By Emily K. Alhadeff, Assistant Editor, JTNews
“Israel should not be allowed to speak on behalf of world Jewry,” said Omar Barghouti at St. Mark’s Cathedral on the evening of January 5. “It’s a colonial state, it’s an occupier; it cannot speak for the Jews.” The room erupted in applause. “The lobby is doing its best to bully or to entrap the church leaders into an endless, useless dialogue that leads to absolutely nothing.”
The Palestinian activist and a founder of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, Barghouti is the author of a new book, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. He was invited to speak by St. Mark’s Mideast Focus Ministry, the Episcopal Bishop’s Committee on Israel/Palestine, and 10 other Palestinian advocacy groups from around the Puget Sound.
Barghouti’s talk, “BDS Israel: The Legacy of Dr. King and Mandela,” was followed by a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) workshop the following night.
Just before Christmas, after news of the Jan. 5—6 events reached leaders within the Jewish community, Wendy Rosen of the American Jewish Committee, Zach Carstensen of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Rob Jacobs of Stand-WithUs Northwest, and Hilary Bernstein of the Anti-Defamation League implored Bishop Greg Rickel of the Diocese of Olympia, of which St. Mark’s is a congregation, to enter into “an ongoing dialogue to confer on areas of disagreement” with the Jewish community.
“It felt to us like the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Rosen said. “Had it just been Omar, that would have been one thing…but it’s been one event after another.”
Among those events include one in September that featured Israeli new historian Ilan Pappé of the University of Exeter in Britain and the author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, among other books critical of Israel. Prof. Mark Rosenblum, of Queens College in New York, who shared the stage with Pappé and considers himself liberal and pro-Israel, criticized St. Mark’s for hosting an unbalanced discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On more than one occasion, St. Mark’s has also hosted Reverend Naim Ateek, a Palestinian liberation theologian who has compared the Palestinians to Christ and Israelis to Romans.
According to the letter to Bishop Rickel, “Mr. Barghouti’s activism frequently shifts to the vitriolic describing Israel and the Jewish people as committing “˜gradual ethnic cleansing to Judaize their space;’ “˜apartheid;’ “˜common Nazi practices;’ and a “˜slow genocide.’”
“We were at the end of our rope,” Rosen said.
On Jan. 6, Rickel met with Rabbi Daniel Weiner of Temple De Hirsch Sinai to set the dialogue in motion. Weiner, who has worked with Rickel in the past on maintaining good relations with the Jewish community, wrote immediately following their meeting that “the group at St. Mark’s that has spear-headed these programs, and some within the Diocese, I believe do not constitute a monolithic reflection of the views of the Diocese any more than any Jewish group reflects the entirety of Jewish Seattle on Israel.”
Rickel, in an email, said, “I remain open and hopeful for dialogue.”
But Rosen remains skeptical.
“I’m concerned that the leadership of St. Mark’s may not be as interested” in that dialogue as much as Rickel and the Jewish community are, she said.
“I don’t see any evidence that they want to move this relationship to a positive place,” she said. “My frustration is that I feel St. Mark’s — they talk the talk but they don’t walk the walk. They verbally extend the olive branch.”
The church’s assistant bishop, Cabell Tennis, moderated Barghouti’s talk. Tennis, who calls himself “anti-Israeli government,” was involved with the South African divestiture movement and like other BDS activists he connects the two situations.
“At least in the Middle East the Anglicans are Palestinians, so we are connected to our fellow church folks,” he said. “More and more BDS movements are cropping up mainly because it’s been so frustrating to get any real movement.”
The U.S. Congress, he told JTNews, is not just supportive of Israel, but it is owned by Israel through big dollars from the Christian right and organizations like AIPAC.
“It’s kind of like the gun lobby,” he said.
During his talk, Barghouti repeatedly emphasized non-violent struggle and taking the moral high ground. He encouraged the Episcopalian and Presbyterian movements to grow their support of BDS.
“If you cannot help us in the struggle, do your part to end complicity,” he said at the end of the talk. “This is what Martin Luther King would have done.”
Barghouti received a standing ovation.
According to Tennis, the Anglican Church does not have immediate plans to ideologically divest from Israel; however, “We have a resolution going through the Episcopal Church that doesn’t say we support BDS, but Steadfast Hope, which includes looking at BDS.” (Steadfast Hope is a guide for peace and reconciliation produced by the Presbyterian Church.)
Weiner noted that while Rickel cannot control the ideologies of individual church leaders, he said, “I think it’s very problematic. If the church as a whole — if their vestry decides to [adopt BDS measures] it would be disturbing and problematic.”
Jewish leaders say that if the church continues to move in a pro-BDS direction, both the Christian and the Jewish communities will suffer.
“You can’t say a dialogue isn’t useful when a dialogue hasn’t occurred,” said Carstensen of the Jewish Federation. “It alienates Jews. It alienates mainstream Christians.”
Both groups have a lot in common, he added, especially in the realm of humanitarian work. “Tikkun olam and Christian social teaching are not far apart at all. If the Episcopal Church divests fully, then you shut the door on those opportunities where we have a lot of common ground.”
“The most important thing,” Weiner said, is “there is a silent, albeit apathetic, majority that doesn’t know or care that these [BDS activities] are being done in their name. If they knew more about it they would not be happy about it. That’s what I’m going to leverage.”