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.

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 Justice Network seeks to build.

Thanks to EPF PJN 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 PJN Steering Committee. 

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

EPF-PIN Commends CCSR on 50 Years of Service

The Episcopal Church’s Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility will celebrate 50 years of advocacy in 2021.  The committee was created by Executive Council in 1971 and oversaw the filing of the first ever shareholder resolution by a faith based organization. The resolution asked General Motors to withdraw from apartheid South Africa.  Presiding Bishop John Hines personally spoke to the resolution at GM’s annual meeting. A video is being prepared that will chronicle the faithful behind-the-scenes work of corporate engagement and action for responsible investing over the last 50 years.  This is a video that EPF PIN members won’t want to miss!  It will be an educational opportunity to learn about the quiet, persistent work of volunteer CCSR members supported by staff and consultants, who, working with interdenominational allies, bring Gospel values to the “worldly” process of investment.  

Since General Convention 2018, CCSR has worked to implement PIN-supported Resolution B016:  calling for a Human Rights Investment Screen for Israel/Palestine thus establishing a No-Buy List for church investments, and divestment from companies already in the portfolio.  B016 was adopted by the 2018 General Convention in Austin, Texas. According to the Episcopal News Service: Bishop Dan Edwards of Nevada spoke in favor of B016 before the vote, saying it balances targeted divestment from companies when appropriate with shareholder activism when that might produce greater results. “There is a time to disinvest, and there is a time to do shareholder activism,” Edwards said. “This resolution provides for both of those. To do one without the other is to limp badly.”

Subsequently CCSR prepared and Council adopted the screen in October 2019.  As a result, Council approved divestment from Caterpillar, Motorola and the Israel Discount Bank.  Last month, CCSR recommended and the Executive Committee of Council added  Leumi Bank and DXC (formerly part of Hewlett-Packard), bringing to five the companies from which TEC has divested since General Convention 2018 on the basis of human rights violations.  Corporate engagement with several companies, including Trip Advisor and Booking will be on-going in the coming year.  These companies advertise in the illegal West Bank Settlements. Engagement involves an interdenominational presence at shareholder meetings, advocating for corporate compliance with international human rights.

The screen was made to apply to human rights issues globally, with specific criteria for Israel/Palestine. Thus CCSR is challenging companies to observe human rights wherever they operate, including Myanmar (on behalf of the Rohingya) and China (on behalf of the Uighur).  Environmental justice and human rights issues often overlap.  Currently, a new effort vis a vis Chevron has emerged.  Chevron has purchased Noble Energy, leader in gas drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean, including off the coast of Gaza.  Correspondence has been sent by interdenominational advocates to Chevron’s corporate headquarters requesting further information on its corporate human rights policy.

The work of CCSR demonstrates that the way we deal with our money and investments witnesses to our grounding in the spiritual gifts which are ours in Baptism.  Among the many gifts given for spiritual discernment, such as teaching, prophecy, and healing, is administration or oversight.  Those charged with oversight are called to be exemplary in love.  This means that God’s love for Creation must shine forth in all of our decision-making, including the ways we invest our treasure to further our mission.  Therefore, attention must be paid to social responsibility in investments.  The ultimate question faces us:  does this investment promote abundant life for all Creation or does it underwrite death-dealing forces that prey on the human community and the natural world?   EPF PIN believes that justice is love in action.  We are thankful for the dedicated work of CCSR, putting love in action over 50 years.  We look forward to celebrating that witness in 2021. 

Last week, the Steering Committee for EPF PIN voted unanimously to endorse the Palestinian Letter to Congress issued by the Invest in Justice for All Coalition. The letter, signed by dozens of Palestinian leaders in the work for justice, is meant to send a message from the Palestinian American community to the members of Congress demanding an end to US military funding for Israel and to support the struggle for Palestinian rights. 

Those leaders then asked their own and other Palestinian-led organizations to endorse the letter. Nearly 50 organizations have done so by the time of this writing. With Palestinian voices representing both the authorship and endorsement of the letter, your EPF PIN and nearly 40 other allied organizations raising consciousness about, and support for, justice and human rights for Palestinians also agreed to endorse the letter. EPF PIN is excited to lend its support and encouragement to these US-based Palestinian leaders. 

We agree with the letters’ authors that our elected officials have “excluded Palestinians from policy conversations,” continue to “sideline and dehumanize the Palestinian people” and are increasing efforts in this country to “criminalize any resistance to Israel’s ongoing military occupation and dispossession” of Palestinian lands.  The result of this undemocratic exclusion of Palestinian voices has lead our government to support a foreign policy which “perpetuates violence and prevents a just resolution for all.” 

EPF PIN encourages its members and friends to support this effort to raise the voices of Palestinian-Americans concerned for justice. The letter, we note, was signed by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian American elected to Congress. It builds on grassroots efforts supported by EPF PIN earlier this year to oppose Israeli threats of de jure annexation of additional Palestinian land, for legislators to end US military funding to Israel, and to reinvest in local community needs. The letter also follows efforts by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, leading lawmakers in committing to introduce legislation to reduce Israeli military funding, as well as Rep. Betty McCollum’s recent bill to prevent US funding of further Israeli land theft in Palestine. 

The Invest in Justice for All Coalition including the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), the Adalah Justice Project, Eyewitness Palestine, MPower Change, Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), and the Democratic Socialists of America Palestine Working Group.    The link to sign on can be found here.

13 August 2020

We invited EPF PIN member Cliff Cutler to follow up on FOSNA’s #CounterCUFI: Invest in Justice campaign which EPF PIN endorsed.  He reviews the tenets of Christian Zionism and sets out how we might take next steps in countering CUFI.

Domination or Liberation: Christian Zionism or the Jesus Movement?

I met liberation theologian Naim Ateek at Saint George’s Cathedral in East Jerusalem in 1996. The worship was in Arabic, but he translated his homily for the several of us who were visiting from the U.S. Afterwards he graciously invited us to join a small base community Bible Study. There he shared his fear of the evangelical influence of the Christian right. This struck me as odd. The Moral Majority had disbanded in 1989, some seven years before! The Christian right to my mind was in decline. I was wrong: a year later in 1997 Bibi Netanyahu keynoted a massive rally organized by Jerry Falwell protesting then-President Bill Clinton’s attempt to pressure Israel into withdrawing from settlements on the West Bank. Ten years after my first meeting with Naim Ateek, Texas mega-church televangelist John Hagee founded the Christian Zionist “Christians United for Israel” . An earlier organization, perhaps not as well known in the U.S., is the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem  founded in 1980 as a world-wide arm of Christian Zionism. 

While Christians United for Israel (CUFI) has sought to distinguish itself from the theology of dispensationalism, it has not quite managed to shake the connection. Senior Editor at Breitbart News, Joel Pollak, wrote an exclusive four days after President Trump relocated the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He quoted John Hagee who explained, “Christians believe that Jerusalem will be the capital city in the Eternal Kingdom ruled by Jesus Christ.” As if to make this clear, Pollak adds in parenthesis, “Religious sources tell Breitbart News that this belief is a tenant of dispensational theology…”

Dispensation

Many Christian Zionists are dispensational evangelicals who adopted a Christian version of Zionism in the 20^th century following the wars of 1948, 1967, and 1973. They believe that the final dispensation, or era in God’s plan (the Millennial Reign of Christ), began with Israel returning to the land (1948) and capture of Jerusalem by the State of Israel (1967), as a result of the pre-emptive Israeli strike known as the Six-Day War. According to the pre-millennial view, Christ will return at the height of a climactic battle called Armageddon, to begin a 1000 year rule from the capital city Jerusalem. For these Christian Zionists, this second coming is the apex of God’s plan. With Israel’s return to the land and the unification of Jerusalem the stage is set. Nothing should stand in the way even if the Middle East be thrown into war. Jesus’ second coming is contingent upon the fulfillment of God’s promise to bless Israel with land, security, and prosperity. This second coming is that of a “Deus gloriosus” a victorious God whose rule resembles empire. The awaiting of an imperialistic Christ has distorted the ethics of Christian Zionists and eclipsed any concern for Palestinian justice. The fact that 4 million Palestinians living under occupation, and at least that many living as refugees or in exile (some of whom are Christian) are suffering losses is inconsequential to the Eternal Kingdom about to be won.

The Land

Christian Zionists see the 1948 war establishing Israel and the 1967 pre-emptive war, returning to Jerusalem, as literal fulfillments of Zechariah 8: 3 “³ Thus says the Lord: I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts shall be called the holy mountain.” (NRSV) For Christian Zionists this was a theologically ordained event worthy of Christian awe.

Christian Zionism is a public theology that supports Israel in all its actions. To do so is an act of blessing. Christian Zionists refer to Genesis 12: 1-3, “12 Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” (NRSV)

For Christian Zionists the promise of the land is permanent and unconditional. They will not accept any peace that would weaken Israel’s hold on the land. The settler colonists of Israel came to stay. Settler colonialism asserts state sovereignty over occupied lands and typically seeks to cleanse as far as possible the indigenous population. Settler colonists foster the falsehood that the land was without people before their arrival while also ironically setting up defenses against the people whose land had been colonized (Both the United States and Israel among other countries are settler colonial states.). Christian Zionists believe they have a divine mandate to support the modern state of Israel, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.” Christian Zionism fuses religion with politics, rather than places them in dialogue or in prophetic challenge. The removal of settlers for them is not blessed by God. Any criticism of the State of Israel is not only anti-Semitic but also against God’s will. Christian Zionists hold to a theological exceptionalism that sets Israel apart from the requirements of behavior expected of other nations. 

Is the land a commodity for annexation or conquest? In a highly significant verse from the Book of Leviticus, God gave the land to Moses and his followers clearly not as a commodity. “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants” (Lev. 25: 23). There seems little warrant in the Bible for the modern State of Israel to claim a deed to ownership of the land.

The covenant

Christian Zionists believe that the covenant with Abraham is still in effect. The “new covenant” of Christ exists concurrently. To criticize the modern State of Israel and its covenant with God is to engage in “replacement theology,” they would argue, a loaded term that suggests Gentiles replace the Jews. Clearly, God does not replace one race with another. But what if instead of replacement or concurrence, the covenant with God and God’s people is ongoing? One’s understanding of the covenant continues broadening and becoming more inclusive.

As a Christian one needs to ask who is this God with whom we make covenant? How has God revealed God’s self? Christian Theologian John R. Franke sought to answer this in a book Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth (2009). The significance of Christ, he argues, is the Trinity that reveals the plurality that has always been at the heart of God. He quotes approvingly Lamin Sanneh of Yale, “For all of us pluralism can be a rock of stumbling, but for God it is the cornerstone of the universal design.” (p. 88) “As finite creatures,” Franke goes on, “we must surrender the pretensions of a universal and timeless theology.  And where we are unwilling to do this, we propagate forms of cultural, ethnic, and racial imperialism under the guise of theology and the Word of God.”  (p. 99) This, I believe, is the error of Christian Zionism.

The inclusive love that is at the heart of God is not an assimilating love. God’s covenant is one that embraces diversity. Franke writes, “The Father, Son, and Spirit are one by virtue of their independent relationality, but this unity does not make them the same.  They are one in the very midst of their difference.” (p. 61) As a Christian I believe this is the God with whom we are in covenantal relationship. This covenant seeks a harmonious relationship with the other. More than that, it is open to the voice of the other. Again in Leviticus one reads, “you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 19: 34).

Next Steps You Might Wish to Take

Know the Lord your God. Jesus does not come again as an imperial ruler who seeks to dominate God’s subjects as dispensational Christian Zionists would have us believe. Serving such a God sets us on the path of dominating and oppressing others. By contrast, as Episcopalians, we “center our lives on Jesus and following him into loving, liberating and life-giving relationship with God, each other and creation… In all things, we seek to be loving, liberating and life-giving—just like the God who formed all things in love; liberates us all from prisons of mind, body and spirit; and gives life so we can participate in the resurrection and healing of God’s world. TRY THIS: Begin your day by asking: How could my words, actions and heart reflect the loving, liberating, life-giving way of Jesus? Ask God to help you, especially at decision points. At day’s end, with genuine curiosity and zero judgment, ask: When did I see myself or others being loving, liberating or life-giving today? Where do I wish I’d seen or practiced Jesus’ Way?”   For more on the Jesus Movement, check out this link.

Intersectionality. Because both the United States and Israel are settler colonial states that have commoditized the land so that it could be annexed, look for intersectionality. Intersectionality seeks to understand how connected systems and structures of power interact. Notice for instance how Black Lives Matter connects with Palestinian aspirations; or how Israeli control over Palestinian water resources mirrors the imposition of the Dakota Access oil pipeline through unceded lands of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe bringing potential harm to their drinking water and sacred sites.

Value Diversity while Letting Go of Unearned Privilege. God’s covenant is not tribal but inclusive. Paul wrote to the Galatians saying, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3: 28). The Prophet Ezekiel delivered God’s message of diversity in the land, “You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who reside among you and have begotten children among you. They shall be to you as citizens of Israel… says the Lord God” Ez. 47: 21-23).

For further information critical of Christian Zionism, you may wish to explore this website.   To turn your knowledge of Christian Zionism to action there Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) offers “Confronting Christian Zionism: A Toolkit for Activists and Local Leaders”.  There you will find resources for education, non-violent direct action, how to reach out to Representatives in Congress, worship materials, how to hold a Counter-CUFI event and much more.  The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights offers resources around intersectionality here.