NEWS
LET
DR. GLASSMAN
Protestants Want End
To U.S. Aid To Israel
ELENA NEUMAN
Special to The Jewish News
M
ore than 100 church
activists descended
on Capitol Hill this
week to lobby for a sovereign
Palestinian homeland and a
halt to U.S. aid to Israel be-
cause of its recent set-
tlement activity in the ad-
ministered territories.
Known as Washington
Advocacy Days, the three-
day lobbying effort is
thought to be the first public
campaign on these issues by
the American Christian
church establishment.
The program was organiz-
ed by Churches for Middle
East Peace, a joint program
of the central bodies of the
major American church de-
nominations launched in
The Presbyterian
Church USA has
been among the
most consistently
critical of Israel.
1984 to "communicate to
Congress and the executive
branch the perspectives and
concerns reflected in the
policy statements and Mid-
dle East exposure of our de-
nominations and church
agencies."
Washington Advocacy
Days is the latest sign of
what appears to be a grow-
ing trend of pro-Palestinian
activism on the part of chur-
ch groups, particularly
mainline Protestant groups,
that tends to cast Israel in a
negative light.
"This is a most serious at-
tack on Israel," said Dr.
Franklin Littell, a Protes-
tant minister who is nation-
al president of American
Professors for Peace in the
Middle East.
"Washington Advocacy
Days is not a unique effort.
We're getting rumblings
from all over," he said. "It's
a massive campaign.
"These churches have
been an open road for PLO
propaganda for years," he
said. "It's another form of
warfare, and it should be
taken very seriously."
In fact, Jewish organiza-
tions are doing just that, ac-
cording to Rabbi Marc
Tanenbaum, an expert on
Christian-Jewish relations
who is immediate past
chairman of the Interna-
tional Jewish Committee for
Interreligious Consulta-
tions.
"There is anxiety about
this new activity," he said.
"All of the major Jewish
organizations in Washing-
ton have it on their agenda."
Despite the fact that so
many Jewish organizations
are anxious about organized
pro-Palestinian lobbying on
the part of some church
groups, the issue is rarely
discussed publicly.
One reason is a reluctance
to antagonize the Christian
institutions and thereby risk
harming Christian-Jewish
relations. Another is the di-
versity of church groups
themselves.
"It's not all one way or the
other," said Rabbi A. James
Rudin, national inter-
religious affairs director of
the American Jewish Com-
mittee.
"There are some factions
within each denomination
that are committed to the
missionizing concept and the
super-Arab point of view,
and people on the other side
who are strongly committed
to improved Christian-
Jewish relations and are pro-
Israel in orientation," he
said.
The Presbyterian Church
USA has been among the
most consistently critical of
Israel.
According to Rev. Paul
Hopkins, a retired Presby-
terian minister who served
for many years as Middle
East liaison for the Presby-
terian Church USA, it was
the Presbyterian Church
that provided the most
pressure back in 1984 to get
Churches for Middle East
Peace under way.
For over 150 years, the
Presbyterian Church has es-
tablished schools, colleges
and orphanages throughout
the Middle East. The Ameri-
can University in Cairo, Bir
Zeit University in Ramallah
and the American Univer-
sity in Beirut, which has re-
cently been a center for anti-
Israel activity, were all
founded by the Presbyterian
Church.
While the organization did
issue a landmark document
on Christian-Jewish rela-
tions in 1987 which ac-
knowledged the biblical
"promise of land to the peo-
ple of Israel," it has also
taken a number of strongly
pro-Palestinian positions,
some of which have been
adopted by the National
Council of Churches. ❑
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