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ACC's Sanctimonious Claptrap
by Andrew Carey
It is not very often that I pay heed to newspaper editorials but last Thursdays Daily Telegraph editorial summed up perfectly the Anglican Peace and Justice networks recommendation to the ACC to encourage that provinces disinvest from Israel.
The Telegraph editorial summed it up with the words "Sanctimonious Claptrap" and that is exactly what it was. Never has this group even paid attention to the fact that the former Archbishop of Canterbury was the very person who commenced the religious track of the Peace Process. A process that is still functioning, a few weeks ago Lord Carey himself launched three new centres in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel.
These centres are not slinging negative slogans at each other but are working hard at trying to find a lasting peace with justice. They are taking seriously the new opportunities that arise with Israel's disengagement from Gaza and part of the West Bank in a matter of days. It is these Israelis and Palestinians that we should support. Those who are taking real risks for peace.
I spend much of my life in Israel and Palestine, every month I sit with those committed to working for peace on both sides of the divide. I know the pain and hurt of both communities. I know it is not possible to undermine the pain and suffering of the Palestinians and know too the pain and fear living under the threat of terrorism that the Israelis have experienced.
Making peace is hard work. It is not for the faint hearted and it always requires working with both sides. If this group is really about peace why did they not even bother to go and see anybody from the Israeli Government? Or are they like so many other so called peace groups who only talk to those they like. That such a group should function in the name of the Anglican Church is a tragedy and that the ACC should pass this resolution is an even greater tragedy. As far as Government of Israel is concerned the work that Lord Carey courageously began happens in the name of the Anglican Church. All that has been happening since the signing of the first Alexandria Declaration for Peace in the Holy Land is now at risk.
Making peace is not quick or easy work the Israeli Palestinian conflict has been going on for years despite the difficulties in the progress toward peace at long last things are moving in the right directions. If the leader of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazin was prepared to sit down last week with Ariel Sharon why was this group not prepared to meet with the Government of Israel? All too often delegations come out for a few days and write definitive reports. I have spent years in the land and even now do not understand many of its complexities
This is not a prophetic action but the corporate action of a group of people who are too scared to take seriously the challenge to be true peace makers. This action will be seen as being not only anti Zionist but also anti-Semitic and I know for certain I will never be party to such action.
CANON ANDREW P B WHITE CEO OF THE FOUNDATION FOR RECONCILIATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Posted with permission of Canon Andrew White
Quote from last Thursdays Daily Telegraph's editorial page concerning the recommendation that the worldwide Anglican Communion should consider Divesting themselves of holdings in companies that support Israeli Occupation of territories in the Holy Land:
"The report is a piece of sanctimonious claptrap whose authors didn't even bother to talk to Ariel Sharon's government. It takes scant account of the trauma to which the second intifada has subjected Israeli civilians and endorses policies, such as the right of return of Palestinian refugees since 1948, that would spell the death of the Jewish state. It has rightly been condemned by, among others, the International Council of Christians and Jews, Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Sir Jonathan Sachs, the Chief Rabbi."
--Andrew Carey is a columnist with the Church of England Newspaper
