Jews and Christians in Dialogue

Dear Friend,

There have been many positive and negative reactions to the PCUSA divestment decision.

One of the best is from our friend, Rabbi Brant Rosen, whose synagogue is in Evanston, IL, He is aligned with Jewish Voices for Peace, progressive Jews who are working to End the Occupation of Palestinian land. He is a friend of KUSA as well.

In his blog, Rabbi Rosen summarizes the stiff opposition by mainline Jewish establishment organizations and leaders. He (and JVP) is being vilified by fellow Jews, yet is on the right side of God and history on this call.

To view his blog, go to Shalom Rav (your search engine), and read his post! Click on his link for the full message. Thank you Brant Rosen!

BTW, when Brant talks about a "new model", he means the end of the "old model" of relationships with Jewish neighbors, the model that permitted no criticism of Israeli State policies. That model is dead!

We will be working with KUSA to bring him to W. MI in the days ahead. Please put our first meeting on your calendar, July 8, 7:00 p.m. downstairs at the Holland Public Library. JRK for KUSA - Holland Commmunity

Presbyterian Debate Divestment in Detroit

Dear Friend,
The Presbyterian Church (PC/USA) will be voting later this week on divesting Pension funds from Hewlett-Packard, Caterpillar, and Motorola, companies profiting from the Occupation of Palestinian land.

Watch for results by this Saturday.

Here is an op-ed that appeared in today's edition of the daily newspaper in my hometown of Holland, MI, the Holland Sentinel.

Note that YOU are invited to the kickoff of the (new) KUSA-Holland community, on Tuesday night, July 8, 7:00 p.m. in the (lower) auditorium of the Holland Public Library. We will learn more about the destruction of the 1,500 fruit trees on the Nasser farm (Tent of Nations), in a national network of evangelical and ecumenical Christians, KUSA (the response to Kairos Palestine call for help.

(The headline was "Church Should Divest from Israel" which totally missed the point of the article. Read it and you'll see!). JRK

Presbyterians Debate Divestment at General Assembly

A Brief Overview/Summary by John Kleinheksel, KUSA-Holland Community

I want to cut through the rhetorical clutter swirling around the debate to divest in Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and Caterpillar. It’s going on now in Detroit at the biennial General Assembly meeting.

The Israeli/Palestinian Mission Network, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and MRTI (the church’s advisory group on Church Pension investments) are urging divestment of Pension Funds from these companies that are “profiting from” and enabling the occupation of Palestinian land.

That the PCUSA has a long history of making these moral decisions on investment monies and that after 10 years of meetings with the three companies, they have shown no willingness to end business dealings with the Israeli government.

On Friday, June 13, a letter was sent to each of the GA commissioners urging them to vote against divestment because such a vote would imply that Presbyterians would be denying the right of Israel to exist!
Kairos Palestine (KPalestine in 2009) got all the diverse Christians in Palestine to “call for help” in righting wrongs.

Kairos USA (KUSA) picked up that “Call to Action” and seeks to enlist evangelical and ecumenical Christians to join their Palestinian brothers and sisters, demanding an end to discriminatory actions by the Israeli government. (Disclosure: “Friends of Palestinians and Israelis”)-FPI will be forming a KUSA-Holland MI chapter on July 8, beginning in the Holland Public Library, at 7:00 p.m, as we learn more about the destruction of 1,500 fruit trees at the Nasser (Tent of Nations) farm on May 19, 2014 by government forces, illegally, (with help from a modified D-9 Caterpillar bulldozer!)

The PC (USA) came within two votes of passing a similar divestment overture/recommendation at their 2012 General Assembly. My sense is that the momentum to divest has been growing, not diminishing and that the so-called “moderates” will not prevail. Moderates claim the divestment proponents leave no room for the State of Israel! Divestment proponents claim they want an end to human rights abuses, not the end of the Israeli State!

By now, you can see where my sentiments lay. “Moderation” (all talk and no bite) has been going on for over 60 years and the Occupation has strengthened, not diminished. I came kicking and screaming into the BDS movement years ago, convinced that because it worked in South Africa, it can work in I/P in the face of conditions that rival what blacks and coloreds faced in South Africa.

Hearts and minds are on display in Detroit this week. What is the Spirit saying to the churches?

More Destruction

Dear Friends

Daoud Nasser is a friend at Tent of Nations, the West Bank, seeking to maintain a nonviolent presence in the midst of Israeli encroachment. Here is his message that came early this morning:

Tent of Nations / Nassar Farm

Today at 08.00, Israeli bulldozers came to the fertile valley of the farm where we planted fruit trees 10 years ago, and destroyed the terraces and all our trees there. More than 1500 apricot and apple trees as well as grape plants were smashed and destroyed.

We informed our lawyer who is preparing the papers for appeal. Please be prepared to respond. We will need your support as you inform friends, churches and representatives when action is needed. Please wait for the moment and we will soon let you know about next steps and actions.

Thank you so much for all your support and solidarity.

Blessings and Salaam,
Daoud

Dear Friend,
Soon, I will be issuing a call for a Kairos Community to be formed here in the Holland, MI area, for us to come alongside each other, to be part of a growing network of advocacy and action groups seeking justice for Palestinians and security for Israelis. We/I will be working with Kairos USA, the follow-up response to Kairos Palestine, the call from Palestinian Christians for support in their journey toward greater justice. I'm not content to continue with just a "listserv". We need to be linked with others, in churches and communities around the nation. KUSA is the vehicle I've chosen to allow this to happen.

KUSA now has a couple of organizers and will be working with so-called ecumenical and evangelical churches. Pray with me for this. JRK

US Caves In, Again

Dear Friend,

I'm asking you to read and ponder these wise words from Rami Khouri, a Palestinian Christian who writes 2x/week in the Daily Star, a Lebanese newspaper.

Sec. Kerry was caught in an unguarded moment, speaking truth to the Trilateral Council, movers and shakers in New York city. Word got out to our friends, the Israelis. "Don't you remember? You're not supposed to ever use the "A" word in public parlance".

Secretary Kerry: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. We will continue to unequivocally support the Occupation. We will keep informing people that all is well. Israel is NOT moving in the direction of enthroning its JEWISH identity in all the land. There is NO danger of any further discrimination against the native inhabitants of the land. Please totally disregard what I mistakenly uttered to these folks in NY city."

Now read what Rami Khoury has written, and form your own conclusions:

Israel shows Zionism’s true colors
April 23, 2014
By Rami G. Khouri
The Daily Star

This week, the Israeli Transportation Ministry announced that it would establish designated bus routes for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, allowing Jewish Israelis to travel on buses without Palestinians.

Some months ago, the Israeli government started discussing a bill in parliament that would identify Palestinian Christians with Israeli citizenship as “non-Arabs.” These are among the continuing actions by the state of Israel that cause more and more people around the world to roll their eyes in disbelief – for they see Israel slowly turning into an apartheid-like state that plays with the demography of its citizens and those under its occupation, in order to enhance the well-being of the politically dominant Zionist and Jewish majority.

The Israeli government and others who support such moves offer various reasons to support them, claiming that they are in the best interest of the affected minority. The more logical conclusion that most people will reach, I suspect, is that five generations after its birth in the late 1800s, modern political Zionism is showing its racist roots, as it finds it increasingly difficult to keep working for its basic tenet of a Jewish-only state in a land that had been mostly owned and inhabited by Muslims and Christians for many centuries.

The consequence of trying to create a Jewish state in such an environment is that those millions of people who are not Jewish either have to be isolated and penned into restricted zones of residence, work and travel, according to apartheid-like rules, or else detached from their non-Jewish compatriots and enticed into the Zionist endeavor. The latter is what happened to the Druze population in Israel, which Israel has tried with some success to separate from the rest of the Palestinian population that ended up with Israeli citizenship after 1948.

The creation of bus routes for Palestinians alongside other routes that Jewish Israelis and settlers use will certainly strengthen criticisms of Israel and expand the circles of those who condemn it for conducting policies that are very reminiscent of how apartheid South Africa treated its black and colored citizens. The Israeli government argues that bus routes for Palestinians are for their own good and will ease congestion, while also lowering tensions between Palestinians and Israelis using the same buses.

This sounds alarmingly like what was said about separate services for American or South African blacks half a century ago. It was no accident that last year when some Palestinians in the West Bank wanted to challenge the practice of roads built in the occupied territories for use by Jewish Israelis only, they called themselves the Palestinian “Freedom Riders” – reviving the name of those American whites and blacks in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s who rode together on intercity buses that previously had refused to carry blacks.

The growing analogies between Zionism and apartheid understandably anger Israelis, who understand very well that heretofore ironclad support for Israel in many countries would weaken. The growing criticisms in this respect have started to spawn political responses by foreign actors. Various governments, professional associations, churches, student groups and others have started to apply sanctions, divestment or boycott measures to Israeli or international institutions that can be verified as benefiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. This limited trend keeps growing and has increasingly penetrated mainstream institutions. It is no longer a fringe movement of Palestinian activists and their politically marginal colleagues here and there.

Separating Palestinian Christians from other Palestinians and operating bus lines only for Arabs will make it easier for people around the world, including Jews who feel strongly about Judaism’s ethical core, to speak out clearly, forcefully and in public in criticism of such Israeli actions. This will also spur greater examination of Israeli behavior in other fields. Some people who have no knowledge of Israel and Palestine or interest in the matter may speak out against Israel, because they feel powerful disgust and fear when they see people classified, separated and treated differently on the basis of religion.

A white South African rabbi who recently spoke at a Palestinian Christian liberation theology conference I attended in the U.S. eloquently recounted the precise moment when his previously total support for Israel transformed into criticisms of it. It was when he saw “Jews-only” streets in occupied Hebron that were cleansed of Palestinian Arabs and patrolled by the Israeli army. The sight reminded him of the horrors of his own South African apartheid years.

We will see more such reactions to these latest extreme Israeli moves in the months ahead. Some people will conclude that Israel is veering off into strange and dangerous paths, and others will suggest that it is merely showing the heretofore hidden true colors of Zionism.

Rami G. Khouri is published twice weekly by THE DAILY STAR. He can be followed @RamiKhouri.

Revisiting Lydda: A Passover/Easter Story!

Dear Friend,

My 102 1/2 year old mother died on Thursday. I'm reflecting on family values to speak at her funeral this coming Monday, April 14, 2014.

A friend from I/P (Salim Munayer, from MUSALAHA), shares the attached story about his father, Yacoub, who was visited by Joseph Ben-Eliezer, part of the military detachment in 1948 that drove out the Palestinians who were living there, to make way for the State of Israel.

I'm attaching two things:

1) Salim Munayer's introduction to a 12 minute MUST SEE video of Joseph Ben-Eliezer's visit to Salim's father Yacoub, in Lydda (Lod) with the link to the YouTube video; and,

2) My review of Ari Shavit's chapter on Lydda in his book, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. (For a copy, ask me for it at The man who reached out to bless my father: The story of Joseph Ben-Eliezer

I recently wrote the forward to a book, which was translated into Arabic, about the life of Joseph Ben-Eliezer. This is a story that I have been asked to share many times. It is a story about an act of forgiveness and reconciliation. In his book, Ben-Eliezer, a Jewish follower of Jesus shares about his suffering at the hands of the Nazis during the horrifying events of World War II, his journey to the land and fighting in the war of 1948. His unit served in Lydda, where many atrocities were committed against the people of this town. Years later, Ben-Eliezer returned to the land to seek forgiveness from my father, Yacoub Munayer, a Palestinian from Lydda. These two men are no longer living with us today, but they are examples and role models for all of us. Their stories are not easy to tell because it speaks of the painful histories of our peoples in this land. Yet, at the same time their stories give a vision for the future, and hope and encouragement to those of us working in reconciliation.


I would like to honor both Joseph Ben-Eliezer and my father Yacoub Munayer by sharing with you the video Crossroads at Lod that Joseph Ben-Eliezer’s family has provided. May it be a blessing to all this coming Passover and Easter! [Salim Munayer, from MUSALAHA]

To view the short video clip about Joseph Ben-Eliezer and Yacoub Munayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQHyKY_Z-T4 (Don't forget my review of Shavit's take on Lydda, in the attachment below, to which the video is an illustration!)

John Kleinheksel for FPI (There is no PEACE without JUSTICE; there is no justice without LOVE).

Beware of Taking Pity on the Enemy!

Beware of Taking Pity on the Enemy!

Israelis have experienced a new Exodus in the 20th century. Palestinians are still seeking their Moses for the 21st century.

There are many ways to frame an Exodus from oppression to freedom. Reading the lectionary for today (April 4, 2014) brought to my mind one way of seeing how Moses emerged as a leader for the Israelites of old. (Will it happen for today’s Palestinians?)

Pharaoh’s Empire dictated the elimination of alien Hebrews from the land. (Besides, the Hebrews were a demographic bomb waiting to go off – Ex.1:8-10) Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you [midwives] shall throw into the Nile (Ex. 1:22).

Turns out Pharaoh’s daughter acts against Empire rules! She is bathing in the Nile, spies a basket in the bulrushes, hears the cries of what is surely a Hebrew baby, and tragedy of tragedies, takes pity on him. A crying, vulnerable, abandoned baby boy, obviously in peril, comes right “in her face”.


She immediately knew it “must be one of the Hebrews’ children” (Ex. 2:6b). Was there a crisis of conscience for her? Did she agonize over what she should do? Did she know the official position of the Empire?

She subverts Dad’s stated policy. Instead of destroying the threat, she takes the enemy into her own home! An enemy with access to the levers of power. Bad mistake!

Compassion is the beginning of the End of Empire domination! Compassion overturns oppression. (Is there a Palestinian insider, now outsider, poised to confront Empire? Israelis are keeping someone like Marwan Barghouti in prison for a reason. Why did the Afrikaners ever let Nelson Mandela out of prison? Like Barghouti, Moses was guilty of killing someone in the oppressor class. He was surely a persona non grata if and when operating in Egypt. Yet Moses was a “freedom-fighter”. Although he was not invited back, he went back to where his violent past haunted him, seeking a different, nonviolent way, just as Mr. Barghouti, Fatah and the younger leadership has renounced violence and want to return to help their people).

There is much debate over acts of compassion vs. judicial acts to overturn systemic injustice. I maintain both are needed. This episode shows that the beginning of the journey from oppression to freedom begins in an act of compassion. Pharaoh’s daughter, disobeying Empire’s edict by giving in to mercy, begins Empire’s downfall. Moses matures from seeking violent overthrow of injustice to nonviolent resistance to his people’s oppression. But it all started when he was brought into the heart of Empire by Pharaoh’s daughter’s act of rebellion. She disobeyed the sign that read: “Don’t go there. Let them rot in a watery grave. This is our land. There is no room for aliens, strangers, undesirables who will eventually overwhelm us”.

She should have known better. Foolish girl! She should have known there is no room in the Empire for compassion. When you show any mercy, it is the beginning of the End. Shame on you, daughter!

Israel Attacks Anti-Christian Zionists!

Dear Friend,

Today, an even greater and more successful anti-Christian Zionist conference comes to a close at Bethlehem Bible College.

The "Christ at the Crossroads" has had many iterations (the most recent in Philadelphia just before last Christmas).

The new thing is that it has caught the attention of Israeli authorities, who fear it will cut into one of their staunchest sources of support: Christian Zionists in the US.

A Christian Palestinian, Daoud Kattub, discusses the brouhaha in the attached link I'm sending. Check it out.

I'm also attaching a piece I did for a class I taught at "my congregation" a few years ago. It is a summation of Gary Burge's book debunking Christian Zionism. (Those not on my listserv, please request a copy at "friendsforpeace8atgmail.com")

To say (with Christian Zionists) that the present State of Israel has all the land deeded to them by God is a gross misreading of the Old and New Testament scriptures and must be exposed as heretical at every crossroads imaginable. Thank you, friends "At the Crossroads" for what you are doing! JRK

Here is the link:

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/03/christ-conference-evangelical-christian-palestine.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+%5BEnglish%5D&utm_campaign=09102cc0bc-January_9_20141_8_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-09102cc0bc-102307945