United Methodists Urge Boycott of Certain Israelis Products

Dear Friend, Thank you for your prayers for our congregation's classes on Kairos Palestine. We concluded last Sunday but many have asked for follow up work with "Christian" Zionism, which will begin this Sunday. (Rm 169, viewing WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE, and discussion) Last Sunday's class included a brief statement by retired RCA General Secretary the Rev. Ed Mulder, who gave a brief history of the General Synod (RCA) calling for divesting from companies profiting from the South African Apartheid government. Although the United Methodists voted against divesting from Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Motorola, they did go on record calling for a boycott of Israeli products generated on (stolen) land in the West Bank. I'm including the opening paragraphs from James Wall weekly blog, giving us the story. For the complete blog go to: http://wallwritings.me/2012/05/03/methodists-boycott-settlement-products/ Methodists Boycott Settlement Products by James M. Wall A strong majority of lay and clerical delegates to the United Methodist General Conference called this week for a boycott of Israeli companies operating in Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The resolution denounces the Israeli occupation and the settlements in a sweeping indictment. It calls for “all nations to prohibit the import of products made by companies in Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.” That was not an easy vote. It also was an important victory for anti-occupation forces in Tampa since it calls attention to one of three actions in the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that Palestinians have adopted as a non-violent way to attack the occupation. The vote on a resolution calling for the UMC to divest its pension funds from three US Corporations, Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Motorola Systems, was brought to the floor on Wednesday afternoon. That resolution was a long shot from the outset. It lost after a series of votes that ended in a final 685 to 246 decision that the UMC would continue to finance the occupation. One loss and one victory will prepare the United Methodist Church to take the next step in ending United Methodist support for the occupation. Like the segregated church it was until 1964, the United Methodist church can change. -- John www.friendsofpalestiniansandisraelis.blogspot.com

Bishop Tutu's Letter supporting UMs

Here is the letter from Archbishop Tutu (with thanks to the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the PCUSA for bringing it to our attention). http://www.rabbisletter.org/endorsement-by-south-african-archbishop-demond-tutu/ Endorsement by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu 26 April 2012 Dear Friends of the United Methodist Church, The situation in Israel and Palestine pains me greatly since it is the place where God formed a very particular relationship with a particular group of people; Hebrews who were oppressed as slaves in another land. As time moved on, this people disobeyed God and time and time again the prophets had to call them back to their deepest values. The Jewish Holocaust, engineered and implemented primarily by Europeans, gave some ideologues within the Jewish and Christian community an excuse to implement plans that were in the making for at least 50 years, under the rubric of exceptional Jewish security. In this way began the immense oppression of the Palestinian people, who were not at all involved in the Holocaust. Not only is this group of people being oppressed more than the apartheid ideologues could ever dream about in South Africa, their very identity and history are being denied and obfuscated. What is worse, is that Europe and the USA are refusing to take responsibility for their actions with regard to both the Holocaust and the over-empowering of the Israelis, their disregard for the international conventions and regulatory framework of the nuclear industry and their continued oppression of the Palestinian people. But God, who is the same yesterday, today and forever, neither slumbers nor sleeps. Prophetic voices have been calling this empowered people who were once oppressed and killed, to their deepest values of justice and compassion, but they have refused to listen even to the most reasonable voices. The human community cannot be silent in the face of the gross injustice being meted out to the people of Palestine. If international courts and governments refuse to deal with this matter, we in the churches and in the rest of civil society really have no choice but to act in small ways and big ways. God is busy doing a new thing. And God is using all of us to be partners with him. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians have to be liberated, but at this stage the greater onus is on the Israelis since they are the ones who are in power, economically, politically and militarily. We have to think about ways that will allow them to reflect deeply on what it is that they are doing and bring them back from the brink, not out of spite or revenge, but because we love them deeply. I therefore wholeheartedly support your action to disinvest from companies who benefit from the Occupation of Palestine. This is a moral position that I have no choice but to support, especially since I know of the effect that Boycotts, Disinvestment and Sanctions had on the apartheid regime in South Africa. May God bless your conference as you deliberate on this matter, and I pray that your decision will reflect the best values of the human family as we stand in solidarity with the oppressed. God bless you. Archbishop-Emeritus Desmond Tutu Cape Town, South Africa. At this Sunday's class, I've asked the Rev. Ed Mulder, retired General Secretary of the Reformed Church in America, to share with the class how the RCA travelled down the road of divestment and sanctions in the 1980's to bring the South African government to their senses and roll back the Apartheid system that had been disenfranchising the indigenous people of the land. It seems clear that the RCA will not be in the lead in this divestment fight, but you will be on the edge of your seat as you listen to the opposition the RCA faced in getting this through the General Synod of the RCA. Sincerely yours, JRK

Christians Get Their Story Out to the World

Dear Friend of Palestinians and Israelis, Passions are being stirred. I knew about it but failed to urge my class to see CBS run a segment on 60 Minutes last Sunday night on CHRISTIANS IN THE HOLY LAND. (We were running late and I didn't check my "to do" list). Many of you have seen it. Israel's attempts (through her Ambassador Oren) to squelch the story of how Palestinian Christians are faring in Isr/Pal failed. Here is the link for you to listen to and see the story. http://www.cbs.com/primetime/60_minutes/video/?pid=KC_VQD_ijs7ub6AoWFWbBNlnmbM3zkkD&vs=Default&play= (This is the whole 42 minute program. The relevant segment is the second of the three stories). Christians in Isr/Pal have spoken out in the KAIROS PALESTINE document we are studying. Sixty copies were gobbled up by persons coming to the class April 15 and 22. This Sunday we will discuss "WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?" (10:15, the Chapel). As you may know, the Presbyterians and the United Methodists will be considering resolutions urging their Board of Pensions to divest from companies that are profiting from the Occupation. Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has published a letter sent to the United Methodists by a group of Rabbis, Cantors and Rabbinic students in support of these actions. Here are the last two paragraphs of the letter from the Rabbis: To advocate for an end to an unjust policy is not anti-Semitic. To criticize Israel is not anti-Semitic. To invest your own resources in corporations which pursue your vision of a just and peaceful world, and to withdraw your resources from those which contradict this vision, is not anti-Semitic. There is a terrible history of actual anti-Semitism perpetrated by Christians at different times throughout the millennia and conscientious Christians today do bear a burden of conscience on that account. We can understand that, with your commitment to paths of peace and justice, it must be terribly painful and inhibiting to be accused of anti-Semitism. In fact, many of us in the Jewish community recognize that the continuing occupation of Palestine itself presents a great danger to the safety of the Jewish people, not to mention oppressing our spirits and diminishing our honor in the world community. We appreciate the solidarity of people of conscience in pursuing conscientious nonviolent strategies, such as phased selective divestment, to end the occupation. [signed by 26 rabbis, a cantor and rabbinic students. Read the whole letter at www.rabbisletter.org] Today, I (JRK again) received a copy of a letter to the United Methodists from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the hopeful Christian who helped turn the tide against the Apartheid government in South Africa. He writes the letter to SUPPORT the Rabbis urging divestment. In clear and compelling words, he urges United Methodists (and other churches) to support the letter written by the Rabbis.

There Can Be No Doubt

Thank you for your prayers for the Isr/Pal Adult class at Christ Memorial, finishing up this coming Sunday (10:15 in The Chapel). Last week, friend Lowey Dickason gave a report on her recent Christian Peacemaker Team stint in Isr/Pal with personal anecdotes. Habeeb Awad spoke about being a Palestinian in the US and the inane questions posed to him as a college student at one of our Reformed Church schools. We are trying to listen to the claims of both sides. This Sunday we will discuss "Where Do We Go From Here?", a variety of actions that will include reflections from Rev. Ed Mulder, head of the RCA when the Gen. Synod went on record supporting divestment from companies doing business in S. Africa at the height of the Apartheid administration of our Reformed church cousin Mr. de Klerk. We are listening to the call for help from Palestinian Christians, contained in KAIROS PALESTINE, inspiring a Kairos USA movement that is taking off later this year. One of the sticking points to further negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians is the insistence by the Netanyahu government on expanding its colonization of Palestinian land in the "West Bank", which demonstrates beyond any doubt that Israel has NO INTENTION of stopping the establishment and expansion of settlements on land that belongs (by international consensus) to the Palestinians. Friends, this is a serious matter and calls for serious nonviolent responses. Martin Luther King Jr called for the dismantling of the system of "segregation" in the US and asked his friends to boycott buses and businesses that engaged in discriminatory practices. There were some in his movement that were "violent" but it did not dissuade him from taking nonviolent action himself and responsible followers. Even though he was assassinated, the Civil Rights Act came into being and blacks became more enfranchised than ever before. This was a good thing. Let's allow for the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu has to keep his settler wing coalition from falling. But it is the settler mentality that is driving Israeli politics now and outside pressure must be applied for any substantial changes to come about. We cannot expect the US government to initiate this action. Nor the Congress, completely in the thrall of the Israeli lobby. If it is to happen, it must come from Christians and Muslims who let their pocket books do the talking. Truly yours, JRK Israel legalizes West Bank settler outposts Amy Teibel Associated Press April 24, 2012 - 12:00am http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/israel-legalizes-west-bank-settler-outposts... JERUSALEM — Israel legalized three unsanctioned West Bank settler outposts and was trying to save another on Tuesday, infuriating the Palestinians as the chief American Mideast envoy was in the region laboring to revive peace efforts. The decision fueled suspicions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline coalition would try to legalize as many rogue settlement sites as possible to cement Israel's hold on occupied land the Palestinians claim for a state. Netanyahu faces stiff pressure from pro-settler hardliners within his own coalition to fend off legal challenges to the unauthorized construction. Some hardliners have even warned that the coalition, which until now has been remarkably stable, could unravel over the issue. Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem as the core of their hoped-for state, and see all Israeli settlement as illegal encroachment on those lands. They have refused to restart peace talks until construction halts. "We call upon the Israeli government to immediately stop all unilateral acts," said senior Palestinian official Nabil Abu Rdeneh. "Netanyahu is pushing things into deadlock once again." A string of Israeli governments have pledged not to build any new settlements. But critics say the settler movement, with quiet support from the government, has used the outposts to grab more West Bank land. Dozens of clusters of houses or mobile homes dot the West Bank, in addition to more than 120 authorized settlements. Netanyahu says the issue of settlements should be resolved through peace talks, which broke down more than three years ago over the settlement issue. Israel began settling the West Bank and east Jerusalem immediately after capturing them in the 1967 Mideast war, and 500,000 Jews now live there. The international community widely condemns the construction. The Israeli announcement came as U.S. envoy David Hale was in the region, on a new mission to restart negotiations.

I Shall Not Hate!

Dear Friend,

One ot the last things I did before leaving TX for Holland, MI, USA, was to read Izzeldin Abuelaish's book, I SHALL NOT HATE.

Three of his daughters were killed during the Gaza war (late 2008, early 2009).

Here is a follow up story about his ongoing efforts to build walls instead of bricks between the two peoples. Click on the link to get the complete story.

The class at Christ Memorial Church in Holland (on the Kairos Palestine document) got off to a good start last Sunday. The struggle for mutual respect for each other's narrative has personal and systemic dimensions. We are allowing for both in the class. We are totally perplexed by the tragedies of the conflict and prayerfully seek resolution, mutual vulnerability and a softening of hard-headed and hard-hearted disdain for each "Other". Love for "God" and "Each Other" is being severely tested. John Kleinheksel Sr




'Gaza Doctor' Builds New Life in Toronto

Nathan Guttman
The Jewish Daily Forward
April 17, 2012 - 12:00am
http://forward.com/articles/154730/gaza-doctor-builds-new-life-in-toronto/



Toronto — The photo leaning on Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish’s office window almost blocks the view of the Toronto skyline. It shows his three daughters, Mayar, Aya and Bessan Abuelaish, sitting on the beach in Gaza, writing their names in the sand.

Closer to his desk, pinned to the wall, is the recent fourth-grade math test of Abuelaish’s youngest son, Abdullah, taken at his school in Toronto. The grade: A+.

Between the memories of the three daughters he lost to an Israeli shelling of his home in Gaza during the 2008-2009 conflict and his commitment to the family’s five remaining children, Abuelaish is trying to rebuild his life far away from Gaza.

He says he seeks to make sense of the tragedy by devoting his life to promoting peace and nonviolence. Guiding the way is a quote by Mahatma Gandhi hanging on the wall in his small office at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. The quote reads, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

“I owe it to my daughters,” Abuelaish said in an interview with the Forward. “I believe that one day I will meet them and they’ll ask: ‘What did you do for us? Did you forget us, or did you continue giving hope, sending a humanitarian message?’”

His eyes tearing up, Abuelaish continued: “I want to tell them: ‘Rest in peace. I will do everything I can for your souls. I’ll try harder than before.’”

When Abuelaish vows to “try harder,” he means using his remarkable personal tragedy to advocate for a peaceful relationship between Israelis and Palestinians. His book, “I Shall Not Hate: A Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity,” was published last year. Abuelaish is now active in raising funds for Daughters for Life, the foundation that he set up to help girls and women in the Middle East.

Abuelaish’s story came to symbolize the tragic reality of Palestinians and Israelis locked in a decades-long bloody conflict. On January 16, 2008, in the last days of the monthlong conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, an Israeli shell hit the Abuelaish home. Bessan Abuelaish, 20, and her teenage sisters, Mayar, 15, and Aya, 13, were all killed on the spot.

The Israeli public learned of the horror in real time, as Abuelaish described the attack to an Israeli reporter on live TV.

As the reporter, Shlomi Eldar, held up his cell phone to the microphone, the crying voice of Abuelaish standing by the rubble of his Gaza home came in clear: “My daughters, oh my God, my daughters.”

Jews Debate What's Next

Hello Friend,

There's huge debate going on in American and Israeli Jewry over the occupation and what it has done and is doing to "Jewish democracy".

Peter Beinart is at the center of the debate, stirring things up with his book, THE CRISIS OF ZIONISM. There are countless pieces out there, pro and con. This is an op-ed in the NY Times (via Nicolas Kristof)

Now, he speaks out, and I think summarizes the debate up to the moment. If you read nothing else, read only the last three paragraphs, in bold. These are the dying gasps of the "Two-State Solution". Whether One State or Two, unless there is a willingness to look at root causes and treat each other with respect, the future looks grim and grimmer. (Giving "cover" to the settlement expansion continues to marginalize Palestinians, even though the Israeli Supreme Court has declared certain settlements must desist).

And remember to pray for me/us in the class at Christ Memorial Church for three weeks, starting this Sunday, in the Chapel (far E of the campus), 10:15 - 11:15 a.m., as we hear Palestinian Christians ask for understanding and support. JRK




Beinart Fires Back
The day my book, The Crisis of Zionism, hit the shelves I gave a speech at the University of Maryland. During question and answer session, an older Jewish man–grim-faced, teeth-clenched—demanded to know how I could criticize Israel for occupying the West Bank when most West Bank Palestinians effectively govern themselves, and when the Palestinians have shown themselves unwilling to live at peace. I responded that while Palestinians do indeed bear part of the blame for the lack of a Palestinian state, Israel’s policy of subsidizing Jews to move to settlements—including settlements deep in the West Bank—only strengthens the most militant forces in Palestinian society. He rose again in protest, then sat down and glared.

Then a college student got up. He said he’d enjoyed my talk, but as an American Jew who believed in separation of church and state, he didn’t understand why we need a Jewish state at all.The two of you, I said, gesturing to the student and the older man, really need to talk.

Generationally, I’m halfway between my two interlocutors. Like the college student, I’m too young to have seen the terrifying wars of 1948, 1967 and 1973, when Arab armies threatened to vanquish the Jewish state. I’ve never known an Israel that didn’t occupy the West Bank. But like the older man, I’ve seen whole communities of Jews take refuge in Israel. Among my formative memories of the Jewish state are the pictures of Anatoly Sharansky, fresh from a Soviet jail, descending onto the tarmac at Ben-Gurion airport and the images of nearly destitute Ethiopian Jews, separated from the rest of our people since the days when the Temple stood, entering the planes that the Jewish state had sent to take them home.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that my book argues that Jews need a state for self-protection and cultural expression, but worries that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank menaces the democratic ideals upon which the state was founded. Some in the organized American Jewish community think this places me on the left. I disagree. I actually occupy a shrinking center of American Jews fiercely committed to Israel’s existence but profoundly troubled by its current course. Our most high-profile critics sound like the man at my University of Maryland talk, unwilling to confront any contradiction between a nation whose declaration of independence promises “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of race, religion and sex” and an occupation that has held millions of Palestinians as non-citizens for more than forty years.

But more quietly, there is a growing cadre of younger American Jews with deep questions about the very notion of a Jewish state. According to a 2007 survey by the researchers Steven Cohen and Ari Kelman, while over 80 percent of American Jews over the age of 65 embrace the idea of a Jewish state, among those under the age of 35, the figure drops to just over 50 percent.

Zionism has not always been a consensus position in American Jewish life. Before Israel’s creation, and even to some degree before 1967, substantial elements within American Jewry questioned the notion of Jewish sovereignty.

I fear that unless something changes, those earlier divisions will reemerge in the years to come. The more permanent Israel’s occupation of the West Bank becomes, the more American Jews will be forced to choose between a Jewish state that is not fully democratic and a binational state that loses its Jewish character. And faced with that choice, a great chasm will divide American Jewry: with most older American Jews on one side, and many non-Orthodox, younger American Jews on the other.

Saving Israel as a democratic Jewish state and preserving the Zionist consensus in American Jewish life are two sides of the same struggle. Since my book came out, I’ve sometimes been called a controversial, polarizing figure in the American Jewish community. The accusation makes me sigh. I’ve seen enough questioners like that those at the University of Maryland to realize that if the two state solution dies, the real polarization will be yet to come.

Peter Beinart is the editor of Open Zion and author of The Crisis of Zionism.

Remembering Passover and Pascha (Easter)

Dear Friend,

Salim Munayer works in the trenches with Israelis and Palestinians. What he says is agonizing, sensitive . . . and truthful.

Saturday (between Good Friday death and Sunday New Life) is that in between time, when we wait for resolution, for answers, for "progress".

There is great controversy abroad. Some are wanting to stress 1) sitting down and sharing stories; 2) others want to attack the systemic roots of injustice to bring about structural change (boycott, disinvestment and sanctions, BDS).

Remembering our history, walking in others' shoes, considering "The Other", remembering that we are all "strangers", in need of God's grace and forgiveness is not an easy task.

Only when we face the darkness of dusk, can we be ready for the dawning of day. I'm grateful to you, this passover, Easter and post-Eid, for your faithful readership. All God's best this Holy, Happy season.

(Remember to pray for me/us as we hear the cry of Palestinian Christians (Kairos Palestine), for three weeks at Christ Memorial Church, starting next Sunday, April 15 @ 10:15 a.m). Faithfully yours, John Kleinheksel Sr



Freedom through Remembering Rightly


In our March women’s conference I taught a session on remembering rightly. As Passover and Pascha (Easter) approach, I would like to share some thoughts on our conflict and situation. These holidays have shaped the history of the world and our understanding of God’s sovereignty and intervention in our lives. Passover and Pascha teach us many things, including ways to remember well. How can we remember our history, communally and individually, in light of the Exodus and Resurrection? This is something we must all think creatively about as we seek God’s will for our lives. Coming to a proper understanding of what has happened to us and the redemptive plan God has for us will allow us to follow God more wholeheartedly, and serve others with more compassion and understanding.



Passover and Pascha are important events in the reconciliation process as they are times of commemoration that both the Israeli and Palestinian communities recall and value. Throughout the journey of reconciliation Palestinians and Israelis are challenged with the burden of memory, particularly with regard to our historical narrative, a topic we have shared with you in the past. We do not compare pain, but we discuss the most painful parts of our histories in order to understand one another. On the Israeli side, the Holocaust and Jewish suffering cast a looming shadow over Jewish history. This suffering, combined with the many wars Israelis have suffered from, and the threats they feel to this day shape Jewish identity. On the Israeli side, the Holocaust and the existential threat they perceive have influenced memory in Israeli education, culture and foreign affairs. On the Palestinian side, the past 100 years have been marked by suffering, from the world wars and how they played out in this land, bringing death and devastation, to the Nakba and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands from their homes and lands, to the betrayal of Palestinians by surrounding Arab countries, to the ongoing occupation that continues to this day. These events have profoundly impacted Palestinian identity, also, in terms of education, culture, and relation to the other. Both Israelis and Palestinians have acquired a victim mentality, which impacts many aspects of both communities’ everyday lives, and the relationship between the two groups.



In the session with the women we reflected on recent writings by Miroslav Volf as well as from our curriculum regarding remembering well. When we reflect on painful history, we often encounter situations where our pain hinders us from seeing other people’s pain. Sometimes we do not want to acknowledge other people’s pain because we feel that it will somehow diminish the legitimacy of our grievances. We often see this in our conflict. Many times, Palestinians have great difficulty coming to terms with the Holocaust and recognizing the legitimate suffering of the Jewish people; they are afraid that recognizing these terrible things would somehow lessen their cry for justice in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On the other hand, Israelis are often unwilling to recognize the suffering they have caused the Palestinian people, as they fear that this would lessen their claim to the land. When the other’s pain is presented before either of these parties, it is often met with denial, explanation, and justification; rarely do we see willingness to come to terms with the other’s pain.



Both sides suffer from a victim mentality that causes us to develop a fatalistic view about life. We often focus on remembering the dark moments of history rather than the positive moments. We actively recall moments of collective suffering more often than moments of collective success and joy. When we study remembering rightly we discuss the shortcomings of memory. We cannot remember everything, so what we remember is significant. We are not just shaped by memories; we ourselves shape the memories that shape us. And since we do so, the consequences are significant. Because we shape our memories, our identities cannot consist simply in what we remember. This is significant because what we or our society choose to remember of traumatic events in our past, influences how we think and what we do. Memory can be manipulated for political ends, and we can be drawn into blaming others for our suffering. Consequently, we can sometimes find ourselves legitimating others’ suffering due to our own suffering. We can lose our ability to look at our neighbor’s pain and recognize our complicity in causing them pain. Unfortunately, humans have a great capacity for justifying their actions against others. It is easier to justify our actions than to take responsibility for them.



To bring this back to where we are right now, as we approach the celebration of Passover and Pascha, we should reflect on how we are encouraged to remember these two salvific acts of history. Exodus tells us the story of the children of Israel suffering in slavery in Egypt. Interjected into the middle of that is an active God who hears the cry of his people and who intervenes on their behalf. He delivers them from Egypt and declares that he did so by his mighty hand and outstretched arm, and not due to their ability or righteousness. We see here a God who acts on behalf of the unworthy, who hears the cry of his people, and who seeks to deliver. At the last supper, Jesus sat surrounded by his closest friends, eating and drinking together. Breaking bread is one of the most holy acts one can partake in with another. Yet soon these very same friends would betray or abandon him. When Jesus was handed over to the authorities and crucified, he chose to remember the humanity of those who crucified him, the humanity of those he died for, entreating God to forgive them, for they did not understand the gravity of their actions. When resurrected, he sought the renewal and restoration of his friends, forgiving them for abandoning him, encouraging them to embrace their God-appointed path. Both of these events speak of God’s deliverance, but they also require a personal response from us. When the Exodus is recalled in the Bible it is often phrased “remember that you were strangers in Egypt” and many times, it is coupled with injunctions to be kind to the strangers in one’s own land. Likewise, God’s forgiveness toward us requires of us to forgive others. As we celebrate these two holidays, let us remember God’s deliverance of us both individually and communally, and reflect on God’s challenge to us as a result.



Wishing you all a blessed Passover and Pascha,

Salim J. Munayer

Musalaha Director
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John & Sharon