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All Major Christian Denominations in Solidarity with Holy Land Christians
25-Oct-02
Contact: Robert Younes, M.D.
(301) 983 3022, 301-951-9400
younes@hcef.org
The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation*
Conference Summary
The three events of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation's Fourth International Conference on the Christians of the Holy Land were attended by over 700 people from 17 states and 12 foreign countries. Attendees pledged fifty new Child Sponsorship Scholarships and 250 additional Child Sponsorship Scholarships were pledged by the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore. Attendees also agreed to work on forming HCEF Committees in 5 cities (Charlestown, SC, Austin TX, Lexington, KY, Toronto, CA and Montreal, CA). Committees in two other cities have been reinvigorated. A total of 15 North American cities have active or soon to be active committees committed to informing American and Canadian Christians about the Christians of the Holy Land and providing them spiritual and material support. Descendents of the first Christians who heard the words spoken by Jesus Christ now have the support of Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and mainline American Protestant denominations. All major Christian denominations have committed themselves to maintain Christianity in the land of its birth.
Opening Prayer
Rev. Dr. Frank Trotter prayed for God's goodness and love to sustain us and that we seek guidance and wisdom as we work to strengthen the Christians in the Holy Land. All the speakers reiterated this prayer by emphasizing that what would bring healing to the Holy Land is God's justice and peace.
Opening Remarks
Rateb Y. Rabie, KHS, President, Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF), offered the opening remarks for the Fourth International Conference. He explained the theme for the conference, The Divine Light Still Burns: the Holy Land Christians Endure, was picked because Palestinian Christians continue to carry the light of Christ despite hardship and suffering. He noted that HCEF continues to provide for the housing needs of Christian families. Last year, due to the generous contributions of donors, HCEF was able to send a half million dollars to support construction of housing units for 24 families in Beit Jala. HCEF would like to see support for construction of housing units for 30 families in Taybeh through the Greek Orthodox Housing Project.
The Emergency Relief Fund set up job creation programs in 10 Christian towns and enabled workers to earn a wage while rebuilding homes and infrastructure destroyed in shelling. Over 177 workers and 220 Christian families benefited. Sir Rabie mentioned the Holy Land Gifts program that provides artisans skilled in carving traditional olivewood crafts, a source of income by finding markets for their products in the US. The Child Sponsorship Program for Christian education support helps cover costs of educating youth in the Holy Land's Christian Schools.
Sir Rabie stated that HCEF had invited all churches in the Holy Land to participate. Currently, over 600 children of all Christian denominations are sponsored in Latin Schools in the Holy Land. This year, the Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic church school systems in the Holy Land are participating and HCEF hopes the rest will accept the invitation. The Child Sponsorship Program continues to grow, but there are still approximately 18,000 Christian children that need to be sponsored. Sir Rabie urged conference attendees to sponsor one of these children. He then stated that HCEF has the capability to develop networks of support for programs to benefit our Christian brothers and sisters in the Holy Land, but it needs you to volunteer your time and provide financial support. He would like attendees to put together concrete plans for introducing some of these programs in their areas. He then urged attendees to take the information received this weekend back with them to their respective churches, schools, organizations, and families. He asked that participants encourage the faithful in their communities to join HCEF's efforts through the Holy Land Christian Support Network. Sir Rabie closed by thanking everyone for coming to the conference to show their solidarity with and support of Holy Land Christians.
Update on the Arab Christians in the Holy Land
The first part of the conference provided participants with an update on the Arab Christians in the Holy Land. Father Alex Kratz moderated as Brother Vincent Malham and the Honorable Hanna Nasser gave first-hand accounts on the suffering of Palestinian Christians. Father Kratz began by stating that Christians in the Holy Land are Christian ambassadors to the rest of the world. Father Kratz also stated Jesus is calling us back to our Christian roots to remind us who we are today. Brother Malham, President, Bethlehem University, then gave an eyewitness account of recent events on Palestinians, specifically the students and teachers at Bethlehem University. Brother Malham spoke of the numerous obstacles faculty and staff had to overcome, and continue to overcome, to stay open for their students. He gave detailed accounts of the material and financial lose as a result of damage done to buildings from Israeli military missiles and bullets, imposed curfew, loss of summer school, and the constant disruption of the academic year. Brother Malham concluded by stating that one of the hardest things for Palestinians Christians is living with the unknown-always wondering what will happen tomorrow.
The Honorable Hanna Nasser, Mayor of Bethlehem, began by stating that while the church of Bethlehem is small in size it is the most important church, it is the Mother Church. Mayor Nasser told how at the turn of the century the Christian population was 18% of Palestine, and now it is less than 2% and within the last 18 months 1,500 Bethlehem Christians have left for good. He attributed the declining existence of Christians to the continuing arrest, political situation, fear, and frustration. He spoke of the dying tourism industry in Bethlehem and unemployment rate around 70%. In closing, Mayor Nasser urged all Christians of the world to stretch their hands to support the Palestinian Christians.
Zionist Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and Gaza
Dr. Jad Isaac, Director General, Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ) began by reminding listeners that the current boundaries of the West Bank and Gaza are only 22% of the British Mandate of Palestine (the land over which the British received a mandate from the League of Nations in 1922). Dr. Isaac then showed a map of the location of settlements (hereafter called colonies) that have arisen since 1967.
Since the 1967, Israel has taken control of 38% of Gaza (including colonies, security zones, military installations, buffer zones, and yellow areas) and has either confiscated or declared as "closed areas" more than 55% of the West Bank. In addition, Israel has pursued a policy of colonizing Palestine through settlements in an attempt to change its demographic character. Presently, there are 18 Israeli colonies in the Gaza Strip housing an estimated 6,000 Israeli colonists, and over 200 colonies in the West Bank with a population of more than 400,000 colonists, half of whom reside in East Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, Israel has expanded the borders of East Jerusalem from 6.5 km2 to 71 km2. In addition to building settlements within these expanded borders of East Jerusalem, the Israeli authorities evicted an entire neighborhood (Al Maghareba) in Jerusalem's Old City to make way for the Wailing Wall Plaza. Over the years, Israel has been able to take control of over 55 locations in the Old City of Jerusalem.
In 1991, the Madrid Conference and its guiding principles of 'Land for Peace' along with the United Nations Resolutions 242 and 338 were accepted by Israeli and Palestinian authorities and led to the signing of the Declaration of Principles in 1993. The Declaration calls for an interim period of 5 years during which the representatives of the Palestinian people and the Israeli government would initiate negotiations over the final status issues, including: Jerusalem, refugees, colonies, borders, and water. The 1995 Oslo II agreement states that, "neither party should initiate any action during the interim period that might jeopardize the outcome of final status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip..." (Article XXXI). Oslo II also set out the timeline for the final status negotiations to begin in May 1996 and finish by May 1999. During this time, the powers and responsibilities relating to territory (i.e., 95% of the West Bank and Gaza) were to be gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction within 18 months of the inauguration of the Council (1997). By March 2000, only 18% of the areas were under Palestinian control. Between the signing of the Declaration in 1993 and February 2002, more than 243,373
dunums ( 1 dunum = 1/4 acre) of land have been confiscated, 224,329 trees have been uprooted, and over 718 houses have been demolished in the West Bank alone. In addition, Palestinians are only allowed to use less than 15% of their water resources.
Beginning with the Oslo Accords, the Israeli government began constructing "bypass roads," roads that connect Jewish colonies to military camps and to Israeli proper. They essentially carve up the Palestinian areas into isolated ghettos and often deprive Palestinians of vital agricultural land. In May 2002, Israel divided the West Bank into 8 areas, demanding that Palestinians be forced to obtain special permits from Israeli authorities in order to move between the areas. In June 2002, the Israeli Authority began building a massive segregation wall between the West Bank and Israel. According to Sharon's military plan of separation, the West bank will be divided into three longitudinal slices.
Dr. Isaac noted that the entire world community recognizes the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem as Occupied Territories. The Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), to which Israel is a signatory, states that "the Occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." UN Resolution 242 specifically emphasizes "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war..." UN Security Council Resolution 465 states that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, have no legal validity. The Mitchell Report (2001) states that "a cessation of Palestinian-Israeli violence will be particularly hard to sustain unless the Government of Israel freezes all settlement activity. The Government of Israel should also give careful consideration to whether settlements that are the focal points for substantial friction are valuable bargaining chips for future negotiation or provocations likely to preclude the onset of productive talks."
As of October 2002, ARIJ had identified, through the satellite images analyses, work on construction for 24 new colonies in the West Bank and about 113 new outposts. As these "facts on the ground" continue to change, Dr. Isaac emphasized that any new plans must take into consideration the issue of the viability of a Palestinian state with respect to economic development and natural resource management.
Maps of settlement activity, graphs and charts are available at: www.arij.org
Christian Churches and Christian Zionism
Rev. Dr. Michael Prior, C.M., Chair of Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust, U.K., stated his conclusion that, "it is one of the anomalies of recent Church history that while Christians, embarrassed by past association with colonial enterprises, have supported oppressed peoples virtually everywhere else, there has been little protest against the historic injustice perpetrated on the indigenous population of Palestine by Political Zionism, a movement thoroughly at home in the colonial spirit of nineteenth century Europe." Describing the Evangelical Zionist's immoral and heretical interpretation of biblical prophetic and apocalyptic texts, Prior concludes that the god of such revelation is a "militaristic and xenophobic genocidist, who is not sufficiently moral even to conform to the requirements of the Fourth Geneva Convention or any of the Human Rights Protocols which attempt to set limits to barbarism." He criticized the perspectives and actions of the World Council of Churches and of the Holy See, citing the example of the agreement between the Holy See and the State of Israel that does not make any reference to Palestinian Arabs or any injustice done to them upon the establishment of the State of Israel. Indeed, the Holy See essentially silences itself by committing to remain "a stranger to all merely temporal conflicts, which principle applies specifically to disputed territories and unsettled borders." Prior reiterated that the performance of the mainstream Christian churches (not merely that of the Holy See) has not been a model of ethical engagement. Prior suggested that Church authorities ought to be prepared to insist that Israel (1) apologize for its injustice to Palestinian Arabs, (2) undo the damage it has perpetrated, (3) honor its commitments regarding the Palestinian right of return, (4) make appropriate compensation for the damage it has done, and (5) on the basis of confession of restitution, move towards a less ethnocratic polity. Rev. Prior also encouraged conference attendees not to be afraid of being called anti-Semitic simply because we are calling for justice.
Presbyterian Ministry to the Holy Land
Rev. Dr. Victor Pentz, Pastor of Peachtree Presbyterian Church, began by sharing his own Damascus Road experience in opening his eyes to the plight of his brothers and sisters in Christ in the Holy Land. Rev. Pentz then asked the questions: how do we affect change in the present situation and what does the Lord require of us? Rev. Pentz listed five areas that Christians must recognize and become involved in. These five areas are:
* Relationships-calling us to make personal connections between Christians in the West and the Living Stones of the Holy Land.
* Repent of bad theology-Rev. Pentz went into further detail on the theological
problems of interpreting political-Zionism as a fulfillment of Biblical prophesy.
* Receive gratefully the heroic example of pastoral ministry in the Middle East.
* Utilize our resources in support of the Mother Church.
* Finally, the Lord requires that we reconcile in all ways possible with those in
conflict.
In conclusion, Rev. Pentz spoke of the long history the Presbyterian Church has had in working towards peace and reconciliation and stated, "today's hour calls for high moral grandeur and spiritual audacity-and if it does not come from the Church, from where will it come?"
Palestinian Christian Woman Witness to the Holy Land
Claudette Habasch, Director, Caritas International, Jerusalem
Ms. Habasch began by saying, "I am a Palestinian. Palestine is my country. I am one of 12 million Christians from the Middle East. That is my faith." Describing her many roles - a mother, wife, daughter, friend, fighter, member of a community, survivor, and human who wants to live with dignity and respect - she asserted that her most important facet is that she is someone who believes in the power of peace. She told a story about a parent whose daughter, like every child, must go through a checkpoint at gunpoint on her way to school. The parent was concerned because one day he heard his daughter describing feelings of happiness about a suicide bomber she had heard about, saying that this suicide bomber was trying to "protect" her. Knowing that the suicide bombings are unjustifiable violence, the father described his disappointment that in spite of his attempts to raise her according to Christian principles, the violence around her "took over" her sense of morality. Because it came into his home daily, his daughter now identified violence as something that could protect her. Many parents are working, like this one, to raise their children and grandchildren without hate and ready for reconciliation. Even so, students ask their teachers at school, "How are we to love this enemy who constantly shells our homes?"
"I propose to reframe the debate," said Ms. Habasch. "The situation is not about Israel and Palestine. It is about those who choose violence versus those who choose peace." She described her respect for the Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah whose relentless call to peace and nonviolence. She lauded the advocacy efforts of groups like Caritas International, Churches for Middle East Peace, the World Council of Churches, and Caritas U.S. Any organization who is working for economic or social reform must now challenge injustice because if they don't, according to Habasch, they do harm. "I call it applied social justice . . . As Palestinians we are well-researched and analytical. We explore the relationship between our belief in God and how we live our life."
Ms. Habasch further stated, "What is needed is to establish common ground that will allow us to join together and make an appeal for action . . . We need to mobilize people who want peace but are afraid to take action." Habasch applauded her staff, who have great courage and tend to needs in spite of the dangers they face every day. She thanked the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF) for keeping the Christian presence on the international map, and she urged everyone to work for unity so that we can "speak truth to power, name the sin without condemning the sinner, cooperate among Palestinian and Israeli peace groups, and sacrifice what is necessary for peace."
Viveca Hazboun/Ninos, M.D., Director, Guidance and Training Center, Jerusalem
Dr. Hazboun framed her words by invoking Jesus' cry from the cross, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" She quickly answered that the work of HCEF's conference reassured her that Palestinian Christians are not quite forsaken and that these words of Jesus and this feeling of having been forsaken were only the beginning of the great things that followed. "I have Israeli colleagues," reported Hazboun, "who are ashamed to be Israelis. I do not know any Palestinians who are ashamed of being Palestinian. Indeed, I now realize that none of us would change places with one another." Living in Jerusalem, Dr. Hazboun travels through the checkpoint to Bethlehem each day to see patients. Citing statistics from a clinic's studies, she said that 45% of the people in Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition, 54% of the population is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, 56% of children are experiencing bedwetting, and 13% of the children have developed serious mental disorders and aggressive behavior. Witnessing these kinds of problems, Dr. Hazboun confessed, "I haven't reached the level of maturity to turn the other cheek, but I'm working on it." Because of her Christian faith, she knows that justice will be done, whether now or in the hereafter. Speaking scientifically, she reiterated that people who think that they can make their own laws (i.e., criminals) generally have much shorter life spans. In addition, she noted that injustice goes through a vicious cycle. If we feel pain, we think we can get rid of it by causing pain to someone else. Clearly, this cycle is self-defeating. "I hope that we do not fall into the same cycle and fall into abuse when this occupation ends."
During the occupation of Bethlehem, Dr. Hazboun's patients called her to say that the only reason they maintained hope in life was the "talks" they shared with her when she came to see them. Dr. Hazboun reiterated the importance of al-karame, or dignity, for people suffering under the occupation. "You see this karame in the eyes of children who are aching and suffering." But it is difficult to maintain. Dr. Hazboun shared a story of a child who was very afraid and whose mother continually reassured her that they were in the safest room of the house. The child went totally mute on the day that a bullet came through the window and lodged in the wall beside her. Children are learning in very real terms that even parents are not perfect.
Continuing her descriptions of children's mental health issues, Dr. Hazboun described the difference between the drawings made by children in 1993, after the Oslo agreements. There was hope throughout Palestine, and the children's drawings were of such scenes as weddings and olive picking. Today, the pictures are of dead people, coffins, bleeding, tanks, barbed wire, and helicopters. Children tell her that they have no hopes or dreams for their future. "We can't dream," they say literally, "we can't even sleep." Dr. Hazboun stated that 90% of the dreams reported by children are about people coming to take them or their fathers away. In asking children what they would wish for if they had three wishes, a typical response in the past was to ask for more wishes. This request has stopped. "For a child to not express wishes is worse than cancer."
One of the major pains for Dr. Hazboun has been that people outside the region have virtually no means of knowing the truth because the U.N. is denied the right to investigate, reporters are the victims of violence and are kicked out of controversial areas, and the call for international observers is still denied by the Israeli government. Dr. Hazboun closed by saying that there are many reasons people choose to commit violence and otherwise abuse their own maturity levels. There is only one reason that we choose not to do these things - we have a conviction against such things. She reiterated that, if we cannot create peace on a public level, we must at least continue to work toward some kind of inner harmony.
Mother Agapia (Stephanopoulos), Administrator, Orthodox School of Bethany
Mother Agapia arrived in Palestine six years ago "with no intention of working with people in Palestine." She intended to live an inner life and remain within the walls of her convent. "When you become a monastic, you wear a cross and carry it with you inside the monastery. I've learned from Palestinians what it means to carry a cross." Her home is at the school in Bethany on the Russian Orthodox compound. Bethany is Area B which means that it is under Palestinian civil control and Israeli military control. Muslims are the majority in town; and Muslims and Christians have always had friendly relations. By May 2000, according to the Wye Agreements, Bethany was supposed to come under full Palestinian control. During the time leading up to this transfer of authority, according to Mother Agapia, there was a general acceptance between the Palestinians and the Israeli settlers nearby. The transfer of authority never happened, and four months later Ariel Sharon made his appearance on the Temple Mount. Describing the 2001-2002 school year, Mother Agapia remarked that it was impossible to plan a day at school because the military repeatedly put the town under curfew. "Rather than being awoken by the call to prayer or the church bells, we would hear the armed personnel carriers and Israeli jeeps driving through town calling out, 'Curfew' from their loudspeakers."
It became impossible to feel that the school was a safe place for the sisters, the 300 local girls, and the 12 boarding students. "The effects of curfew are powerful. In broad daylight, there is not a soul in the street, but I know that the girls are in the building, even though I can't hear them." In 2001-2002, the Orthodox School of Bethany missed two full weeks due to curfews, and there were innumerable days when portions of the faculty and staff could not get to the school. The new school year began on August 21, and so far, they have been closed already for three days due to curfews. The crisis is escalating as fewer and fewer parents can pay any tuition, and the Israeli economy is also in a downward spiral. The maintenance work that the school has contracted is incomplete because workers and materials can't get through the checkpoint. "It is edging toward anarchy . . . there are now settlers placing bombs in front of school yards." The girls from the school now play "checkpoint," where students acting as Israeli soldiers make a Palestinian stand for an hour in the playground while they "check" her papers. There is now a nursery rhyme that students sing that mimics the curfew call that they hear from the Israeli jeeps. Parents come into the school in tears because, despite their message about nonviolence and Christian love, their children are coming to see suicide bombing as an accepted retaliation. She remarked that Christ's entryway into Jerusalem (the road from Bethany) is now covered with mounds of dirt and cement blocks to prevent the road's use by Palestinians.
Mother Agapia described her violation of a curfew one night when she went, with two sisters and two priests, to Lazarus' tomb to celebrate Lazarus Saturday. She described three nonviolent marches that were dispersed by the Israeli army with tear gas and jeeps driving through the crowds of protesters. Despite the Israeli government's concerted efforts to squelch any nonviolent resistance, Mother Agapia urged concerned Christians everywhere: (1) Do not despair. (2) Speak when you can. (3) Give as you can. (4) Visit when you can. (5) Do not be afraid to speak because according to her Russian Orthodox tradition, "by silence, God is betrayed." Mother Agapia also urged people to make contact whenever possible with Holy Land Christians because these words of consolation are of great significance for a people who are so isolated. "The last and greatest thing is prayer, and the greatest reward comes in prayer." Quoting an Orthodox hymn to the Mother of God, she prayed, "Lord, grant patience to the oppressed and fear of God to the oppressors," and closed by quoting the Epistle of James which urges that we should count it all joy when we fall into trials and realize that when our faith is tested, it makes for endurance.
Views on the Crisis in the Holy Land
Rev. Dr. Donald Wagner, North Park University, Chicago, IL
Rev. Wagner began his talk about the influence of the Christian right in the United States by decrying Jerry Falwell's recent television address in which he called for the 70 million evangelical Americans to become Israel's safety net in the U.S. Wagner noted that such messages are often deliberately provocative and that, in other cases as well, the alliance has deliberately inflamed Arabs and Muslims to justify the control that the Israeli government exerts over Arabs and Muslims. He reminded listeners that the Christian right is not "newly" Zionist, citing an Anglican priest who called for the creation of Jewish state in 1585 so that Biblical prophecy could be fulfilled. By 1800, Christian Zionism had taken root, though it was still not called Christian Zionism. At this point, there were a variety of fundamentalist theologians arguing that the Bible must be read literally and taken as the infallible word of God. The Church, and Arabs in particular, are called, within the movement, "a parenthesis that will be removed from history" in the Rapture, when all who will be saved, will ascend into heaven in a cloud. The covenant with God, in Christian Zionist theology, has shifted to Israel. It is not with the Church of all Christians. Clearly, this is heretical teaching and is not based on Christian theology.
Christian Zionism came to the United States in the 1880s with the Bible Prophecy Conference Movement, and in this same timeframe, William Blackstone developed the first American Zionist lobby. In other words, noted Wagner, the Christians Zionist lobby existed before the Jewish Zionist lobby. Blackstone's movement was financed by the likes of John D. Rockefeller and had Supreme Court justices as signatories. Its aim was to create a state for Israel in Palestine in order to help Jewish settlers escape the pogroms in Russia. Thus, long before Theodore Herschel, Christian Zionists were advocating the Zionist cause. Indeed a British politician used the phrase "A land of no people for a people with no land" in 1839!
When Israel was created in 1948, the Christian Zionist movement in the U.S. was revived. It is, according to Wagner, a very pessimistic theology - not a theology of hope. The 1967 war increased the momentum of the Christian Zionists who believed that the following things were necessary to urge along the Rapture: (1) Jews needed to recapture Jerusalem. (2) The temple needed to be rebuilt. Indeed, many Christian Zionist groups are funding the yeshivas in order to move toward this rebuilding of the temple. (3) The rise of the antichrist, described as a ten nation coalition must occur. For now, Christian Zionists describe the enemy/antichrist as Islam. During the Cold War, it was Communism and the USSR. Wagner distinguished between evangelicalism, which is a movement that emphasizes the Bible, a personal relationship with Jesus and a commitment to mission (among other things). Fundamentalism is a branch that has spun off from evangelicalism.
Regarding the specific influences of the Christian right on Presidents, Wagner stated that Jimmy Carter had the support of the Christian Right when he was elected. "Pro-Israel voters put him over the top in the 1976 election." But in March 1977, when Jimmy Carter inserted into a speech that his administration supported the rights of Palestinian people to a Palestinian homeland, he began to lose his right wing Christian constituency.
Ronald Reagan on seven separate occasions stated that he supported the views of Armageddon and that he was a Christian Zionist in world view. James Watt, his Minister of the Interior, sold land on the West coast of the U.S. because he knew that Jesus was coming back and, so, we need not be too worried about the environment. The 1980s election of the first Likud government in Israel brought about new language for Zionism. The West Bank was now referred to as Judea and Samaria. Christians began to visit the Holy Land at the request of the Likud government, and Jerry Falwell was given his own Lear jet by the Israeli government. The potency of America's Christian right can be
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