NEW GROUP FORMS TO CHALLENGE ANTI-ISRAEL BIAS

Contact:

Sr.Ruth Lautt, O.P., Esq.
(516) 870-0335 Ext. 3

(Newark, New Jersey) October 25, 2005 -- Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East (Fair Witness), has gathered mainline Protestant and Catholic clergy and lay leaders to counter the ill-informed criticism and one-sided condemnation of Israel by some American churches.

"While we understand that for many this criticism expresses their Christian concern for the oppressed, we worry that it overlooks many historical and current realities of the Arab-Israel conflict, and contributes to bias against the modern state of Israel.  This bias could reverse many years of dialogue between American Christians and Jews, and lead to a dangerous weakening of the perceived right of Israel to exist as well as to a perpetuation of the conflict,” says Dennis Hale, Ph. D., a political science professor at Boston College. 

According to Sr.Ruth Lautt, O.P., Esq., National Director of Fair Witness, a radical Jerusalem-based Palestinian Christian group known as Sabeel has become a driving force behind the anti-Israel orientation growing in some American churches.

“Naim Ateek, Sabeel’s founder, has said that the creation of Israel constituted a ‘grievous injustice’ and has repeatedly pointed to Israel as the sole cause of the conflict – while failing to hold the Palestinian leadership accountable for their history of violence against Israelis and their role in creating the conflict that exists today,” she said. “There is an agenda here that is neither just nor Christian.”

Rev. Peter Pettit, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Penn., said, “Fair Witness will help North American churches voice their distinctive perspectives as long-time partners with the Jewish community, as brothers and sisters to the Palestinian Christian community, and as concerned citizens.”

Fair Witness includes members of the United Church of Christ and the Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic churches.

“Our goal is to help churches find a constructive voice that reflects the Christian obligation to justice, embracing both Palestinians and Israelis in their respective fears, hopes, and aspirations,” said Rev. James Loughran, SA, Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute in New York City. “Israel’s right to exist within secure borders and to defend itself from attack are as fundamental as the dignity of Palestinian life and the need for Palestinian national self-expression.”