07/27/2005

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI  / Associated Press

A major Protestant denomination demanded Israel tear down the security barrier it has built along the West Bank and pay reparations to Palestinians harmed by it, a vote that provoked criticism by Jewish leaders.

More than 3,000 delegates of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a resolution stating the barrier has had "devastating effects on the lives and livelihoods of Palestinians living in the occupied territories" and they should be compensated for their losses.

"We might say — sarcastically — along with Robert Frost that good walls make good neighbors. No, they do not," William McDermet III of Panama, N.Y., an ordained Disciples minister, told delegates attending the church's general assembly.

Quoting former President Ronald Reagan, he shouted into the microphone: "Say to Ariel Sharon, 'Tear down this wall.'"

Israel built the complex of walls, fences, trenches, barbed wire and electronic devices to protect itself from terrorists.

The barrier roughly follows the "Green Line," the 1949 cease-fire line that divided Israel from the West Bank until 1967, when Israel captured the territory. The fence also dips into the West Bank, cutting Palestinians off from their jobs and families. In 2004, the U.N. world court ruled that the structure is illegal and must be dismantled.

The vote by the Disciples of Christ follows passage of a similar resolution by the United Church of Christ earlier this month.

The resolution was denounced by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, who attended the congregation's general assembly in Portland.

"This resolution is an abomination," said Cooper.

"It demands that Israel take action that would put millions of its citizens in immediate harm's way...no other nation would ever be asked to do the same and as a result, this politically-driven resolution is functionally anti-Semitic," he said.

Cooper, who traveled to Portland along with a 25-year-old survivor of the Cafe Hillel suicide bombing, had hoped the young woman would be allowed to speak before the general assembly. But he said church leaders told him only congregation members could address the assembly during the debate.

"We came here to present a Jewish voice — but were not allowed to," said Cooper. "We have traditionally had very warm and very strong relations with Protestant groups....left unaddressed, these kinds of actions will begin to corrode" that, he said.

Tzippy Cohen, 25, of New York, who accompanied Cooper, said she came to tell the general assembly about what it was like to be inside Jerusalem's Cafe Hillel on Sept. 9, 2003, when a suicide bomber killed seven people.

"When I hear the words 'tear down the wall' — I hear exploding cafes, buses blowing up," she wrote in the statement she had hoped to read to the assembly.

In New York, the American Jewish Committee called the resolution "unfortunate," but stressed that a single resolution does not destroy an entire relationship, said David Elcott, who is the group's director for interreligious affairs.

While delegates of the 770,000-strong denomination that's based in Indianapolis overwhelmingly voted in favor of the resolution, several members spoke passionately against it.

"Who are we to tell our friends in Israel how to defend themselves?" said Jim Wilson of Coffeyville, Kan.

But the church also heard from 40-year-old Rula Shubeita, a Palestinian who belongs to the congregation and who flew in from Jerusalem to urge her church to pass the resolution.

The wall, she said, has divided her family — a 3-mile trip to visit her brother has turned into a 40-mile excursion.

"The Israelis claim they are building this for security. Obviously, they do so to take more Palestinian lands," she said.

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On the Net:

Disciples of Christ: http://www.disciples.org/

Simon Wiesental Center: http://www.wiesenthal.com

American Jewish Committee: http://www.ajc.rog