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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: Christian leaders warn churches about divestment dangers Four Christian leaders from the United States travelled to Toronto last week to warn Canadian churches of the dangers of divesting in Israel and all its anti-Semitic implications. B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights hosted the Christian activists at a press briefing to coincide with a three-day conference on “morally responsible” investment in Israel that took place in Toronto from Oct. 26 to 29. Hosted by Canadian Friends of Sabeel on behalf of the Jerusalem-based Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, the conference brought together an unknown number of registrants, including some from Israel, to explore “the emerging non-violent economic strategies to achieve [a just peace in Israel-Palestine], including shareholder initiatives, partial divestment and boycotts.” Founded about 15 years ago, Sabeel, according to its website, propounds a “Palestinian theology of liberation.” Critics say its leader, Anglican clergyman Canon Naim Ateek, has repeatedly characterized Israel with language invoking Jewish complicity in the crucifixion of Jesus. In July of 2004, the Presbyterian Church USA was the first to pass a resolution to “explore” divestment in Israeli pension funds and in companies which do business in Israel, particularly Caterpillar Inc. and Motorola. Since then, a growing number of mainline American Protestant churches have voted to do the same. Jewish activists say the decisions have hurt relations with churches, but that in other instances, Christians are turning away from the divestment drive. Among the Sabeel conference’s sponsors was the United Church of Canada, the country’s largest Protestant denomination. “We’re here to alert churches in Canada of entertaining a policy like this,” said Sister Ruth Lautt, a Roman Catholic nun and director of Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East, which brings together Catholics and Protestants and is based in New Jersey. “It’s not only about divestment,” she told The CJN. “It’s about hearts and minds and opportunities for propaganda. We’re especially concerned about Sabeel.” Placing the issue in historical context, Lautt said Arabs rejected the two-state solution for which Sabeel calls in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973 and finally in 2000, when Yasser Arafat walked away from the Camp David talks and launched the second intifadah. Ateek has called the creation of Israel “a grievous injustice,” Lautt told reporters, and has repeatedly pointed to the Jewish state as the sole cause of the conflict while failing to hold the Palestinian leadership accountable for its history of violence and its role in fomenting conflict. Referring to Israel as “a Christ-killer is not the language of someone seeking peace and justice,” said Lautt. “After the Holocaust, we all know where that road leads.” Divestment “encourages churches to blame Israel and ignore the Palestinians,” remarked Dexter Van Zile, Christian outreach director for the David Project Center for Jewish Leadership in Boston. Sabeel “encourages anti-Jewish hostility,” he said. Referring to the organization’s repeated attacks against Israel’s security barrier, Van Zile said Sabeel “has nothing to say about the barrier between India and Pakistan, on disputed territory.” Van Zile’s own church, the United Church of Christ, voted to examine divestment soon after last year’s decision by the Presbyterian Church. Rev. Bruce Chilton, an Episcopal (Anglican) priest, said his New York diocese has endorsed investment in both Israel and the Palestinian territories. “The children of Abraham need one another in order to grow into Abraham’s inheritance,” he said. Rev. William Harter, a Presbyterian minister and activist in a number of groups designed to foster Christian-Jewish dialogue, warned that continued divestment campaigns pose “serious risks” and are “unworkable” because they “will hurt Palestinians as much as Israelis, if not more, since the two economies, if they were to be successful, would need to be so closely intertwined.” They also send a symbolic message: “Israel has not done what we insisted and therefore we’re going to take punitive action.” Harter took churches to task for not speaking out against the persecution of Palestinian Christians. And he slammed his own church, saying the passage of last year’s measure on divestment “has sown very deep divisions. There is increasing disaffection across the United States in Presbyterian churches small and large as people gradually become aware of the implications of this for the survival of the Jewish state.” The resolution, which also described Israel as the main impediment to peace without mentioning Palestinian violence, has resulted in “disaffection and decline in support” for the national Presbyterian Church. The measure has also “minimized if not completely eliminated” the possibility of the Presbyterian Church USA’s role as peacemakers in the conflict. Divestment “raises memories of boycotts and is designed to undermine the survival and flourishing of the Jewish state. It has to do with survival…not only for the State of Israel but Jews all over the world. “I alert the Canadian churches to this reality.” Canadian churches have not arrived at policies of divestment. Last year, the Anglican Church of Canada said it had no plans to explore divestment “at this time.” But Jewish communal officials have said they are disturbed at the support of the Sabeel conference by the United Church of Canada. In 2003, the church approved a landmark document – now policy – calling for improved relations with Jews and stating that anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism are “affronts to the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Also in 2003, the United Church signed a sweeping statement against anti-Semitism that was sponsored by major Christian denominations. Ruth Klein of B’nai Brith blasted the Sabeel conference as “blatant propaganda” and a blow to Christian-Jewish relations. “It’s a throwback to a time when anti-Semitism was the core ideology of Christianity,” she said. A handout to reporters quoted Ateek as describing the Israeli government as “modern-day Herods,” and as “a crucifixion system” that is “operating daily.”
Poster Comment: The "Churches" will get what they deserve...
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#2. To: Eoghan (#0)
What a pant load.....
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