Remembering Sabra and Shatila 16-18 September 1982

This Litany uses the traditional form of a corporate prayer for the dead, such as might be found in the Book of Common Prayer.  Thanks to Randy Heyn-Lamb  for raising up a commemoration of this horrific event in prayer.

Beginning on the evening of September 16th, 1982, and continuing until the morning of the 18th, between 460 and 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Shiite Lebanese civilians in the Sabra neigborhood of Beirut and the neighboring Shatila refugee camp were massacred by militia members affiliated with the right-wing Lebanese Christian Kataeb (Phalange) Party.

As part of the Lebanese Civil War, the Phalangists were ordered by their ally, the Israeli Military, to clear Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters out of Sabra and Shatila. The Israeli Army surrounded the area and stationed troops at the exits to prevent camp residents from leaving. Although Israeli commanders received reports of the ongoing Phalange atrocities, not only did they not take action to stop the massacre but fired illuminating flares at night.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful (Bismillah ir Rahman, ir Raheem).

Have mercy on your servants.

In the Name of God, the Way, the Truth, the Life  (Bismillah ir Rasheed, al Haqq, al Hayy)

Have mercy on your servants.

In the Name of God the Holy, (Bismillah al Quddoos)

Have mercy on your servants.

In the Name of the One, the First, the Last, the Eternal (Bismillah al Ahad, al ‘Awwal, al ‘Akhir, al Samad)

Have mercy on your servants.

From all evil, sin, and tribulation,

Good Lord, deliver them.

By Your presence among us, by Your understanding of our pain and fears,

Good Lord, deliver them.

By Your power over the grave, and to redeem your creation

Good Lord, deliver them.

May it please You to deliver the souls of Your servants from the power of evil and from eternal death,

We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

May it please you to mercifully pardon all their sins,

We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

May it please you to grant them a place of refreshment and everlasting blessedness,

We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

May it please you to give them joy and gladness.

We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

Into your hands, O God of Peace (As-Salaam), we commend your servants. Acknowledge them, we humbly pray, as sheep of your own fold, lambs of your own flock, sinners of your own redeeming. Receive them into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of your saints in light.

Amen.

Grant them eternal rest, O Lord:

And let light perpetual shine upon them

May their souls, and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

Thanks to EPF PIN member Randy Heyn-Lamb for this update.

Last week we reported the release on bail of Layan Nasir, a Birzeit University student arrested in July for her alleged role in a student group banned by the Israeli Occupation Army. Layan’s story was published in Mondoweiss by her priest, Fr. Fadi Diab, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. After a joyful welcome by friends at the checkpoint, Layan returned to her parents’ home. for additional celebrations with friends and family. Archbishop Theodosius (Atallah) Hanna of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, an outspoken critic of the Occupation and for Palestinian rights, also made a pastoral visit.

In addition to Layan, 2 other women, 28-year-old Ayat Mahfouz, and 25-year-old Anhar Al-Deek who were jailed on more serious charges of stabbing an Israeli soldier, were released from detention. Ms. Al-Deek, who is now under house arrest, had generated international attention as she is due to deliver her 2nd child at any time.

Four other young women, Amany Jaradat, Anagem Awad, Layan Kayed, and Ruba Asi, detained on charges similar to Layan Nasir’s, have all been tried and sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths. A fifth prisoner, Mona Qa’dan, remains in detention with an uncertain trial date. 

Layan, who faces an October 5th trial date in an Israeli military court, used her temporary freedom to take to Facebook with a message of gratitude and challenge. “Thanks to everyone who stood in solidarity and defended the cause of our prisoners. Each of them has a message and each of them has a story”, she continued. “The world should not ignore the barbarity and arrogance of the occupation, and its practice of stripping and depriving female prisoners of their most basic rights.” 

Reports from Middle East Eye indicate that the Israeli military rounded up 11 Palestinians, including 5 minors on unknown charges earlier this week.

Layan’s parents continue to call upon both local and international political and religious leaders to press Israeli authorities to unconditionally release Layan and the other young women detained for exercising their free speech and freedom of association rights guaranteed under international law. EPF PIN calls on all its friends and supporters to contact their own elected officials and religious leaders to advocate on behalf of Layan and the other prisoners.

Twenty-one year old Palestinian student Layan Nasir, who had been planning to continue her 4th year of Nutrition studies at Birzeit University in the fall, slept in her own bed last Thursday night for the first time since seven Israeli soldiers raided her family home in the early morning hours of 7 July.

Layan is an active member of St. Peter’s Anglican/Episcopal Church in her hometown of Birzeit, approximately 12 miles north of Jerusalem. She was released on 26 August upon payment of 24,000 NIS bail (about US $7,500), a reversal of the Israeli military court’s decision to deny bail which had been handed down week before last.

As is the usual pattern, the court did not provide a reason why Layan’s appeal was granted, but her case has begun to generate a fair amount of international attention.

Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, first published an account of her arrest, noting that two days before, she had shared on social media about attacks she and others had suffered at the hands of undercover Palestinian Authority security forces, who violently beat students protesting the assassination of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat.

Birzeit University reported increased Israeli aggression against its students, including the mass arrest of Layan and 13 other students on 7 July. The violence was “neither new nor unprecedented”, it said, and the University called on international organizations to “take a stand against these severe human rights violations and to raise awareness of them worldwide,” and to “hold the occupation authorities accountable to ensure the sanctity of higher-education institutions and protect academic freedoms and human rights”. 

The actual charges brought against Layan by the Israeli military prosecutor were not revealed until a 5 August court appearance, nearly a month after she had been handcuffed, blindfolded, and taken from her home. According to a statement issued by her parents, the charges against Layan and the other students “are baseless and absurd. The evidence presented against Layan reflects the normal activities of any student and engaged citizen. She is accused of walking through the university campus discussing union activities, organizing nature walks for her classmates and friends, becoming part of the emergency committee formed during the coronavirus pandemic, and visiting students recently released from prison.” The statement continues, “Layan’s arrest illustrates the ways Israeli military law criminalizes the most fundamental and mundane aspects of a Palestinian student’s life.”

Perhaps the most serious of the charges against her was that Layan was an active member of a Birzeit University student group, the Democratic Progressive Student Pole. That group was banned by the Israeli Occupation Forces in August 2020, for unrevealed reasons.  According to al Haq, an independent Palestinian non-governmental human rights organization, the Israeli military uses unjust regulations which they inherited from the British following he end of their Mandate rule in 1948. 

In the United States, two petitions were started on Layan’s behalf using the Change.org website. The first was started shortly after her arrest and directed toward Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Representative Tlaib is the first Palestinian-American member of Congress, her grandmother lives in a small village some 12 miles west of Birzeit, so she may have been seen as a likely champion for Layan.

A second petition started about two weeks ago, and included the names of other women students who were arrested by the Israeli military around the same time. That petition is directed toward President Biden, Vice President Harris and Secretary of State Blinken, as well as Senate Majority Leader Schumer and House Speaker Pelosi, asking them to press Israeli authorities for the release of Layan and the other detainees. “The freedoms of expression and peaceful association are fundamental, universal human rights. We call on our elected representatives and those in authority within our government, to demand and pressure the Israeli government and military forces to immediately release Layan and her fellow students.” 

Other international support for Layan and her fellow students came from the French Solidaires Trade Union which, in a translation of their 20 August website statement declared that, “Faced with this obvious denial of freedom of association, expression and the right to form unions for students, we demand the immediate and unconditional release of Layan Nasir, as well as dozens of detained students. for similar reasons…” 

Layan was originally scheduled to be returned to court for the start of her trial on 24 August. The day prior to that, an article written by the Rev. Fadi Diab, Layan’s parish priest, appeared on the Mondoweiss website. In it he speaks movingly of Layan’s activism stemming from her baptismal vows. Father Diab describes Layan as “a remarkable young woman with a calm demeanor, tender spirit, and incredible potential.”. However, “…in Layan’s and other Palestinian Christian youths’ experience, Israel’s efforts to delegitimize, silence and attack student unions challenging the systemic oppression of the occupation is seen as an attack on the Christian Baptismal Covenant.”  Father Diab continued, “For Christians in Palestine, this means resisting historical, political, economic and cultural structures that are at odds with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ – loving the enemy who is created in the image of God while, at the same time, resisting the enemy’s occupation.”

On 25 August, Father Diab accompanied Layan’s parents on a visit to St. George’s Anglican/Episcopal Cathedral, where they met with the Archbishop in Jerusalem, the Most Reverend Hosam Naoum. While the purpose of the visit was primarily pastoral, the Archbishop did appear in photos with Layan’s parents flanking a banner with Layan’s picture and a call for her release in Arabic. According to a Facebook statement issued by the Diocese of Jerusalem’s Media Office, Archbishop Naoum inquired about [Layan’s] situation in the Israeli Prison,” and “assured the family that they have the church’s support, especially during these difficult times” He also mentioned that he has been in contact with officials both inside and outside of the country, and will continue to do that in the hope that [Layan] will be freed soon.”

The Archbishop did not have to wait long. By midday last Thursday, efforts to return Layan to her home in Birzeit were well under way, and shortly after 7pm local time she crossed the Israeli military checkpoint between Nazareth and Jenin where she was met by friends and members of her family. A brief video of Layan crossing over to her friends can be seen on YouTube.  It took another several hours for Layan to reach Birzeit, where additional family and friends had gathered to welcome her home.

Since Layan is out on bail, it is expected that she will be taken into custody at some point before her trial in Jerusalem in October. It s hoped that the worldwide Anglican Communion, and especially the American Episcopal Church will be vocal in their support of Layan and other Palestinian students rights to free speech and free association. The Church Times in Great Britain quotes Layan’s father on the day before her release, “We are distressed and concerned at the way we have been treated when our daughter is completely innocent. But we will fight on for justice.” He concluded by saying, “We… call upon activists, and people of conscience, to stand in solidarity with Palestinian students”. 

Thanks to EPF PIN Member Randy Hey-Lamb for the reporting.

On July 19, the Board of Directors of Ben & Jerry’s issued a statement informing the world that it would no longer allow its “peace & love” ice cream to be sold and catered in illegal, Jewish-only settlements in occupied Palestine.  To continue to do so, it asserted, would be “inconsistent” with the company’s social mission.  It further stated it would not be renewing the license with Ben & Jerry’s franchise in Israel after it expires in 2022. On the same day, the parent company, Unilever, stated that they will continue to do business with the state of Israel.  Netanyahu has told all Israeli’s to boycott Ben and Jerry’s.  

The issue is far from resolved due to in-fighting between Unilever and Ben and Jerry’s, but what is very clear is the that through determination and perseverance for more than a decade, a small group of people in Vermont who are members of Vermonters for Justice in Palestine (VTJP) once again proved Margaret Mead right: Never under estimate the power of a small group of dedicated people to change the world.   

So who is VTJP?  Although many of the core group of VTJP have little or no interest in organized religion apart than partners in their cause to bring justice to Palestinians, the first meeting of VTJP was organized by Sister Miriam Ward of the Sisters of Mercy in Burlington in 2001.  Simply stated their mission is to free the Palestinian people from the zionists.  

I have been involved with VTJP for more than a decade and have been on their steering committee for five years.  We meet once a month for two hours to discuss actions and stay current with events in Palestine.  Apart from participating in numerous demonstrations and showing of films, my main role in the organization has been to connect VTJP to the Episcopal Diocese in Vermont.  Three core members from VTJP (two Jews and a Palestinian) were allowed to attend and speak at the Diocesan Convention in 2017 and were instrumental in passing a resolution on BDS and a resolution on the Leahy Law.

The campaign to show the hypocrisy of Ben and Jerry’s and demand that they stop making and selling ice cream in Israel has been one of the main subjects of meetings and actions for at least ten years.  I was not on the sub-committee that met regularly on this issue.  In fact, I felt that they spent far too much time on Ben and Jerry’s and despite all their efforts, it seemed like they were not moving forward on the issue.  But the core BDS group insisted and they carried on year after year.

So one could say that other than sideline support, my role has been minimal on this issue.  Or in the grand scheme of how the universe works, through my resistance, perhaps I did play a minor role.  Stay with me on this.

Another group in Vermont that meets at the Rock Point facility on Diocesan property is the Rock Point Wisdom School (RPWS), a school that is associated with the Episcopal priest and mystic, Cynthia Bourgeault’s dynamic wisdom movement.  The RPWS was created in 2016 following the election of Donald Trump.  We welcome everyone and every denomination and our mission is also simple: to wake up.  

One of the core teachings of the school is “The Law of Three”, a Gurdjieffian term that states that all manifestations and creations in the universe require three forces: active, passive and neutral. The law of three isn’t a quack idea up for discussion, it’s just the way it is and has been proven in science and in the world of people and events.  No act of creation can occur without an active (positive), resistant (negative) and reconciling force (neutral).  

In the case of VTJP and Ben and Jerry’s, there was a core group of activists who would not give up (active force).  There were also others like myself that thought that were kicking the can down the road and that the withdrawal of Ben and Jerry’s in Israel was a pipe dream.  However, there was no reconciling force, no third force until – until some courageous lady filmed the slow execution of a black man by a cop on a street in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  When the protests began last year, VTJP jumped on board and established a solid relationship with Black Lives Matter.  As more and more people from BLM saw that the plight of the Palestinians was not different than the plight of all oppressed people in the world, many of the protesters in Vermont wanted to join forces with VTJP.  

During the last massacre in Gaza, more than 300 protesters stood in front of Ben and Jerry’s famous store in Burlington on Church St. and chanted “Shame Shame Shame…” for about five minutes.  It was a game changing moment.  The rest is history.  The story is far from over but judging by the media coverage and the angry backlash and threats by the zionist community to Ben and Jerry’s and VTJP, a small group of dedicated people in Vermont refused to give up and scored a major victory toward their mission of freeing the Palestinian people.  

Colleague Judith Norman, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace – San Antonio and a Professor of Philosophy at Trinity University, offers this reflection on solidarity with Gaza and a challenge as we in the Episcopal Church prepare for our General Convention in 2022.

I want to think a bit about what solidarity means and what it requires of us.

Today I read that of the 37 states that painted Black Lives Matter on their streets, only one ended qualified immunity for police.  This points to some of the pitfalls of solidarity: how easy some of the performative gestures can be, how good they can look, how hollow they really are.

True solidarity is demanding.  It requires us in the first place to listen to the people we’re in solidarity with.  The BLM activists weren’t asking for sidewalk chalk: they were asking for a real change in the balance of power.  Solidarity requires us to join in and uplift their demands for real solutions, not cosmetic solutions.  Similarly, it requires our real participation, not our cosmetic (performative) participation.  Real solidarity requires us to be in it for the long term, not to disappear when the cause leaves the headlines.

Right now, there is a ceasefire in Gaza.  But my friend, Kareem in 

Gaza writes: 

“Israel launched a campaign to arrest 500 of Palestinians citizens of Israel

Israel is still provoking Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah

Israel is now blocking the only border for goods into Gaza

Israel is blocking fishermen in Gaza from fishing

Israel forces yesterday stormed al Aqsa and injured 15 Palestinian worshipers

Israel is still cutting the electricity (that we pay for it) on Gaza, made it 4 hours a day only

This is all not in [the] mass media, because Israelis in Tel Aviv are now back to beaches, everything came back normal to Israelis.”

Now is the time to lean in and redouble our commitment. Solidarity does just not mean affirming our common humanity.  That’s too easy.  Palestinians aren’t being attacked because of our common humanity.  They are being attacked because of their Palestinian identity.  Solidarity requires us to find out more about Palestinian identity learn about Palestine, as a place of beauty and samoud as well as a place of occupation and oppression.

Solidarity requires us to know not just about people in Palestine, but about ourselves as well, our positionalities, the amount of tax dollars we send to Israel, the way we’re implicated in the oppression, our own proximity to power, our own blind spots, our own comfort levels, not so that we can stay inside of them but so that we can push back against them.  Because solidarity requires risk.  If we’re in this for congratulations or virtue signaling, then we’re not acting in solidarity.

So I would like each of you to think about how you can push yourself.  What risks you can take, what actions you can take to help keep the Palestinian struggle visible and to act on our involvement in the oppression of Palestine.  I want to challenge each one of you to think: What action can I take, how can I push myself to stand in true solidarity.

Sheikh Jarrah. Jerusalem Day. Al Aqsa under attack. Rockets from Gaza into Israel. Air strikes on Gaza by Israel. Civilians killed and injured.  Nakba Day is near.  There are those who describe these events as examples of the ongoing Nakba.  Today we offer a focus on Jerusalem and what it means to members of the Muslim community.  Thanks to EPF PIN member Steve France for the report.

Muslims Cry Out What Endangered Jerusalem Means to Them

In a just-published volume of essays, distinguished Muslims tell the world – and particularly Christians — what Jerusalem means to them: a shared holiness. They bear anguished witness to Israel’s ever deeper aggressions in Occupied East Jerusalem, which includes the incomparable Old City and its historic and spiritual treasures. What also is striking, however, is how calm and confident the contributors are in making clear that Jerusalem simply can never be defined as the exclusive possession of any political power or any individual religion, and still be Jerusalem, however hard Israel and its devoted enabler, the United States, may try.

“Jerusalem is a shared gift, not the sole property of one government or one people,” Jordanian scholar El Hassan bin Talal says in his forward to “What Jerusalem Means to Us: Muslim Perspectives and Reflections,” published by the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (full disclosure, I donated funds to the project). El Hassan, the author of his own book-length study of Jerusalem, is a Royal Prince of the Kingdom of Jordan. As such, he belongs to the Hashemite dynasty, which descends directly from the Prophet Muhammed, and is internationally recognized as the “Custodian” of the Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem. In the volume under review, the Prince refrains from expressly condemning Israel’s “annexation” of all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital. Nor does he call out the United States, which under former President Trump endorsed the Jewish State’s claim to sole sovereignty over Jerusalem and moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Occupied East Jerusalem (a move the Biden administration has refused to reverse).

Nonetheless, the book is a pointed protest against Israel’s flouting of international law and contempt for the city’s multifaith, multicultural identity. It follows the publication in 2018 of a companion volume of meditations about what Jerusalem means to Christians.

In keeping with their peaceful convictions and intentions, many contributors focus on the holy splendors and historical riches of the city, which Muslims call al-Quds – the Holy. Above all, are the glories of the Al Harem Ash-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary that contains Al Aqsa Mosque and the stunning golden Dome that covers an immensely significant rocky outcropping. On that rock Abraham is believed to have offered his son to God, and it was to that spot that the Prophet Muhammad was miraculously flown from Mecca by his steed to lead all the prophets in prayer and thence be taken up into Heaven and instructed by Allah. Thus, writes Dr. Ali Qleibo, the Rock is “the point of connection between heaven and earth” and was the first “Qibla,” before Mecca was made the place toward which all Muslims pray.

In their different ways, the essays explain how these and other features of Jerusalem express deep and sublime spiritual truths about Allah’s Creation and His Plan for mankind’s peace, justice, and eternal happiness.

Scholarly contributors detail the way in which, over the centuries, Muslims and their rulers honored Allah, and memorialized Allah’s precepts and intentions in the physical and cultural development of Jerusalem, including respectful accommodation of Jewish and Christian residents as they cared for their equally venerated holy sites. Also recounted is the imprint of the British, who conquered the city in 1917 and laid the groundwork for Zionist Jews to conquer it in their turn, all the way up to some of the latest anti-Palestinian policies.

Dr. Hisham Khatib impresses on the readers that “Jerusalem to us Muslims is not only its religious significance.” It is also its historic, social, and cultural value. “Wherever you go,” he says, whether in the Old City, “where almost every building has a history of its own,” or in the communities surrounding it, the indigenous inhabitants experience strong, if ineffable, attachments. This, he says, explains why, despite all the indignities and hardships they suffer under occupation, “most of Jerusalem’s residents have insisted on remaining in the city.”

Many contributors share deeply personal experiences and bonds that link them to the stones and people of Jerusalem. Some stories are amusing. For example, as a child growing up in the Deheisheh Refugee Camp only a few miles outside the city, Prof. Azzam S. Elayan, Ph.D., was fixated on getting a chance to accompany his blind father on trips to the Holy City, but his older brother, Adnan, always got to go instead. Azzam longed to see the legendary Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Under his brother’s spell, he also burned with a truly fanatical desire to partake of a “Jerusalem falafel sandwich with shatta, a hot sauce especially made for having with falafel.” In the boy’s belief system, the taste of that falafel was literally the taste of Heaven. Now, he confides, “I cannot think of my father without thinking of Jerusalem, nor can I think of Jerusalem without thinking of my father,” a beloved personage in the Old City, where he was a master artisan, assembling and caning chairs and furnishing them with various elegant weaves.

Many poignant memories and heavy losses are shared, but one that can stand for all of them is relatively impersonal. It comes from a married couple, Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimmer and Dr. Ilham Nasser. Since moving away 30 years ago, they have returned every year to visit the city, but every year they notice “there is less and less room” for them or other non-Jews, more shops have closed, more Israeli flags are planted on house roofs, walks they used to love are no longer possible, and “the idea that Jerusalem belongs to all” fades a little more.

It is moving and heartening to listen to these Muslim voices tell of their love of Jerusalem and of its message of universal peace and brotherhood. Rana Hajjaj, one of several younger essayists, takes a somewhat different tack, however. Born in Kuwait and raised in Lebanon, she lives in New York and works with Al-Quds Bard College. Hajjaj doesn’t undercut the spiritual meaning of Jerusalem, but her eye is on contemporary realities, whether in exile or in Jerusalem. She “takes us on a journey through a life of displacement and dispossession,” as the book’s editor, Dr. Carole Monica C. Burnett, puts it in an introduction.

In other words, Hajjaj recounts another maddening Palestinian life in a world that “is telling me that I do not have the right to exist.” Although one side of her Palestinian family is from Jerusalem, it took Hajjaj three decades before she saw Jerusalem for herself. Ten minutes from Ben Gurion airport, she noticed the highway was decked in barbed-wire, and electric fencing. In the city, she saw and smelled apartheid in the difference between West Jerusalem, with its daily garbage-collection and street-cleaning, and East Jerusalem, where garbage is picked up once every three weeks, and so on. Looking to the future, she says, “True leadership [on the part of the Palestinian Authority] would walk away from the Oslo Accords . . . halt all forms of security cooperation [and] dissolve itself,” giving Palestinians “a shot at democracy.” Endlessly “beg[ging] the international community to solve our problems” won’t work.

Overall, the takeaway from these diverse Muslim perspectives is that Jerusalem will always belong to the world. It lives deeply in the hearts of its Muslim children. They will never give it up. May more voices, from all three faiths – and secular voices of good will – be sounded in behalf of the Holy.

The book is available on the HCEF website.

This pandemic has shone a harsh light on the glaring economic and public health inequities in U.S. society. Similarly, the trial of Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, with its focus on the brutal technique that killed George Floyd, has revealed for an international public the links between oppression of black and brown communities here and Israeli repression of Palestinian human rights. Although prejudice and discrimination have deep roots in U.S. history and need no foreign nurture, the knee-on-the-neck technique appears to have been reinforced by Israeli example. 

Knee-on-the neck is not the only shared technique. For several years now organizations in coalition with Jewish Voice for Peace have been tracing the links between the increasing militarization of U.S. police forces and training with the Israeli military. The campaign Deadly Exchange  has detailed the historical similarities and recent connections among police, ICE, border patrol, and the FBI in this country and soldiers, police, border agents, et al in Israel. As the DX campaign describes it, they share “worst practices” of discriminatory and repressive policing such as racial profiling, spying and surveillance, deportation, detention, and attacks on defenders of human rights. They also share techniques and weapons of repression.

An article in Middle East Eye last year titled “US Police Departments Under Pressure to End Training Programmes with Israel” that describes years of collaboration between U.S. and Israeli agents includes damning photos of Israeli soldiers applying the knee-on-the-neck restraint to Palestinians. Since the early 1990’s, hundreds of law enforcement personnel – police, ICE, FBI – have either gone to Israel for training or participated in this country in exchanges sponsored by pro-Israel lobbies. One such exchange took place in Minneapolis in 2012. After the killing of Eric Garner, many police departments dropped knee-on-the-neck. Minneapolis’ did not. A new initiative dubbed Demilitarize US to Palestine seeks to create a network to end state violence and police militarization in the U.S and Palestine. EPF-PIN has endorsed this effort. 

People appalled by images of immigrant children locked in cages at our Southern border must open their eyes to the mistreatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention. The latest iteration of Rep. Betty McCollum’s (D-Minn.) House bill H.R. 2590 seeks to end U.S. complicity in Israeli abuse of Palestinian human rights by restricting Israel’s use of U.S. funds to arrest and hold Palestinian minors, seize or destroy Palestinian property, forcibly remove Palestinians, or annex Palestinian lands. H.R. 2590 is garnering significant grassroots support, including from two liberal pro-Israel groups, J Street and Americans for Peace Now, many organizations linked to the Movement for Black Lives, The Episcopal Church, and EPF-PIN. Learn more about the campaign here, and for a closer look at H..R. 2590, check this link.

Contact your Congressional representative and urge support for H.R. 2590through this link.

As Christians we are called to stand with the vulnerable. The time is now. 

Thanks to EPF PIN member Priscilla Read for crafting this alert.

The month of March has been a difficult one for communicating the needs of Palestinian justice. It has seen the challenge of suppression and most recently appropriation.

On March 18, the California State Board of Education approved an Ethnic Studies curriculum whose Arab American studies module was revised to exclude any mention of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and it completely erased the mention of Palestine. This suppression of language concerning Palestine has been preceded by adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism that has been commonly and falsely understood to mean that criticism of the State of Israel is antisemitic. Consequently, 27 States now penalize organizations or individuals within their jurisdiction that participate in boycotts targeting Israel.

Also on March 18 Alex Kane reported for Jewish Currents the creation of a new group called “Heart of a Nation” to tell the Israeli story “the right way” for a progressive audience. Rather than suppression this is an appropriation of communication, taking progressive language to tell a regressive story. The need for this is the increasing progressive anxiety over the distortion and erasure mentioned above as well as ongoing discrimination against Palestinian Christians and Muslims. The group “Heart of a Nation” is being formed by Jonathan Kessler who has stepped down as a senior AIPAC director.

The Episcopal Church is not immune from this nation-wide suppression of communication regarding Palestinian justice. It is not unusual to hear the argument that resolutions and communications respecting divestment, boycott, occupation and settlement expansion must be muted for fear of Israeli political pushback and its hampering of the ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. The Bishop in Jerusalem however has made it very clear that only he speaks for his Diocese and the 30 some social, educational, and health organizations in the Middle East. The American Church cannot use his Diocese as a means of suppressing its own concerns for justice in Palestine.

Communication is at the heart of creative problem solving, respect, and dialogue. Efforts to suppress and appropriate in order to sustain inequities undermine the beloved community that the Palestine Israel Network seeks to build.

Thanks to EPF PIN member Cliff Cutler for this thoughtful essay.

Given the recent events in our nation’s capital, we might be forgiven to find ourselves a bit distracted. But we use this space on the 2nd Thursday to highlight Voices for Justice in Palestine/Israel. Since Joe Biden’s inauguration is next week, let’s spotlight some particularly important voices calling for justice: our own. 

If we choose to act, and be persistent, we can play an outsized role in addressing injustice in the lands where Jesus walked. Why us? We have a voice, a stake in what happens, because Christians are part of the land. Our sibling Episcopalians (together with Lutherans) have had a presence there since the late 1840s.  Our Orthodox, Catholic and Melkite cousins trace their history back even further, to the time of Jesus and his followers. 

We also have a voice, a stake in what happens because as Americans, we have supported, and are complicit in what happens in the land. The United States played an important role in the establishment of the State of Israel. For a variety of historic, religious and geopolitical reasons, we continue to provide more diplomatic, military and financial support to that State than any nation in the world. 

There is no question that the Trump years were a disaster for anyone not an ardent Zionist. The relocation of our Embassy to Jerusalem, the endorsement of Israeli claims on the Golan Heights, and the withdrawal of humanitarian aid for UNWRA and USAID were some of the most visible signs of US bias against Palestinians, culminating with Jared Kushner’s “Deal of the Century”.

A little over a month ago, the Third Thursday for Israel/Palestine email carried a letter with the endorsement of 17 American Christian organizations and denominations (including the Episcopal Church) which called on the incoming Biden/Harris Administration to take six concrete steps to change the course of US policy and undertake renewed efforts to achieve a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Those steps included:

“1) Ensure that all parties are respected and included in negotiations towards a just and lasting peace based on international law.

2) Restate the U.S. position that settlements are illegal under international law and take action to ensure that any further Israeli settlement construction and growth results in political consequences.

3) Resume funding to the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and other UN and humanitarian actors working in the West Bank and Gaza.

4) Ensure aid accountability such that no U.S. funding to Israel is used to further the occupation or to support human rights abuses perpetrated against Palestinians.

5) Reiterate the U.S. position that territory controlled by Israel following the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, are occupied territories subject to international law and are not recognized parts of Israel.

6) Make clear that criticism of Israel, including support for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions actions, is constitutionally protected and legitimate speech.”

All of the suggested approaches and actions could be adopted by President-elect Biden and implemented by Executive Order in much the same way as President Trump reversed decades of standing US policy. Whether he will do so, however, remains a question. Not surprisingly, many of Mr. Biden’s cabinet and advisor choices appear to share and reinforce his own Zionist impulses. And Ms. Harris has repeatedly affirmed her own support for Israel and Zionism. So if we hope to be successful we may need to be persistent in our approach. Concurrently, we also need to push our Senators and Representatives in the same direction to build momentum.

To that end I would suggest we add some specific requests. Some of them can probably be made without expending significant political capital. For example:

• Resume humanitarian aid through the UNWRA, USAID and the East Jerusalem Hospital Network; push Israel to include delivery of COVID 19 vaccine, tests, and PPE to the West Bank and Gaza;
• Reopen the PLO Diplomatic Offices in Washington, DC;
• Return the US Embassy to Tel Aviv and reopen the American Consulate in East Jerusalem;
• Replace the US Ambassador with someone reflecting US interests, not the Israeli Religious/Nationalist Right;
• Choose a Secretary of State and advisors unaffiliated with the extremes of the Christian or Jewish Religious Right;
• Reaffirm the long-standing, bipartisan US policy that defines the West Bank settlements as illegal as per UN resolution and international law;
• Reaffirm the long-standing, bipartisan US policy that the status of Jerusalem is subject to bilateral negotiations between the parties;
• Restore the use of the word “occupied” to describe East Jerusalem and the West Bank;
• Reverse the policy of labelling goods originating in West Bank settlements as being from Israel.

Other changes will require more than a reversal to the status quo ante. Some would argue that Trump and company simply unmasked years of pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian bias, including in the Obama/Biden Administration. Progress will require Mr. Biden to rethink his stated position that there should be “no light” between the positions of Israel and the US. For example, we should press to:

• Invite participation from the UN, EU and other international players in the peace process;
• Oppose both the de jure and de facto annexation of the West Bank, especially the newly proposed construction in Area E1 and Givot Hamatos;
• Reduce travel and trade restrictions on Gaza; and address humanitarian concerns of sufficient clean water, adequate sewage, restored electricity and sufficient housing;
• Pressure Israel to end the policy of Administrative Detention of Palestinians, including minors, without formal charges, access to lawyers or family contact;
• Reestablish working relationships with the current leadership of the Palestinian Authority;
• Support parties and persons on the Israeli Left and the Arab List, while pushing back against those not reflecting peaceful aspirations;
• Support free elections in the West Bank and Gaza, and respect the will of the Palestinian electorate regardless of who is elected;
• End the US policy of ignoring the existence of Israeli nuclear weapons, which shields it from other US laws and consequences;
• Cancel military sales to the Gulf States used as a reward for normalization; determine whether Sudan should be removed from the List of States Sponsoring Terrorism based on evidence; determine whether to acknowledge Moroccan control over the Western Sahara region based on factors other than Israeli interests;
• Reenter the international agreement with Iran that will reduce their nuclear material stockpiles.

In their letter to Mr. Biden, the Faith Forum wrote: “Over the last four years, U.S. policy has moved in directions that have alienated the U.S. from many of its international partners and supported the deepening of Israel’s occupation while undermining long term efforts to realize a just and lasting peace. If the U.S. remains committed to furthering peace with justice in Israel and Palestine, there is a need for an immediate change in policy and approach when the new administration enters office.”

If we hope to reverse the damage wrought during the Trump era and by previous administrations, it’s time to get busy.

Randall Heyn-Lamb is a member of the EPF PIN Steering Committee. 

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the position of the Steering Committee or the Palestine Israel Network.