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DATE: | 26 September, 2004 |
TYPE: | Action Item |
SCOPE: | Global |
SUBJ: | Stop the Anglican Church Move to Divest |
The Anglican Peace and Justice Network is a stridently anti-Israel group. Unfortunately, it is also an official arm of the worldwide Anglican Church, of which the Episcopal Church is the American branch. On September 22, 2004, the Anglican Peace and Justice Network, declaring that "collective punishment of the Palestinian people must be brought to an end," demanded instead the collective punishment of the Israeli people by means of a worldwide business boycott of Israel. For an Episcopal News Service article about this, go to the following URL:
In June, 2004, an anti-Israel faction within the Presbyterian Church USA succeeded in slipping a divestment resolution through that Church's General Assembly (at a time when most delegates were preoccupied with a debate on the ordination of gay clergy). Many Presbyterians are working hard to overturn that ill-conceived resolution, but they must overcome a well-organized campaign by a small but prominent group of Presbyterian leaders in thrall to Palestinian claims that deny the right of Israel to exist.
Both the Presbyterian and Anglican statements demand an unconditional "right of return" for Palestinian refugees. Despite the migration to Israel of most of the 900,000 Jewish refugees brutally evicted from Muslim countries after the creation of the State of Israel, Palestinians now outnumber Israelis. To call for a "return" of the numerous progeny of the 600,000 Palestinian refugees of 1948 is to call for the replacement of the State of Israel by a Palestinian Muslim state. In other words, it is code for the long-held Arab goal of the destruction of Israel.