Films look at Christian Zionism and nonviolent resistance

Two current films take a look at the theology of Christian Zionism and effective nonviolent resistance.

"Budrus" explores the dynamic among Palestinians and Israelis who joined together to oppose the building of the separation barrier through the town of Budrus. I met the filmmakers early last summer and was impressed with a trailer for the film.

NPR featured "Budrus" on "All Things Considered" Oct. 14 - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130573003

"The new documentary film Budrus tells the story of a Palestinian village that was right in the path of a planned section of the Israeli security wall. As Israeli border security tried to clear the path for bulldozers, the people of the village mounted a sustained nonviolent protest to block the construction. Over the course of many months in 2003 and 2004, Palestinians of all political stripes were joined by Israeli demonstrators. Israelis finally did reroute the wall closer to the border and away from the town. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with the film's writer and director, Julia Bacha, about the movie and its message of nonviolent protest."

"With God On Our Side" looks Christian Zionism, which teaches that Jews have a divine right to the land of Israel.

With God On Our Side website - http://www.withgodonourside.com/

Friends in Riverside, Malibu and San Diego, Calif., Seattle and Tacoma, Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C., Washington, D.C., and Silver Hill, Ala. - check the "screenings" tab for dates in your areas. This film is very important.

With God On Our Side
http://www.withgodonourside.com/
Directed by Porter Speakman, Jr.

"With God On Our Side takes a look at the theology of Christian Zionism, which teaches that because the Jews are God's chosen people, they have a divine right to the land of Israel."

Aspects of this belief system lead some Christians in the West to give uncritical support to Israeli government policies, even those that privilege Jews at the expense of Palestinians, leading to great suffering among Muslim and Christian Palestinians alike and threatening Israel's security as a whole.

This film demonstrates that there is a biblical alternative for Christians who want to love and support the people of Israel, a theology that doesn't favor one people group over another but instead promotes peace and reconciliation for both Jews and Palestinians.

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Another crossroads for peace, news from CMEP

CMEP Bulletin
October 8, 2010
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Peace talks at a crossroads. Again.

Tensions around the fledgling peace talks have increased over the past week as new deals and conditions have been put on the table in an effort to get both the Israelis and the Palestinians to remain in negotiations. High level talks are taking place, but not between the two parties. Instead U.S. negotiators are in charge of the bartering chips.

Friday marked a key event in the unfolding process, as Arab foreign ministers met in Libya ahead of the Arab League Summit to discuss the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians and the current impasse they face. Jordanian and Egyptian leadership have both voiced support for President Abbas’ intention to walk away from the talks if Israeli construction in the West Bank continues [http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=22549]. One of the suggestions that has come out of today’s discussion by Arab leaders is that Abbas return to indirect negotiations with his Israeli counterparts instead of abandoning the entire process [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010108162020226451.html]. The U.S. reportedly worked back room negotiations to call on Arab states to refrain from pushing the Palestinians to withdraw from the talks.

The U.S. and Israel are also continuing to negotiate the bundle of security guarantees made to Israel in exchange for a one-time, two-month extension of the settlement construction moratorium. Any such deal would require approval by Israel’s cabinet ministers and there are no ministerial meetings scheduled in the coming days. One new element of the negotiations is that reportedly the Netanyahu government has asked the U.S. to renew its support for the commitments made in an April 2004 letter from President George W. Bush to then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon [http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040414-3.html].

As the negotiations continue, construction has begun on more than 350 new housing units in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Israel is also getting closer to approving a law that would require any non-Jews seeking Israeli citizenship to officially declare their loyalty to Israel as a Jewish democratic state [http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040414-3.html]. While the law may have little real impact, as the family members of Arab Israelis have been barred from becoming naturalized citizens since the height of the second intifada, questions have been raised as to whether this move is part of a larger Israeli initiative of seeking recognition as a Jewish state.

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Washington Update
Washington is quiet these days as members of Congress have left the hallowed halls of government to return to their home districts and campaign for your votes. But before they left, there was some movement in a few pieces of legislation that affect the region.

The Security Cooperation Act (S. 3847) passed the House and Senate late last week. One section of the massive piece of legislation gives Israel the same status as the United States’ NATO allies, said Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) on the House floor. The legislation also includes language that “strengthens the U.S. commitment to the security of the Jewish state of Israel by expediting the process for approving foreign military sales to that country and by extending the dates and the amounts of U.S. excess equipment that can be transferred to Israel from regional stockpiles," said Rep. Smith (R-NJ).

Also at the end of last week, a dear colleague letter was circulated, seeking support and co-sponsors for a bill (H.R. 5351) introduced in May by Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). The bill is critical of the International Criminal Court specifically for its “seeking to prevent the democratic, Jewish State of Israel from defending itself from violent militant groups and their state sponsors.” Language denouncing the Goldstone is also a part of the bill, which currently has 30 cosponsors. No new representatives have signed on since July.

While your members of Congress are in your community, this is a great time to let them know that Middle East peace is an important issue for you. Watch for resources from CMEP in the coming weeks to help you make your voice for peace heard.

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Support CMEP
This is a critical time for everyone to be advocates for Middle East peace. You can amplify your voice and CMEP’s impact by financially supporting our work here in Washington and around the country.

It is vitally important that CMEP continues to give voice to the views of Christians, your views, in Washington, DC. Christian voices of love and respect must sound loudly in Washington and in your community as well. You can help with your donation today

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Additional Resources:
“Arab ministers support ending talks,” Al Jazeera English, October 8, 2010: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010108162020226451.html

Text of letter from President Bush to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, April 14, 2004: http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040414-3.html

“U.S. Believes Arab States Won’t Scuddle Mideast Talks,” Mark Landler and Ethan Bronner, The New York Times, October 8, 2010: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/world/middleeast/08mideast.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast

“ Diplomatic Memo: Risks and Advantages in U.S. Effort in the Mideast,” Marck Landler, The New York Times, October 5, 2010: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/middleeast/06diplo.html?ref=middleeast

“Israeli loyalty oath bill stirs Arab-Israeli unease,” Joshua Mitnick, The Christian Science Monitor, October 7, 2010: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/1007/Israel-loyalty-oath-bill-stirs-Arab-Israeli-unease

The Security and Cooperation Act of 2010 (S. 3847): http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.3847:

American Self-Defense Protection Act of 2010 (H.R. 5351): http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.5351:

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Churches for Middle East Peace
info@cmep.org
202-543-1222
110 Maryland Ave. NE Suite 311
Washington, DC 20002

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ELCA Middle East Network October Newsletter

ELCA Middle East Network Newsletter
Oct. 7, 2010

Bishop Hanson joins interfaith call for U.S. leadership for Middle East peace
Bishop Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, joined 27 other leaders of the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East (NILI) in releasing a statement urging prayer and offering hope for the peace talks. In addition, members of the NILI coalition met on September 29 with Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton, Jeffrey D. Feltman, assistant secretary of state, Near Eastern Affairs, and General James L. Jones, U.S. national security advisor. Dennis Frado, director, Lutheran Office for World Community, represented Bishop Hanson who was unable to be at the meetings. To read the full NILI statement and the ELCA press release: http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls.aspx

Bishop Younan reflects on the role of religion in the Middle East in Washington Post blog
Bishop Munib Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) and president of the Lutheran World Federation, addressed the question, "Can religion solve conflicts in the Middle East?" in a column in the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog. Younan asks, "Is the problem religion or extremism in religion?" He goes on to say, "The answer can be found in an early Christian text: 'Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.'" (1 John 4:20) The piece, originally published in Common Ground News Service as part of a series on the role of religious leadership in the Israeli-Arab conflict, can be found at this link: http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/09/can_religion_solve_conflicts_in_the_middle_east.html

Fragile peace talks hinge on extension of Israeli settlement freeze
As this issue of the newsletter is being written, the future of Palestinian and Israeli direct peace talks is tenuous at best after the expiration of the Israeli settlement freeze. At the same time, voices around the globe call for the continuation of talks, and leaders are working to come up with a formula that will allow the talks to continue. Christian and interfaith groups are urging diligence and offering prayers as the sense of urgency is great. See the ELCA's Peace Not Walls home page for updates on the peace talks and the church's voice in support of a just peace - http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls.aspx

Find analysis and updates also on the web site of Churches for Middle East Peace - http://www.cmep.org/

`Budrus,' documentary about effort to save a Palestinian village, opens in three U.S. cities
The film, `Budrus,' is an award winning documentary about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. `Budrus' will be opening at the Quad Cinema in New York on October 8, at the Laemmle Music Hall in Los Angeles on October 22, and the West End Cinema in Washington, D.C. on October 29, followed by additional showings around the country. To learn more or to organize an event around the film, contact Nadav Greenberg, Just Vision’s Outreach and Media Associate, at nadav@justvision.org or 857-234-6728.


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WCC News: Kairos Document, A Moment of Truth

Kairos Document, A Moment of Truth
By Manoj K. Das (*)

Find the Kairos Palestine document at this web page: http://www.kairospalestine.ps/

It was the moment of truth. A wave of hope travelled from face to face as Nora Carmi introduced the Kairos Palestine document on Tuesday 28 September to participants in the World Council of Churches’ UN Advocacy Week now taking place in Geneva. [Note: the WCC event took place Sept 27-Oct. 1.]

The international audience listened to a new commandment of love, offered as an instrument of strategy in the struggle against forces that have continued to outpace peace efforts at every turn of events.

The Kairos Document is a word to the world from Palestinian Christians on what is happening in Palestine and Israel. It was launched in Bethlehem in December 2009. The document calls on the international community to stand by the Palestinian people who have faced oppression, displacement, suffering and functional apartheid for more than six decades. It stands in the tradition of an earlier Kairos Document, launched by Christians in 1985, that addressed the political situation in South Africa during its apartheid era.

The Kairos Document of 2009 is a cry of hope reflecting love, prayer and faith in God. It urges all the churches and Christians in the world to stand against injustice and modern-day apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories, and calls the churches to revisit theological distortions that serve to justify crimes perpetrated against people and the dispossession of their land.

“We have learned that if people are silent the stones will cry out. So let us not be silent. Let us cry out,” said Carmi, a member of Sabeel, the Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre in Jerusalem.

Her appeal found a response in nodding heads, even as her listeners’ attention remained glued to the text of the document.

“A few hours from now, Israel will host yet another Zionists’ rally,” she said on Tuesday. “We are going to distribute flowers and a small card with directions on finding the Kairos Document in the virtual world.”

“We call it a word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering,” she added, “because the Palestinian cause is a just cause and we have to stand by it.”

And to those still-troubled minds, Nora Carmi cited history: "When we introduced a similar argument to end apartheid in South Africa, not many believed in this branch of diplomacy. But it did work. That is why we are embracing faith and hope to deal with a situation which has resisted all efforts of morality as well as legal efforts.”

“In the whole process, we forget that we are dealing with human beings. Hope gives us the capacity to see this. And ‘hope diplomacy’ means that we are not giving in to evil.”

“Our message is simple,” Carmi continued, “Israel’s unending occupancy is a sin against God.”

Earlier, Dr Jeff Halper, president of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, while speaking on “Israel-Palestine: Towards better peace, apartheid and warehousing”, pointed out that Israel was indulging in demolition without any reason.

Settlers have occupied a majority area pushing that majority population to a meager 22 percent of the land. And they continue to occupy more. Palestinians today have only about 40 percent of the 22 percent of land into which they have been pushed and walled. Still they offer peace and are ready to accept the geographical demarcation.

“And if this is not seen as a generous offer, I don’t know what a generous offer means,” Halper said. He also criticized the hypocrisy of calling a 20-foot-high wall built on Palestinian land a “separation barrier” meant to insure the security of all parties.

In illustration of Halper’s perspective, Xavier Abu Eid, an advisor to the Negotiations Support Unit, power-pointed images that conveyed how quickly Palestinian areas were shrinking and succumbing to the physical muscle and diplomatic might of Israel.

“A good number of [Israeli] settlers are economic settlers rather than ideological settlers,” Abu Eid added.

A new set of laws further “prevents us from even dreaming of gaining access” to any of these areas, continued Abu Eid. “As a result, we have seven out of ten million Palestinians living in exile. The basic requirement for lasting peace is to acknowledge separate statehood for Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

(*) Manoj K. Das is an editor for Asianet News T.V.

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The Kairos Palestine Document in English: http://www.kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/English.pdf

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UN Advocacy Week in Geneva - WCC reports

I've wanted to share the good reports from the World Council of Churches at UN Advocacy Week in Geneva. Got a little behind, but these worth reading.

Nigerian and Palestinian keynote speakers provide a focus for UN Advocacy Week

See the full story at this link - http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/browse/1/article/1634/nigerian-and-palestinian.html

“We hope to learn from the lessons of history,” Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Nigeria told activists gathering for the sixth annual United Nations Advocacy Week (27 September to 1 October) organized by the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs of the World Council of Churches (WCC). For the first time, UN Advocacy Week is being held in Geneva rather than New York City, in conjunction with the 15th session of the UN Human Rights Council in the Swiss city.

About 120 people representing various ecumenical, ecclesiastical and interreligious bodies and networks are attending the week-long event at the WCC’s central offices in the Ecumenical Centre, Geneva.

Akeredolu, formerly the president of the Nigerian Bar Association, shared the podium with fellow keynote speaker Afif Safieh, a former Palestinian ambassador to the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the USA and the Vatican.

(...) Ambassador Safieh remarked that the problem faced by Palestinians is not the legacy of past colonialism but “the process of accelerating colonization” evident in the occupied territories today. Speaking in the immediate aftermath of the Israeli government’s decision not to extend a 10-month freeze on the building of Jewish settlements on the West Bank, Safieh acknowledged that “Palestine faces a difficult decision – whether to return to the peace table.”

Up until now, Safieh said, the national will of Israel has tended to prevail rather than the international will as expressed by UN resolutions or the road-map supervised by the “Quartet” charged with leading the peace process. The Quartet is made up of the UN, the European Union, the Russian Federation and the USA.

“But the Quartet is now really a One-tet,” said Safieh, “a uni-polar or mono-polar system” dominated by the United States. And in terms of Middle Eastern politics, he added, “the United States suffers from a self-inflicted impotence. It is left with all the political weight of Luxembourg or Liechtenstein.” The Israel-Palestine peace negotiations, he warned, are “a continuous test of political courage.” And while Palestinian negotiators have been “unreasonably reasonable” in the immediate past, he warned that “we have no more elasticity.”
Safieh asked the world’s churches to “lobby American society” for a just peace in Israel-Palestine. He saw signs of “reawakening American idealism,” of a world Jewish community uncomfortable with Israeli policy in the occupied territories, of a Pentagon deeply concerned that conditions in Palestine provide the principal “recruiting sergeant for extremists” in Muslim nations.

Asked about the demand for a Palestinian “right of return,” he replied that such a right may be interpreted to mean return to a home, return to a hometown or return to a homeland (like the Palestinian homeland envisioned in the two-state solution). “We will exercise those three rights,” he said, “in differing degrees.”

In their concluding remarks, both speakers hailed signs of hope. (...) Safieh, who admits that “history, unfortunately, is a cemetery of oppressed people,” nevertheless affirms that “history needs our help to make the right decision” in regard to pending outcomes. He concluded by telling an audience made up largely of Christians, “In the end, though, I believe that Palestine will resurrect. And as you know, in Palestine we have had experience of resurrection!”

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Here are links to related stories:

KAIROS Palestine, a Moment of Truth - http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/kairos-document-a-moment.html

Gaza Panel report - http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/gaza-panel-calls-for-free.html

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem - http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/tveit-encourages-christia.html

Boycotts and divestment - http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/boycotts-and-divestment.html

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The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.

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CMEP: Peace Talks at a Crossroads

CMEP's newsletter starts off with analysis of negotiations toward peace, but let me point readers first to the bulletin's concluding point: Don't Let the Peace Talks End - http://www.cmep.org/Alerts/2010/2010sep22.html

Your voice makes a difference. If you haven't yet written a letter supporting the peace talks, add your voice to the choir.

Churches for Middle East Peace Bulletin
October 1, 2010

Peace Talks at a Crossroads
The moratorium on construction in the West Bank expired at midnight September 26. In the days and hours leading up to that moment, intense diplomacy, including President Obama's call for the extension of the moratorium before the UN General Assembly on September 23, attempted to keep together the fragile direct peace talks that began one month ago.

That diplomacy has been followed this week with news of continued behind the scenes negotiations. U.S. and Israeli officials reportedly drafted an agreement for extensive additional U.S. security and political assistance to Israel in return for a 60-day extension of the settlement freeze in order allow direct talks to resume, only to have the idea thus-far rejected by Prime Minister Netanyahu. The details of the negotiations were revealed in the U.S. media on September 30 by David Makovsky, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has put off the decision about his government's participation in the peace talks until he meets with the Arab League on October 6. The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported that Netanyahu's office had asked settlers to keep a low profile in the media and avoid provocation as the moratorium ended.

Declining Hope
At an event at the Palestine Center in Washington this week that discussed the peace talks after the freeze, Middle East analyst Michele Dunne, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, called the talks, "dead in the water." The asymmetry between the two parties will now intensify, she said, making it "difficult to the point of impossible" to come to any sort of agreement. Also, this breakdown, and the settlement debate that led up to it, will result in the "diminished credibility of U.S. negotiators."

Interfaith Support for Continuing Negotiations
On September 29, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders visited with Gen. James Jones and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a meeting organized by the National Interfaith Leadership Initiative. The leaders presented a statement to the two officials that called on the U.S. for strong leadership to continue the negotiations and issued a reminder that while peace is difficult, it is also possible. The statement said:"We refuse, now and always, to give into cynicism or despair. We are people of hope. We call upon the members of our religious communities to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to support active, fair, and firm U.S. leadership to advance comprehensive peace in the Middle East. The time for peace is now."

Challenging the Talks
A letter signed by 87 Senators supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), was also sent to President Obama late last week. While it generally supported the negotiations, it failed to call on both sides to avoid actions that undermine the talks or make it more difficult for the other side to remain at the table. Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now gives an excellent analysis of the implications of the letter. In his speech before the UN General Assembly on September 28, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the assembly that peace with the Palestinians is decades away and that the issue of Iran is more pressing than a negotiated settlement with the Palestinian Authority. One of Lieberman's more controversial points was that the settlements are not an obstacle to peace, and that guiding principle for negotiations should be not "land for peace, but rather exchange of populated territory." Prime Minister Netanyahu dissociated himself from Lieberman's statement.

The Best Hope for Peace - CMEP Newsletter
CMEP's quarterly newsletter focuses on the renewed direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians that unfolded in early September. Read the full commentary as well as reports from the field and CMEP's 2010 Advocacy Conference in the newsletter, now available online.Thank you for your letters! In response to our action alert supporting a strong U.S. role in keeping the parties at the negotiating table, CMEP supporters sent more than 2,600 messages to President Obama and Secretary Clinton. Your voice makes a difference. If you haven't yet written a letter supporting the peace talks, add your voice to the choir.

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Bishop Younan online at the Washington Post's `On Faith'

OpEd piece by Bishop Younan online at the Washington Post's "On Faith" Blog

An OpEd piece written by the Rev. Munib A. Younan is now available online at the Washington Post "On Faith" Blog. Younan is bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. The article examines the role of religion in the Middle East. Here's the link: http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/09/can_religion_solve_conflicts_in_the_middle_east.html

Bishop Younan calls on religion to be "prophetic, a catalyst for reconciliation, and to offer peace education."

The OpEd piece is part of a special series about religious leadership and its role in the Israeli-Arab conflict and was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews). Copyright permission for this 700-word OpEd is granted through Common Ground News, please contact them if you are interested in having this published in your local newspaper.

Can religion solve conflicts in the Middle East?
By Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan

Is religion the problem in the Middle East conflict? Or can religion be the solution?

Many people have opted for the former, observing that so often the negative side of religion is what is being covered in the news. Those who attract the cameras are people we call hardliners--like Pastor Jones in Florida earlier this month--those who appear inflexible, and leave no room for compromise. They are the ones stoking the flames of the conflict and creating an image that religion is at the heart of the ongoing struggle.

Is the problem religion or extremism in religion? The answer can be found in an early Christian text: "Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen" (I John 4:20).

At the heart of Christianity are two principles: love of God and love of neighbor, as Jesus himself taught (Matthew 22:37-40). Yet this was not original with Jesus. It came right out of the Jewish Torah. Islam teaches the same.The problem is not Islam, or Judaism, or Christianity. The problem is when certain individuals claim to be speaking for God, or defending God, and act counter to this core teaching that love for God shows itself in respect for the other. We call such individuals extremists.

For the full article, go to the Washington Post:
http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/09/can_religion_solve_conflicts_in_the_middle_east.html

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