The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on Saturday became the latest in the string of Protestant churches denouncing the Israeli wall that is being built on the West Bank.
With a 668 to 269 vote, members at the ELCA churchwide assembly in Orlando, Fla., adopted the “ELCA Strategy for Engagement in Israel and Palestine,” which includes a statement called “Peace Not Walls: Stand for Justice in the Holy Land.”
Several protestant denominations, following the lead of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A – which in 2004 decided to begin a process of “selective divestment” from companies profiting from the Middle East violence, has adopted policy statements calling against the Israeli occupation of disputed territories and the construction of the security/separation barrier in the Middle East. These policies have heightened tensions between Protestants and Jews; some Jewish organisations have dubbed the policies short-sighted, unfair, and “anti-semantic.”
The Lutheran policy does not mention divestment, but has a section that calls for “stewarding financial resources – both U.S. tax dollars and private funds - in ways that support the quest for a just peace in the Holy Land." Lutheran leaders said this does not mean the church is endorsing economic pressure against Israel.
Even so, Ethan Felson, assistant executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said the church’s statement shows a lack of understanding about the dangers facing Isreal.
"What is indisputable is that it saves lives," said Felson about the barrier. He said the wall will be dismantled once the Jewish state is safe from Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Meanwhile, Bishop Munic Younan, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, told delegates that the barrier is an obstacle to peace since it prevents many Palestinians from reaching their jobs, hospitals and sanctuaries.
"The future of the Palestinian church is at stake, because the current conditions are causing our children to leave in increasing numbers," he told the group by phone from Jerusalem.
"It is my fervent prayer that my children and grandchildren will live one day side by side with their Israeli sisters and brothers in a just peace," Younan told the assembly. "Our history is littered with incidents which drive us apart and block our pathway to peace."
Pauline J. Chang
Christian Today Correspondent
