The 172nd Annual Convention
Diocese of Chicago
November 20-21, 2009
Subject: Blockade of the Gaza Strip and President Obama’s Peace Efforts
Sponsor: Tim Yeager, on behalf of the Peace and Justice Committee/EPF
RESOLUTION
Resolved, that the 172nd Convention of the Diocese of Chicago call upon the President of the United States and Congress to press the State of Israel to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip thereby permitting free and uninhibited access for all humanitarian assistance, a return to normalized trade, and the lifting of the ban on building and educational materials; and be it
Further Resolved, that this 172nd Convention commend President Obama for his efforts to negotiate peace with justice between Israel and Palestine, and urge that he continue these efforts as a high priority; and be it
Further Resolved, that the Secretary of this Convention shall forward this Convention’s resolution to the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church for their earliest possible consideration.
EXPLANATION
Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip with a population of 1.5 million, half of whom are children, is now in its second year. Rashid Khalidi captures well the plight of these Gazans in these words, “fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation.” (The Voice: Newsletter of Friends of Sabeel – North America,March, 2009). In its October 31, 2007 letter to President Bush, the Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy urged that the President “demand that Israel’s government fulfill its obligation as an occupying power under international humanitarian and human rights law to ensure the welfare of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, notably its obligation to ensure the supply of essential necessities such as electrical power and to allow the movement of people and goods.” Two years later, Israel still has yet to end this crippling blockade.
The Free Gaza Movement in its Open Letter to President Obama, dated June 3, 2009, on the eve of his trip to Egypt to give his major speech to the Muslim world, wrote, “A man-made disaster continues to devastate the people of Gaza; due to Israel’s ongoing hermetic closure of the Gaza Strip over 80% of the population there require food assistance just in order to survive. We hope your speech in Egypt was successful but, at a minimum, you must use your privilege to demand and secure open access to Gaza for all international humanitarian, reconstruction, and developmental supplies.” The staff of the eighty-bed Ahli Arab Hospital, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem since 1982, continues to heal children, women and men who have been wounded or who are sick, in spite of intermittent electrical power and insufficient medical supplies. Finally, Sara Roy, child of holocaust survivors and a leading authority on the Gazan economy, wrote in her piece, “The Peril of Forgetting Gaza,” (Harvard Crimson, June 2, 2009), “Gaza is an example of a society that has been deliberately reduced to a state of abject destitution, its once productive population transformed into one of aid-dependent paupers …what looms is no less than the loss of an entire generation of Palestinians. And if this happens – perhaps it already has – we shall all bear the cost.”
President Obama has been tireless in his efforts to work for a peace with justice in
Israel/Palestine. Churches for Middle East Peace, an organization of which the Episcopal
Church is a member, has been supporting the President in these efforts. Christian leaders,
including the leaders of all of the member church bodies of CMEP, in a letter to President
Obama, dated June 4, 2009, said, “We are grateful that you have identified resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a top priority and made clear your Administration’ s commitment to sustained, hands-on diplomacy. As you embark on peace efforts, we ask you to provide a clear framework for an end to the conflict, help Israelis and Palestinians make the difficult decisions necessary to achieve lasting peace, and hold both parties to account when they fail to honor their
commitments.”
Adoption of this resolution is not expected to require expenditures that would have an
impact on the Diocesan budget.
