World

Divesting Faith

Protestant drive to divest from Israel threatens interfaith ties.

RACHEL POMERANCE

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

New York City
s a growing number of
Protestant churches consider
imposing economic sanctions
against Israel, the American Jewish
community is threatening to abandon
interfaith dialogue with mainstream
Protestant groups.
"Any Protestant denomination that
would consider the weapon of econom-
ic sanctions to be unilaterally and prej-
udicially used against the State of Israel,
or those who would hold the State of
Israel to a standard different from any
other sovereign state, creates an envi-
ronment which makes constructive dia-
logue almost impossible," mainstream
Jewish defense groups and the three
main religious streams wrote in an
April 22 letter to Protestant leaders.
The letter is considered the
strongest language that Jewish groups
have used to date on the issue.
The letter "signals a change in the
tone and the tenor of our discourse,"
said Ethan Felson, assistant executive
director of the Jewish Council for
Public Affairs.
The missive comes after a flurry of
recent activity by churches considering
divestment some nine months after a
Protestant group first made it a promi-
nent issue. That was last summer,
when the Presbyterian Church USA
passed a resolution considering a
"selective, phased divestment" of com-
panies that do business with Israel.
The resolution shocked Jewish offi-
cials, who in reaction scurried to step
up interfaith relations. But it also cre-
ated a point of departure for other

A

Sharansky Quits
Israeli Government

DAN BARON
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem
orever the rebel with a cause,
Soviet-refusenik-turned-
democracy-proponent Natan
Sharansky has left the Israeli govern-
ment rather than take part in the
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Sharansky tendered his resignation
as diaspora affairs minister Monday,

Protestant denominations to mull
divestment as a way, they believe, to
promote Mideast peace.
In November 2004, the board of the
Episcopal Church voted to consider
corporate actions against companies
that "contribute to the infrastructure
of Israel's ongoing occupation of the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip," along
with companies that "have connec-
tions to organizations responsible for
violence against Israel."
"The emphasis of this process is not
likely to be divestment," according to
Maureen Shea, the church's director of
government relations.
Two weeks ago, the board of the
United Methodist Church voted to
conduct a yearlong study to consider
divestment. Last week, the United
Church of Christ released resolutions it
will consider at its annual conference
in Atlanta in July; two suggest divest-
ment, while one urges Israel to dis-
mantle its West Bank security barrier.
In a move Jewish groups consider
positive, the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America voted last week for
constructive investment" to partner
with Israeli and Palestinian organiza-
tions that promote peace.
The Protestant pursuit of divest-
ment is not limited to America: The
Geneva-based World Council of
Churches, a predominantly European
consortium, passed a resolution in
February encouraging churches to fol-
low the initiative of the Presbyterian
Church USA and consider divesting
from Israel. The council has member
churches around the world. Many of
the North American groups consider-
ing divestment are affiliated with it.
Many Jewish observers have been

"

stunned by the swirl of activity. "I
think it's one of the stranger things
I've seen," said David Elcott, U.S.
director of interreligious affairs for the
American Jewish Committee. "I don't
understand why this issue would come
up now," when Israel is taking steps
for peace with the Palestinians.
Elcott said the Jewish community
has been "incredibly consistent" in
maintaining interfaith dialogue since
the Presbyterian move. Jewish officials
cite several reasons for the divestment
trend in the Protestant community:
• Protestant churche's are responding
to Palestinian Christians and their
supporters, who believe sanctions will
force Israel to make concessions and
will help the Christians' standing with
Palestinian Muslims.
Churches in the region have sent
representatives to American churches
to tell of Israel's alleged injustices
against Palestinian Christians.
Meanwhile, U.S. church groups that
have visited the region hear a prim ari-
ly anti-Israel narrative.
• Some feel Jewish groups have lagged
in their maintenance of interfaith work.
While Palestinian supporters are advo-
cating their view, "we have not done a
very good job of going into churches
and advocating a counter point of
view," said Rabbi Gary Bretton-
Granatoor, director of interfaith affairs
for. the Anti-Defamation League.
In addition, interfaith dialogue has
focused on what binds the faiths, not
what divides them, said Bretton-
Granatoor. As a result, Protestants and
Jews have not fully explored each
other's views on the Middle East.
"We have never stopped thinking
about Israel as the very center of our

_

May 2, accusing the Sharon govern-
adamantly opposed."
ment of failing to demand Palestinian
Sharon, who lost two right-wing
reform as a prerequisite to peace
coalition partners and a
moves.
Cabinet member from his own
'As you know, I have opposed
Likud Party last year over the
the disengagement plan from
plan to withdraw this summer
the beginning, on the grounds
from Gaza and the northern
that I believe any concessions in
West Bank, took Sharansky's
the peace process must be
Shara nsky walkout in stride. He voiced
linked to democratic reforms
regret at the decision and
within Palestinian society,"
thanked Sharansky for "com-
Sharansky wrote in an open let-
bating anti-Semitism the world
ter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "I
over."
It was not immediately clear who
no longer feel that I can faithfully
serve in a government whose central
would inherit the diaspora affairs
policy — indeed, sole raison d'etre — portfolio. In any event, Sharansky
pledged in his letter, "I will continue
has become one to which I am so

faith, but the Christians don't under-
stand it," he said. "To them, our
attachment to Israel is 19th century
colonialism."
• Many mainstream Protestant
churches; which skew to the left, sub-
scribe to a world view called "libera-
tion theology." They aim to uplift the
"weak and the downtrodden" and they
believe that the Palestinians fill that
role, said Rabbi Irving Greenberg,
president of Jewish Life Network/
Steinhardt Foundation.
Other Christian denominations
have a different perspective.
Evangelicals subscribe to a Christian
Zionist ideology, which calls for the
ingathering of Jews to Israel as a pre-
cursor of Armageddon.
Because Catholics are represented by
the Vatican, they have diplomatic rela-
tions to make their case, and Catholic-
Jewish relations are relatively strong.
Last year, the Vatican issued a joint
statement with Jewish officials calling
anti-Zionism anti-Semitism.
Jewish groups aim to continue
engaging the Protestant community
on grass-roots and national levels and
are seeking voices within the churches
to oppose divestment. A coalition of
Jews and Protestants will meet May 13.
in Washington, and an interfaith mis-
sion to Israel is planned for
September.
"We have had our fingers crossed
and we had done our work pretty
well, I thought;" said Mark Pelavin,
associate director of the Religious
Action Center of Reform Judaism. But
"it appears that we're going to have to
have a broader conversation, denomi-

DIVESTING FAITH on page 28

my lifelong efforts to contribute to
the unity and strength of the Jewish
people both in Israel and in the dias-
pora."
By quitting the Cabinet, Sharansky
effectively finds himself outside of
Israeli politics, because he does not
hold a Knesset seat. But his shift to
private citizen seemed to many to be
a natural move for the author of the
recent best-seller The Case for
Democracy, which U.S. President
George Bush and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice publicly praised.
The Jerusalem Post speculated that
Sharansky would focus on promoting
the book.

5/5

2005

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