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[This item was posted on WorldNetDaily.com on January 15, 2005. It could be viewed originally at the following link.]
A group of Christians and Jews plans to hold a demonstration tomorrow at a Presbyterian church hosting a program presented by the International Solidarity Movement, which supports "armed struggle" and has advocated the destruction of Israel.
The Christian Jewish Anti-Terror Alliance said the protest at the Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church in Somerville, Mass., will take place as the program begins at 11:45 a.m.
The church is hosting a program and brunch entitled "A Report Back from Palestine" at which the Boston support group for the International Solidarity Movement, or ISM, will speak to the congregation.
"The time has come for Christians to stand with Israel against the terrorists who for 50 years have been trying to destroy the Jewish state, and who have brought suffering and death to thousands of Israelis and Arabs, said Dennis Hale of the Christian Jewish Anti-Terror Alliance.
Hale, a member of a local Episcopal parish and teacher of political science at Boston College, said "the Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church has decided to stand with the terrorists instead."
He insisted ignorance is no excuse, since the ISM has made it intentions and loyalties "crystal clear."
"The Christians who stand with them are not defending peace and justice; they are defending religious fanatics and killers," Hale said.
The ISM says in its mission statement that the Palestinians have a right to "armed struggle" and its leaders have endorsed suicide bombing as a "noble" form of jihad. The group's media coordinator, Flo Rosovski wrote, "'Israel' is an illegal entity that should not exist."
Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church is a member of the Presbyterian Church, USA, or PCUSA, which is one of several Presbyterian denominations.
As WorldNetDaily reported, in July the General Assembly of the PCUSA voted 431-62 to divest from companies that are invested in Israel.
But the assembly called "terrorism—whether state, group, or individual—immoral because it wrongfully and deliberately attacks innocent civilians," and is "a dead-end alternative to a negotiated settlement of the conflict."
In October, an official PCUSA delegation visited Lebanon and met with leaders of the terrorist group Hezbollah.
Elder Ronald Stone, speaking on Al Manar, the televised voice of Hezbollah, said "we treasure the precious words of Hezbollah and your expression of good will towards the American people ... ."
Since its founding in 1982, Hezbollah has been responsible for hundreds of attacks against Israelis and Americans, including the 1983 suicide bomb attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 200. Hezbollah also attacked the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992 and the Israeli cultural center in Buenos Aires in 1994.
Three top church officials responded, stating, "The visit to Hezbollah and the comments on that occasion by members of this Presbyterian group do not reflect the official position of the Presbyterian Church."
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