Mideast Christianity

"Following Christ in the Middle East Today" is to be the theme of the Nov. 3-4 conference to be co-sponsored by Fuller Theological Seminary and Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding (EMEU) in Pasadena, California. The conference will bring top Christian leaders from the Middle East and the United States.

Among the topics to be discussed are "The Future of Christianity in the Middle East," "Spirituality and Mission in the Middle East," "The Future of Christianity in the Middle East" and "Eschatology and the Middle East." (Omitted by the American Heritage paperback Dictionary of the English Language , "eschatology" fills 24 columns in the Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible [Abingdon] with summaries and critiques of the abounding theories and predictions concerning mankind's ultimate future.)

The keynote address will be by Palestinian Father Elias Chacour, founder and president of the 1,540-student Prophet Elias College and 1994 recipient of the World Methodist Peace Award. His remarkably candid yet conciliatory handling of Palestinian dilemmas and relations under Israeli occupation overflows his two volumes, Blood Brothers and We Belong to the Land (see AET Book Club catalog).

He will speak on "We Are The Living Stones," based on I Peter 2:5, which comes to mind for many Palestinians as they watch Israeli tour guides point to the "dead" archeological stones from the Christian past and ignore the present native Christians who are the only basis for the survival of their faith in the Holy Land today. (He also is slated to address the World Methodist Council's 1996 conference in Brazil.)

Other leaders include Dr. Dudley Woodberry and Dr. Art Glasser of the Fuller School of World Missions; David Neff, senior editor of Christianity Today; Dr. Nancy Heidebrecht of Southern California College; the new leader of the Middle East Council of Churches, Dr. Riyad Jarjour, a Syrian Protestant; Dr. Jon Braun, an Antiochian Orthodox evangelical; and Canon Naim Ateek of St. George's Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem, author of Justice and Only Justice (Orbis), which applies Liberation Theology to the Palestine/Israel scene.

For further information, contact Rev. Don Wagner, EMEU, 847 Chicago Ave., #3C, Evanston, IL 60202, phone (708) 733-0901, fax (708) 733-0904, e-mail JericoNow@aol.com

Church Leaders Press for Steps Toward Balkan Peacemaking

Church leaders from Croatia and from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have called on religious communities to "advocate and practice nonviolent methods of struggle" and to "work for a negotiated settlement of all conflicts" in former Yugoslavia, according to Ecumenical Press International.

The Christian leaders warned, in a statement issued after a July 10-11 meeting in Pecs, Hungary, that the political situation in former Yugoslavia had "deteriorated to a point where politicians, religious communities and domestic and international public opinion have become increasingly pessimistic that swift, just and enduring solutions can be found for the continuing conflicts."

Six leaders from the Serbian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed and Methodist Churches in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and six leaders from the Roman Catholic, Baptist and Pentecostal Churches in Croatia took part in the meeting, which was convened by the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the (Roman Catholic) Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE).

They called for an end to the obstruction of humanitarian aid and said that education should "promote tolerance and truthfulness, providing not only an understanding of the past and present but also a capacity to envision and plan for a common future."

"Even if force is being used in self-defense or in defense of others, it may often lead to still greater loss of life and may provoke further violence rather than bringing a swift and lasting solution," according to the statement published by CEC and CCEE.

Some participants in the meeting described themselves as pacifists, but others said that it could appear hypocritical to advocate nonviolence at a time when some or even all parties already were using force. The leaders said that "'neutrality' in mediation should not be carried to the point of evading all condemnation of violations; but one-sided condemnations and lack of self-criticism were seen to be wrong."

Also present were Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Brussels, Metropolitan Michael Staikos of Vienna and Bishop Henrik Svenungsson of Stockholm, who visited Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with a delegation sent by CEC and CCEE in October 1994; the newly appointed general secretary of CCEE, Aldo Giordano; and staff of the Conference of European Churches, the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation.

Rev. L. Humphrey Walz, D.D., retired Associate Executive of the Presbyterian Synod of the Northeast, is active in ecumenical and peacemaking activities.