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How does the Palestine Israel Network work to sharpen, sign on to, and amplify letters and actions that support justice and human rights for Palestinians? Here is one illustration.
The Christian Century published an editorial on June 1 entitled “Is there any hope for a just peace in Israel and Palestine." They concluded not much and that the “two-state solution” was the only faint and viable possibility. Jeff Wright, a retired pastor of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) who currently serves as a volunteer Disciples/UCC Global Services Worker appointed to Kairos Palestine, was deeply disappointed in Christian Century’s Opinion. Unwilling to let it go without a response he drafted an OpEd submission dated June 16 and sent it to organizational members of Global Kairos for Justice and the different PINs (Episcopal Peace Fellowship, Mennonite, UCC, as well as Methodist and Presbyterian), soliciting their edit suggestions.
The draft opinion piece expressed shock at Christian Century’s statement that “When US Christians talk about Israel and Palestine, we should… recognize that we’re guests in someone else’s conversation…” If guests, we certainly speak loudly with $3.8 billion in annual support of the State of Israel. This draft OpEd added that a Christian can never be an outsider to suffering. The Christian stands with Jesus and others to protect those who suffer violence and injustice.
The draft submission expressed disturbance that the Christian Century would assert Israel’s “right to exist in the Holy Land as a Jewish State.” What about the 20% of the country who are not Jews? Do they not count? Ethnic cleansing has existed there since the State’s beginning in 1948 and continues today, particularly in East Jerusalem. In fact Christian Century’s own editorial ran with the May 15 photograph of Sheikh Jarrah “where six Palestinian families are under threat of forcible eviction from their homes.” The draft disagreed with the whole premise of the editorial that the two-state solution was the “only viable way forward.” One-state or two-state, the submission said, is merely a distraction from the settler-colonialism that is blockading and appropriating Palestinian lands and resources such as water. Finally, the draft OpEd argued, the Christian Century is behind the times. The discourse of the nation and Christianity itself is shifting. After the attack on Gaza in May, for instance, more Democrats, especially among young voters, support justice for Palestinians over support for the State of Israel. (Mondoweiss, 7/31/21). B’Tselem in Israel and Human Rights Watch have both this year identified Israel as an apartheid state.
Jeff Wright’s draft submission came to the Communications with Allies and Friends Work Group (CAF) of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s Palestine Israel Network (PIN). This group reviewed the OpEd and had an opportunity to provide comments. CAF recommended the letter to the Steering Committee of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s Palestine Israel Network (PIN) for endorsement. Thirteen other Christian groups signed on. But word reached further. Nine other faith groups including Jewish and Muslim endorsed the piece. Theresa Basile of United Methodist Kairos Response gave cogent input. The final OpEd was sent to the Christian Century on June 23 with, as Jeff and Theresa observed, “twenty-three diverse justice groups, faith communities and other organizations (joining) their voices in this effort!” The quality of the signers and endorsers gave the OpEd significant weight. Though the Christian Century declined to publish this OpEd even on their online site, there was a significant ripple-effect. It was published on various group’s Facebook pages including EPF PIN’s. Mondoweiss (“an independent website devoted to informing readers about developments in Israel/Palestine and related US foreign policy”) also published the OpEd under the title “The Christian call for ‘just peace’ must be rooted in justice for Palestine."
The final June 23 OpEd to the Editor at Christian Century included input from allies and friends noting the “spirited conversation within the global Jewish community regarding the character and future of the State of Israel.” Comments from endorsers also referred to Christian Zionists who “make up the largest pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., blindly supporting Israeli policies while ignoring the suffering of Palestinians.” No matter that a proportion (shrinking) of Palestinians is Christian.
The Editor of Christian Century replied (though not in its publication) to this submitted OpEd. On July 3, Peter Marty referenced this “dwindling Christian community” within the pain of the whole region that is very real to the editors of the magazine and any who “have a heart for the land and people there.” He asserted that the editors have eyes wide open to the historic suffering of Jewish people, continuing antisemitism, and what they term as “growing” Palestinian extremist movements seeking the complete eradication of the State of Israel. As a result of this historic suffering, unspoken is the U.S. Christian need for forgiveness and moral integrity given in exchange for support of the State of Israel, sometimes known as the ecumenical deal. Finally, the Editor of the Christian Century gives prominent place to the complexity of the issues and the deep enmities that have paralyzed the peace process. It may in fact be less complexity and more intentionality that has obstructed peace. University of Pennsylvania political scientist Ian Lustick declares, “the fate of the peace process depended on Israel’s curtailment of its own ambitions to dominate the entire area between the Jordan River and the sea” (Paradigm Lost, p.17). As if to confirm Lustick’s analysis, Tel Aviv University months later closed its Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research. Editor Peter Marty concludes his response: “we pray for peace in these suffering times and live in hope and solidarity with the many who live under occupation.”
Such is the process in which the Communications with Allies and Friends Work Group (CAF) engages all the time. We advise the Steering Committee of the EPF’s Palestine Israel Network that is part of a wide network standing against injustice wherever it appears with particular reference to the cries of Palestinians. We seek to support one another and receive the backing of others in our own efforts in speaking to the Episcopal Church.
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