JAT Action Alert: 26 September 2004

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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:

       JAT-Action.org/EPISC-01.htm

ACTION

  1. Sign the petition posted at:

    www.petitiononline.com/anglic1/petition.html

    A similar petition protesting the anti-Semitic resolutions passed by the Presbyterian Church USA has gained more than 10,000 signatures and has received significant media attention.

    Actual divestment by the Anglican movement still requires the approval of the Anglican Consultative Council and of the Anglican Archbishops. It is, therefore, important to take action now.

    To make your signature effective, you must first click the "Preview Your Signature" button and then the "Approve Signature" button. You will receive an automatic email confirmation and no further email. Note that the petition site will default to keeping your email contact information secret (even from the petition authors).

  2. Forward the contents of this message to other people you know who would support this effort.

BACKGROUND

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.

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