The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

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The Israeli-PalestinianConflict

• The One-Sided View of the
• United Methodist Church

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The UMC consistently presentsa one-sided view of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflictin its print
and online resources.
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• New World Outlook is not attempting to provide
  balanced views about the conflict in this issue.
  New World Outlook is attempting to be the
  balance. Readers can find the Israeli viewpoint
  in the mainstream media, on the internet, and in
  many books on the issue.
• New World Outlook Editor Christie House

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The Wall on the cover of UMCsmission-activitie
smagazine
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• Israelis constantly inflict harsh measures on
  all Palestinians. They attack and kill
  Palestinian Muslims on a regular basis in the
  name of security. When Israelis strike at a
  neighborhood in the Gaza Strip and scores of
  Palestinian men, women, and children get killed,
  the cries of these oppressed hardly make it into
  the airwaves of our digital world.
• Unheard
  Voices
• New World Outlook
• MarchApril 2007

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UMCs Web ResourcesTap Into Extremism

• As part of its Israeli-Palestinian Mission
  Study, the UMC promotes a bibliography heavily
  dependent upon Americans for Middle East
  Understanding, a group funded by various Saudi
  concerns such as the World Muslim League.

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The long list of offerings are without exception
one-sided, with titles including

• Israel An Apartheid State
• Original Sins Reflections on the History of
  Zionism and Israel

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Does this belong on any mission study resource
list?

• One entry in the bibliography, The Mythic Past
  Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel,
  makes a fiction of the Israel of the Old
  Testament.

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Some entries in the bibliographygo beyond a
one-sided examinationof the conflict.
A few are staples of anti-Jewish and neo-nazi
websites
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• The Holocaust Industry Reflections on the
  Exploitation of Jewish Suffering

• Remember the Liberty
• Jewish History, Jewish Religion The Weight of
  Three Thousand Years

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Global Ministries Photo Gallery shows only the
Palestinian narrative.
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Where are the pictures of Israeli civilians
blown up by suicide bombers?
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Where are the pictures of the victims of terror
in discos and clubs in Tel Aviv?
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Where are the pictures of Qassam rocket attacks
on classrooms in Sderot?
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UMCs bias is contrary to the balance the 2004
General Conference specified

• We urge all United Methodists in the U.S. to
  encourage members of each congregation to study
  the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

from all perspectives
by inviting speakers to church events, reading
books, using audio visual resources in
educational forums, and getting information from
websites.
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The UMC laid the groundwork for the anti-Israel
resolutions of other Protestant denominations
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• UMCs May 2004 statement, Opposition to Israeli
  Settlements in Palestinian Land, preceded the
  Presbyterian Church USAs divestment resolution.

• That one-sided measure dwells on the separation
  wall, intensified closures, curfews,
  dehumanizing checkpoints, home demolitions with
  scant attention given to the terror war waged
  against Israeli civilians.

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• UMC has been instrumental in the formation of
  and ongoing leadership of the BDS (Boycott,
  Divestment, Sanction) movement through its
  involvement in the U.S. Campaign to End the
  Israeli Occupation. This organization actively
  seeks to delegitimize the Jewish State

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• Global Ministries Executive Secretary David
  Wildman and missionary Ashley Wilkinson-Meyer sit
  on the Steering Committee of the U.S. Campaign.

• Global Ministries Womens Division urged one
  million members of United Methodist Women to
  participate in the U.S. Campaigns June 2007
  demon-stration called The World Says No to
  Israeli Occupation.

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UMC consistently presents a one-sided view on
its fact-finding visits to the region.
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From a 2007 trip briefing

• Emphasis was on hearing the Palestinian side
  of the story because most Americans are already
  familiar with the Israeli side of the issue.
• David Wildman
• Executive Secretary, Human Rights and
  Racial Justice,
• General Board of Global Ministries

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Global Mission's study book on the Middle East
has drawn intense criticism from Christian and
Jewish groups

• Christians for Fair Witness replete with
  factual errors, misrepresentations, material
  omissions and distortions. A somewhat blatant
  attempt to portray Jews and Israelis in as
  damning a light as possible.
• Jewish Council for Public Affairs the most
  egregious thing that has crossed my desk that was
  not put out by an overt hate group.

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The study book portrays Jews, both in ancient and
modern times, as a contentious people, unlike
Muslims who are presented as paragons of
tolerance.
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century Jewish
immigrants to Palestine are depicted as European
usurpers and a people too psychologically damaged
by a history of anti-semitism to be able to live
in peace with their neighbors.
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• The viewpoint of the early Jewish settlers
  was that of Western European colonialists. Today
  we would surely judge that outlook as basically
  racist, and it still is.
• Israel-Palestine
• A Mission Study
• for 2007-2008, p. 32

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• The Israelis have seldom taken responsibility,
  at least publicly, for their belligerence and
  their intentional undermining of attempts at
  resolutions to the conflict.
• Israel-Palestine
• A Mission Study
• for 2007-2008, p. 71

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• For its day-long Israel-Palestine Mission Study
  seminars, Global Ministries provides handouts
  designed to inform Methodists of the regions
  history.

These handouts make the case against a Jewish
presence in the land of Israel.
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Only alleged Jewish aggression is chronicled,
with Arab attacks either justified or simply
omitted. Consequently

• the outbreak of the Arab Revolt of 1936,
  orchestrated by Arab leaders and leading to the
  killing of 85 Jews, is attributed to legitimate
  grievances
• no mention is made of the invasion by six Arab
  nations after Israels May 1948 declaration of
  independence

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• Israels 1967 occupation of Gaza and West Bank is
  presented without context. Recipients of the
  UMCs handouts are not informed of the events
  leading up to the Six-Day War when a combined
  threat from Egypt and Syria saw 80,000 troops
  massed at Israels borders with a simultaneous
  naval blockade

• no mention is made of Egypt and Syrias surprise
  attack of Israel in 1973 on Yom Kippur, the
  holiest day of the Jewish calendar

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• no reference is made to Hamas anti-semitic
  charter calling for the obliteration of Israel

• Hezbollah, which rained rockets on Israels
  north, is not mentioned
• the handouts ignore a sustained Palestinian
  campaign to glorify martyrdom to children and to
  viciously depict all Jews as enemies who ought to
  be killed.

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The net result is that Methodists who receive
their lessons in Middle East history from the UMC
come away misinformed, with no sense of the real
complexities involved in addressing the conflict.
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What can Methodists do?

• Become aware of the extent that UMC resources
  show bias in the depiction of the
  Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

• Read from a broad array of sources. Two books
  that provide a larger context are

• Eugene Korns The Jewish Connection to Israel,
  the Promised Land A Brief Introduction for
  Christians.
• Paul Johnsons A History of the Jews

• Please share this presentation with concerned
  friends.

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Insist on balance in all UMC resources and church
events in keeping with the 2004 General
Conference mandate

• We urge all United Methodists in the U.S. to
  encourage members of each congregation to study
  the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

from all perspectives.