Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May 2000, pages 59-60

New York City and Tri-State News

Christian Minorities in the State of Israel

By Jane Adas

An Interfaith Day on Christian Minorities in the State of Israel took place on Feb. 29 at the Park East Synagogue in New York City. It was sponsored by The Archdiocese of New York, the Consulate General of Israel, the National Council of Churches of the City of New York, the New York Board of Rabbis and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn.

Israeli Embassy Minister for Inter-religious and Public Affairs Avi Granot described conflicting perceptions in the negotiations that preceded Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to the synagogue in Rome.

In extensive consultations with his co-religionists, the head rabbi of Rome found that one point of agreement was that the pope could not walk into a synagogue wearing a cross, which to Jews represents pogroms and blood libels. The pope, however, convinced them that if the purpose of his visit was to represent the papacy, he should wear every symbol of it, including the cross.

At the individual level, Granot also finds perceptions not grounded in reality. For instance, many Jews in Israel express fears of Christian intimidation and proselytizing. But, he asked, how could Christians, who constitute only 2 percent of the population, cause harm to the other 98 percent? On the other hand, some Christians fear that Israel aims to destroy the Christian community in Israel, or at least prevent it from growing, whereas Israel views its role as protector of all the Abrahamic faiths.

While acknowledging that the Christian community in Israel is declining, Granot said that to blame this on the political situation is only an excuse. He would like to see Christians abroad do more to help their own communities, just as Israel has benefitted from the world Zionist community. Without such help, the Middle East is in danger of becoming a Christian museum.

Professor Guy Stroumsa, Martin Buber Professor of Comparative Religion at Hebrew University and director of the newly established Center for the Study of Christianity, emphasized the importance of knowing and respecting the other. As an example of how much remains to be done, he described how his daughter, a student in a secular high school, asked him to suggest sources for a paper she was doing on Herod the Great. She was shocked when he suggested the New Testament.

Rabbi Marc Gellman, president of the New York Board of Rabbis, has had a long experience with interfaith dialogue. He and Monsignor Thomas Hartman have appeared together on talk shows so often that they are referred to as the “God Squad.”

Given the legacy of the Crusades, when Christian soldiers, carrying the cross before them en route to Jerusalem, slew 50,000 Jews in the Rhineland, Rabbi Gellman said it is expecting a lot from the Jewish community to view a cross at Auschwitz. Other areas of sensitivity to Jews are Christian triumphalism, especially from fundamentalists who claim there is no salvation outside the church; suspicions that encouraging interfaith dialogue will lead to an increase in intermarriage and thus a loss of Jewish identity; and Christians’ use of the term “Holy Land” instead of “Israel.”

Rabbi Gellman said Jews, in turn, must also acknowledge Jewish anti-Gentilism. He pointed out that the term “goy” might best be translated as “drunken anti-Semitic bastard.”

Four days of anti-sanctions events in New York

To commemorate the 9th anniversary of the American bombing of the Amariyah shelter in Baghdad, four days of anti-sanctions activities were held in New York City Feb. 11 through14. Organizations sponsoring the events included Kairos Plowshares NYC, New York Catholic Worker, Voices in the Wilderness, and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. On Feb. 12, Amy Goodman of Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy Now” facilitated a teach-in at Judson Memorial Church in Washington Square for a capacity audience of more than 200. She said that sanctions are not a conservative or liberal issue, but a question of saving lives.

Denis Halliday, the first speaker, received a standing ovation. Last year Halliday resigned his position as assistant secretary-general of the United Nations in charge of the oil-for-food program as a protest against the disastrous effects of the sanctions policy on the Iraqi people.

He delineated two types of sanctions. Resolution 661 of 1990, intended to move the Iraqi army out of Kuwait, failed, but at least was in keeping with the U.N. charter. Resolution 687, adopted during Operation Desert Storm, expanded 661 to take on the disarmament issue.

Since Iraq imports 70 percent of its foodstuffs, the sanctions led to famine within six months. Halliday described 687 as an illegal resolution, inappropriate for the task at hand, and said its consequences sickened him. He said the oil-for-food program is designed not to ameliorate the problem, but to sustain chronic malnutrition.

That point was further brought home by the fact that both Hans Von Sponneck, Halliday’s successor as the U.N.’s top humanitarian official in Iraq, and Jutta Burghart, head of the World Food Program, also resigned their positions in mid-February.

Sam Husseini, from the Institute for Public Accuracy, addressed 10 years of disinformation about Iraq, including the baby incubator story that was concocted by a public relations firm hired by the government of Kuwait during the build-up to Operation Desert Storm and reports that Iraq had tested chemical weapons on political prisoners.

The media frequently mention that in December 1998 Iraq threw out the weapons inspectors, when in reality Richard Butler withdrew them prior to the Desert Fox bombing that Clinton ordered on the eve of the impeachment vote. Moreover, the ongoing American and British bombing of Iraq—30,000 sorties in 1999—is now as invisible as the sanctions.

Husseini said that initially even he did not believe Iraq’s accusation that some of UNSCOM’s weapons inspectors were spies. In fact, however, they were. He suggested that publicity about that may have been the real reason UNSCOM was terminated.

Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies said that the U.N. was so marginalized on the Iraq situation that members of the Security Council learned of the onset of Operation Desert Storm from CNN. She charged the U.S. with turning a regional, containable conflict into a “world war” in order to assert itself as the sole superpower.

Bennis said that 10 years of demonizing Iraq have been so successful that most people seem to believe either that Saddam Hussain is the only person in Iraq, or that the 22 million Iraqis are all Saddams.

In the evening Fr. John Dear, S.J., presented the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s annual “Peacemaker of the Year” award to Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness. The day before, Kelly had broken a 38-day fast in protest of U.S. policy in Iraq.

On Feb. 14, Kelly and 85 other protesters were arrested for blocking the entrance to the U.S. mission to the U.N. during the rally that culminated the four days of activities calling for the end of economic sanctions against Iraq.

ADC-NJ Banquet

Khalil Jahshan, president of the National Association of Arab-Americans (NAAA), described the recent merger of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and NAAA as a sign of the growing maturity of the Arab-American community at a banquet held by the New Jersey chapter of ADC on Feb. 19. Combining the largest grass-roots organization with the oldest lobbying association provides a more effective tool for dealing both with domestic concerns, such as airport profiling and immigration issues, and with matters of foreign policy, such as the sanctions on Iraq, the tepid administration response to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, and the faltering Middle East peace process.

The guest speaker, Congressman and Minority Whip David Bonior (D-MI), is co-author of HR 2121, a bill that calls for the repeal of those sections of the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act that allow for the use of secret evidence to “combat terrorism.” HR 2121 now has 71 sponsors.

Bonior has met twice with Dr. Mazen al-Najjar, who was arrested in the presence of his wife and daughters three years ago in Florida. Dr. al-Najjar has been unable to post bail or to learn what he has been charged with because of secret evidence. He has not seen the sun in three years and has been able to hug his children only three times. Amnesty International considers him a political prisoner. Bonior said that even Congressman Henry Hyde, head of the House Judiciary Committee, is upset about Dr. al-Najjar’s case.

Airport profiling is another matter of concern to Congressman Bonior. He said the only thing it achieves is perpetuating the most vulgar stereotypes. He brought FAA officials to hear stories from Arab-Americans and Muslims, but said that more grassroots pressure on the airlines is needed.

Bonior said that policymakers have too often used national security as a pretext for denying minorities their rights. The use of airport profiling and secret evidence against Arab Americans, he said, are results of the kind of thinking typified by J. Edgar Hoover’s remark that “justice is incidental to law and order.” Such stereotyping led to former slaves being considered 3/5ths human, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Order #12 banishing Jews from living in much of the South, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans during WWII.

Such actions, therefore, are not Arab-American or Muslim issues, but of concern to all Americans, Bonior said. Racism and ignorance make them possible. The only way to challenge prejudice and bigotry wherever it is found, he said, is to stand up to it.

Jane Adas is a free-lance writer based in the New York metropolitan area.