Washington Report, December 1988, Page 18

Religion and the Middle East

By the Rev. L. Humphrey Walz

Attempt to Shoot Down Canon's "Balm" Report

"Is there no balm in Gilead?" To the Rev. Michael Hamilton those words from Jeremiah 8:22 suggested the title for his report in the Episcopalian on his fact-seeking travels in Jordan, Israel, and the occupied territories—all of which border on biblical Gilead and all of which need a healing touch.

A canon in Washington Cathedral, Hamilton is active with Jews, Christians, and Muslims of the US Committee for Peace in the Middle East, so his closing paragraph is not surprising:

"Both Israelis and Palestinians have suffered and delivered great hurts, and both have elements of justice in their goals. Both need our sympathetic understanding and support so they can rise above their self-concern and see the wounds they have inflicted on each other. That is the kind of ministry the churches should be working on. Then, with the help of nations friendly to each of the parties, peace can be negotiated."

Award to Mubarak Awad

The annual nationwide Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference at Montreat, SC, October 17 to 20 presented a special award to Mubarak Awad for "outstanding embodiment of our conference theme: building communities of hope and justice in the family of God."

Dr. Awad, the Palestinian-born American founder and leader of the Center for the Study of Non-Violence in Jerusalem, told conference participants that "the chief enemies of the Palestinians are not Israelis but the mutual fears and distrust that keep our region in turmoil."

To correct this situation, he said, a first step would be to teach conflict resolution and negotiation in all Israeli schools, both Jewish and Arab. To be effective, this would require follow-up in peace-related consultations and projects involving both Israelis and Palestinians. Curriculum, training, salaries, books, games, and overhead would bring the dollar costs up into the millions. These could be more than covered, he figures, simply by assigning 2 percent of undesignated annual US military aid to Israel to peace-engendering purposes.

Awad's June 14 deportation from his native Jerusalem on orders from Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has been variously explained. Israeli officials said they had received reports accusing Awad of "receiving funds from foreign terrorist groups" (his US Lutheran, Mennonite, and Presbyterian supporters?). They declared the resistance Awad inspired against the military occupation of the West Bank, while non-violent, constituted "a security risk."

After his arrest on the night of May 5 by 18 Israeli soldiers who took him to jail, where he was held until his deportation, the only official charge was that he had overstayed the time limits on his Israeli visa in his American passport. His Jerusalem identification card, the Israeli authorities told US officials who tried to prevent Awad's expulsion, had been invalidated by his years of residence in America.

Intifadah's Interfaith Impact

Though a dominant topic of much table talk and corridor conversation at the 1988 International Interfaith Conference of Christians and Jews in Montreal, the Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied territories was not on the official docket of that event. Nor was it even mentioned in the open meetings there. This, observed Israeli participant Haim Shapiro, seemed to have come about by common consent.

The official silence on so crucial a theme apparently resulted in part from organizers' concern that public statements giving support to either side in the conflict could strain relations between Christians and Jews globally. Comments by Dr. John Berthrong of the United Church of Canada's Program for Interfaith Dialogue reflected similar apprehensions.

Hebrew University alumnus Mohammed Hourani, one of the few Muslims in attendance, brought a rather different perspective for which no platform was provided. He sees the Palestinian unrest and the Israeli self styled "iron fist policy" as offering special challenges to Arabs and Jews to start speaking more seriously together on the moral fundamentals of their respective faiths, and other topics affecting them both.

In Israel itself, the conflict seems to be stirring up greater efforts among those Christians, Jews, and Muslims who have been struggling to improve relations between their communities. The Israel Interfaith Association (IIA), for one, reported increased attendance at last summer's seminars not only among Third World clergy but also among Jewish and Arab teachers on "education for coexistence." However, financial support—largely from American, Dutch, and German churches—for these and other IIA projects has been drying up.

Could this be due to intifadah-related events? Perhaps. Dr. Simon Schoon of the Association of Christians and Jews in Holland notes that at one time his compatriots tended to imagine Israel as a country which could do no wrong, but "suddenly all that fell down."

Church Texts on Middle East Available

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has been making statements on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict ever since its war-delayed founding in 1948. Even earlier, the Vatican and ecumenical agencies which were eventually merged into the WCC, as well as leaders of Middle East churches, had been warning against the troubles that have subsequently developed.

American church emphasis was initially placed on cooperative aid for Palestinian refugees. But it became increasingly obvious that unless US and UN policies could be clarified, the flow of escapees and expellees would never end, and new problems would inevitably arise for all concerned. Consequently, studiously prepared position papers were increasingly assigned to WCC committees of experts.

Israel's 1967 incursions into the Syrian Golan Heights, Egyptian Sinai, West Bank, and Gaza Strip brought new intensity, depth, and numbers to denominational pronouncements for Middle East peace with justice. So did Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the 1985 bombing of civilians in Tunis. Meanwhile, the 1973 Syrian-Egyptian military strike to recover the provinces lost in 1967 was only stopped by a US airlift of some $2.4 billion in tax-financed armaments to the Israeli forces. This financial drain and the consequent Arab oil embargo made the American public readier to accept church declarations on US-Middle East relations.

In this framework, Robin Madrid assembled a 1985 collection of Statements and Position Papers of Major American Organizations on Middle East Peace. Amplified and updated, a revised edition is now available in paperback from Washington Middle East Associates, 918 16th St., NW, Suite 501, Washington, DC 20006, for $4. Its 112 pages contain official documents from 20 denominations and church-related bodies—all of whom come out in support of self-determination for Palestinians. Eleven of the groups state that the PLO must be included in peace negotiations, seven advocate the right of Palestinian refugees to return home or be compensated for losses, 10 oppose arms sales to the region, and eight are against the establishment or maintenance of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. None of the statements oppose any of these propositions.

Most of the churches on record belong to the National Council of Churches, which backs all five propositions. Some of the statements also refer to Libya, Pakistan, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Iran-Iraq hostilities, and Israeli-South African collaboration. Resolutions by significant secular bodies and the New Jewish Agenda are also included.

The Rev. L. Humphrey Walz, D.D., retired associate executive of the Presbyterian Synod of the Northeast, is active in denominational and ecumenical peacemaking movements.