Please say a prayer

Say a prayer – or many! – for the United Methodist Church as it holds its quadrennial international convention (aka “General Conference”) in Portland May 10-20.

Say a prayer for the delegates – who will travel from Africa, from the Philippines, from  South America, from Europe and from all over the United States – and who will come with their own unique personalities and perspectives on the issues that they will discuss, debate, and ultimately vote on. 

And, while this convention will cover a large number of issues that I believe are important (LGBT rights in the church context, climate change, racism, to name but a few!), the focus of my efforts during these 10 days in Portland is to help make the Church more aware of the evils of Apartheid as it exists in Palestine/Israel, and to pass resolutions that will remove the Church’s complicity with the Occupation.

"End the Occupation" rally in Portland, OR

Of course, there are a number of people and organizations who share this goal.  United Methodist Kairos Response (www.kairosresponse.org) was formed prior to the 2012 General Conference as a way for United Methodists to answer the urgent call from Palestinian Christians in Kairos Palestine:  A Moment of Truth (http://www.kairospalestine.ps/index.php/about-us/kairos-palestine-document) for “effective action to end the Israeli occupation and achieve a just peace in the Holy Land.”

UMKR has many partners in this effort.  Other churches who have passed divestment resolutions (United Church of Christ, Presbyterians, Quakers) are pulling out the stops to help, along with national and international organizations like Jewish Voice For Peace, Friends of Sabeel, Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, and local organizations like Occupation Free Portland.   We are also allied with a number of movements that promote equality for all – regardless of race, gender and sexual orientation – because we share the common goal that is set forth so clearly in the Pledge to Allegiance, “…liberty and justice for all.”

A major path to that goal, we believe, is divestment from companies that contribute to the Occupation.  This is NOT – as opponents to Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) would have one believe – anti-Sematic.  It has nothing to do with the Jewish people, or, indeed, the Israeli people.  BDS targets companies – often American companies – who make products and/or provide services that allow the Israeli Government to maintain a firm foot on the back of Palestinians’ collective necks. 

Caterpillar D9 - Weaponized bulldozer made to order for IDF

Boycotting, in this context, is targeting companies who make products in the illegal Israeli settlements (whose very presence contributes to the oppression of the Palestinian people).  Recent boycott targets have been Soda Stream, (who eventually moved its operation out of the West Bank to try to recoup the losses it had suffered from the boycott) and Ahava, a cosmetic company who not only has a plant in the West Bank, but who uses minerals from the Dead Sea (thus depleting this natural resource and causing an environmental disaster to go along with the human rights abuses!).  At its 2012 General Conference, the United Methodist Church passed resolutions supporting the boycott of settlement products, although it is expected that this issue will be revisited in 2016.

Divestment from companies who support the Occupation is, however, the focus of legislation that Methodists will be considering this time around.  Four years ago, divestment resolutions were proposed, but were not passed.  This year, similar resolutions, targeting Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett Packard are also on the table, and the stakes are even higher. 

UMKR is but one of many groups, individuals and Annual Conferences who have proposed resolutions that would have the church divest from one or more of these companies.  Much time and effort has been spent, and will continue to be spent, to educate the delegates about the true nature of the Occupation, and why BDS, a non-violent tool with a history in the American Civil Rights movement and the ending of Apartheid in South Africa, is the right action – and why now is the right time!

 Pray for us all – and especially for the Palestinians, a few of whom will travel to Portland to add their voices while the great majority continue to suffer at the hands of an unjust and illegal oppressor!

A Grain of Sand

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The beach in Tel Aviv

Three and a half years ago, I was getting ready to spend three months Palestine with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).  When I told friends and family members my plans, the ones who didn’t think I was crazy or stupid asked me, “What do you think you can do (that world leaders haven’t been able to do for the past 75 years)?  My answer was, “If I can move one grain of sand on the beach in Tel Aviv, I will feel I have accomplished something.”

Of course, literally kicking sand on the beach was easy – but making any kind of a small change was to prove much more difficult. During my time there (Spring, 2013), my EAPPI teammates and I provided a protective presence for workers, farmers and school children while they crossed their respective checkpoints, monitored peaceful demonstrations protesting closed roads, settlers’ sewage being dumped on Palestinian farmlands and the continued encroachment of the Separation Barrier (“Wall”) across the ever-shrinking Palestinian territory.  We also cried with (and for!) them; laughed with them and prayed with them.

 

A farmer is denied access to his fields

While we didn’t do away with any of the overt barricades that residents of the West Bank have to endure in their everyday lives, we’d like to think that at least they knew they weren’t alone – that there were people who’d crossed oceans and continents to be with them and to hear their stories.  And that, in the end, was what they most wanted.  When I was getting ready to go back home, I asked my Palestinian friends what one message they most wanted me to deliver in the U.S.  “Tell them to come and see for themselves,” they all said – as if in chorus – “Tell them we’re human beings.”

The three months on the ground is only half of an EA’s job; the other half is advocacy. I have been spending a lot of time doing this in the three years since my return.  Because I am a United Methodist, much of this advocacy has been through my church.  I am proud that my Annual Conference (Oregon/Idaho) has passed a resolution to divest from Caterpillar, Motorola   and Hewlett Packard, and even more proud that it was done in a collaborative partnership with the financial bodies who are often the “opposition” to such resolutions.  At present, a working group of financial representatives and members of our Holy Land Task Force are working together on implementing divestment – and we are doing so in a cooperative, collaborative manner.  The work we have done to date is certainly the equivalent of a few shovelfuls of sand!

The Separation Barrier is twice the length of the recognized border

And I must add here that we are all praying that, when the United Methodist General Conference (a big, international quadrennial convention) meets in my home town of Portland, Oregon, this May they will approve resolutions requiring the entire international church to divest, which would represent a large bucket of sand!

Beyond my “Methodist Connections,” I have also been working with a wonderful coalition of Portland activists, including Jewish Voice for Peace, Students United for Palestinian Human Rights, Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, Friends of Sabeel, Kairos USA and more. This group has obtained the support of Portland’s Human Rights Commission and the Portland Socially Responsible Investment Committee in its campaign to get the city to divest from Caterpillar, as well as making these bodies aware of other US companies whose human rights violations make them a bad investment in many ways.

Of course, there have been setbacks – including draconian anti-BDS legislation that is making, or has made, its way through a number of US states – and has recently made its appearance in the US Congress with an anti-BDS bill (“The Combating BDS Bill of 2016,” S.2531) co-sponsored by one of my very own senators - Ron Wyden of Oregon.  Again, the coalition is working to express displeasure with this clearly undemocratic legislation – the letter-writing and protesting continues!

But, for those of us who believe that the Occupation will end and the Wall will fall, the sands continue to shift and justice must prevail.