Dear Friends and Colleagues,
To whom do we listen?
On 13 January 2014, the Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) of The Presbyterian Church (USA) announced the release of a new resource Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide. IPMN says the guide "examines the role of Jewish and Christian forms of Zionism in providing theological and ideological 'cover' for the takeover of Palestinian land, and the domination and dispossession of the Palestinian people during the past one and a quarter centuries."
Clergy and academics including The Revd Cliff Kirkpatrick, Walter Brueggeman, Neve Gordon, and Rashid Khalidi have raised it up as a solid resource for study. Read more in this release.
Since its release it's been reviewed by Mark Braverman and Rabbi Brant Rosen. Joe Catron reviews it here.
There are those in the Presbyterian Church itself who take issue with the resource. While the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship stands with IPMN by including an announcement about the new resource, Presbyterians for Middle East Peace takes a different position asking that "...the Presbyterian Mission Agency... disassociate itself and the PC(USA) from the "Zionist Unsettled" study guide" continuing that the disassociation "is necessary for the peace, unity, and purity of the PC(USA) and for valued interfaith relationships." Read their full statement here. Episcopalians too are not of one mind around how to do the work for peace and justice in Palestine and Israel.
Meanwhile other members of the Jewish community have expressed concerns about the content of the resource and its intentions. Here's a selection.
It's early days for those of us who have this new resource in hand to have used it. If you've ordered it and have made plans to use it in your congregation, we'd like to hear how you found it. Email us. We'll post reviews and comments on our blog as material comes in.
To whom do we listen? To which parts of the communities invested in peace and justice for Palestine and Israel do we listen? To which Jews, to which Christians, to which Muslims, to which Presbyterians, to which Episcopalians, to which Palestinians, to which Israelis? No one said it would be easy.
Diane Dulin, a UCC minister, has written a review of 'Zionism Unsettled.' We share part of the review below. You can find the full review at http://www.uccpalestineisraelnetwork.org/Learn-More.html (scroll down to find it). Thanks to our UCC colleagues for their work!
With the recent publication of Zionism Unsettled – A Congregational Study Guide, the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA) provides an invaluable resource for our churches. This study booklet with accompanying DVD gives congregations an effective tool to use in the study of Zionism past and present. Options for a one-week overview, a four-week study or an eight-week study are provided.
The task of understanding the historical beginnings, evolution and current impact of Zionism is urgent for several reasons. Studying Zionism with fresh perspective is essential because of the current fusion of Zionist theological exceptionalism with substantial political power, ethnic nationalism and military occupation. This explosive mix endangers both Israelis and Palestinians.
Moreover, contemporary political Zionism compromises Christian theology. Zionism uses the Bible to create and sustain oppression of minority populations: the Christians and Muslims of Israel and Palestine. We have seen this misuse of the Bible before in South African apartheid and Jim Crow segregation laws in the American South. Most fundamentally, Zionism contorts our own theological insights as Christians – our embrace of Christ’s witness to God’s universal love and regard for all.
Finally, within the United Church of Christ there is need to study Zionism without fear or reluctance. This commitment to study Zionism fearlessly engages us in seeking the New Word which God gives to us. Although controversial, this type of fresh study is what we do. Our careful Biblical and theological work in areas of sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and other misuses of scripture has shaped our spiritual and covenantal contributions within and through the United Church of Christ. The Kairos Palestine statement (2009) calls us to listen again for God’s word through the witness and suffering of Palestinian Christians and Muslims. Zionism Unsettled helps us continue in this task.
I learned about Zionism Unsettled in an Email from Electronic Intifada.
I am sorry to learn that people who oppose Israeli apartheid are being labelled anti-Semitic. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that we consider Zionist apartheid to be immoral. I view apartheid not as religious issue but an issue of ethics. It is immoral to treat one's fellow men and women in a way that one would not want to be treated. I do not want Israel to be erased, and so far I have not read that sentiment in material on apartheid. Instead of erasure, I want Zionists to follow the golden rule: do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
I learned from Zionism Unsettled that several passages in the New Testament blame the Jews for crucifying Jesus and for not accepting him as the Messiah. The writers of these passages have done a dreadful thing to so blame the Jews. Christians should ask forgiveness for these heinous passages and seek recinciliation with their Jewish brothers and sisters.
Unfortunately, some Zionists are secular Jews. I wish that they, too, would learn to follow the golden rule. The rule works in the moral realm as well as in the religious.
It is also unfortunate that apartheid is a political issue. Would that the politicians among us live b y the golden rule.
As for Zionism Unsettled, I applaud the authors for explaining how Zionism took shape. Menachem Begin has much to answer for in his founding Irgun, an organization that promotes violence as a Jewish answer to a moral problem. We all need to be better people than that. I wish profoundly that Zionists would be brave in acknowledging the rights of their fellow men and women.