Posted on 05/20/2006 6:57:21 AM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
On the plane back from a recent conference in Israel, Presbyterian Pastor Will McGarvey met members of another Christian tour group.
They had visited many Christian holy sites on their tour, but they did not travel to Bethlehem or to any Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
"Some folks go over and see the holy sites and don't ever talk to a Palestinian," said McGarvey, sitting amid stacks of papers and books in his office at the Community Presbyterian Church in Pittsburg. "The Christian community in the United States is very divided when it comes to questions of Israel and Palestine."
McGarvey is active in a controversial plan of the Presbyterian Church to divest its holdings in companies that it views as aiding the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. Most Jewish groups condemn the tactic as a disingenuous attempt to link the Israeli government to South Africa's former apartheid regime.
McGarvey will discuss his first trip to the region and his church's "selective divestment" plan at a forum Sunday in Walnut Creek.
"For me, divestment isn't the end all be all for peace," McGarvey said. "I think it's the least we should do."
Members of Contra Costa County's 11/2-year-old Middle East Study group, a loose affiliation of local anti-war activists and others sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, agree and have invited McGarvey and five other panelists to speak at the forum.
Many Jewish organizations say the growing divestment movement - and the Walnut Creek panel - are one sided. The discussion organizers don't deny it: The only Jewish representative on the panel supports divestment.
"The forum is meant to send a political message to the Israeli government that the occupation should be ended," said Amer Araim, a former United Nations political affairs officer who teaches Middle East politics at Diablo Valley College.
"If we open it to the other side, then we will not achieve anything because the same argument will be used by the other side and the public will be confused."
The notion of divestment recalls the 1980s movement to exert economic pressure to end South Africa's apartheid regime. Jewish groups assert that many Arabs are full citizens of Israel and that no comparison can be made to the racist South African government.
"I don't see the parallel with apartheid except with the hardships that the Palestinians face as a consequence of Israel's defense measures against terrorist attacks," said Rabbi Roberto Graetz of Temple Isaiah in Lafayette. "It is a very neat propaganda marketing ploy, but it doesn't help the dialogue."
While dialogue between Jewish and Palestinian groups is increasingly common, the Middle East Study Group formed in part out of desperation that the issue was being buried in the small Contra Costa County anti-war movement.
"They say things like they 'just don't want to alienate their Jewish friends who don't want to talk about Israel,'" said Kathleen Nimr, one of the forum organizers.
"The focus of this is that we basically believe that the occupation is illegal," Nimr said. "The people who are asking to have a seat at this forum, they didn't have that viewpoint."
The forum is subtitled "To help end Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territories and bring peace with justice to the holy land."
"I disagree with any forum that is critical only of Israel, or at least in its title is only critical of Israel," said Raphael Asher, president of the Contra Costa County Interfaith Council and rabbi at Walnut Creek's B'nai Tikvah Congregation.
The Interfaith Council's Social Justice Alliance decided not to co-sponsor the event.
"At a time of suicide bombings and Hamas at the helm, and no progress in the peace process -- Israel's first responsibility is to its own security," Asher said.
One Jewish group, Berkeley-based Jewish Voice for Peace, is backing selective divestment, particularly against Caterpillar, a company that makes the bulldozers used by the Israeli military in Gaza and the West Bank, often in housing demolition.
"I can still feel good about being a Jew and detest what the Israeli government is doing to Palestinians," said Penny Rosenwasser, a board member of Jewish Voice who will be on the Sunday panel along with the Rev. Phillip Lawson of East Bay Housing Organizations, Dan Onorato of Modesto Junior College, Hatem Bazian of UC Berkeley, Araim and McGarvey.
The Presbyterian Church has identified four companies that it believes profit from the occupation, and one bank alleged to have funneled money to terrorist groups. Next month, Presbyterians from all over the country will meet and could decide to take their divestment plan to the next step, a motion that McGarvey will support.
"If we divest in some ways it's a failure," he said. "It's a failure to change the corporate practices that contribute to the occupation."
Nathaniel Hoffman covers immigration and demographics for the Times. Reach him at 925-943-8345 or nhoffman@cctimes.com.
A forum on the Role of Selective Divestment will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Walnut Creek Civic Park Community Center at the corner of Civic Drive and Broadway. Admission is a $5 donation. The event is wheelchair accessible. For more details, call 925-228-5746..
"Many Jewish organizations say the growing divestment movement - and the Walnut Creek panel - are one sided. The discussion organizers don't deny it: The only Jewish representative on the panel supports divestment. "If we open it to the other side, then we will not achieve anything because the same argument will be used by the other side and the public will be confused.""
ping
Isn't this the typical liberal position? We are always right and hearing the opinions of the other side would just confuse people. How arrogant.
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