US Protestant-Jewish Group Arrives in Israel to find Solution to Divestment Feud

The U.S.'s Jewish and Christian leaders arrived in Israel yesterday in an unprecedented joint-planned trip to the Israel and Palestinian territories to help mediate in serious disagreements over Israel’s security barrier as well as the use of divestment by mainline Protestant groups to instigate change in the conflict.
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The five-day trip which runs until 22 September is designed to find a common dialogue between American Jews and Protestant Christians in the search for peace, as well as design ways in which Palestinians and Israelis working toward the goal of a two-state settlement can be better supported.

The visit was planned jointly by the group, with each group planning two days each, and will include meetings with Israeli and Palestinian public officials, religious leaders and scholars in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem. The delegation will also meet with victims of the conflict to hear their stories of suffering.

“I pray that our peace mission to Jerusalem will help overcome our disagreements over specific policies. We owe it to our respective religious communities to pursue peace, and to support those in Israel and the Palestinian territories who are committed to two independent states living side by side in the Holy Land,” said Dr Elcott, U.S. Director of Interreligious Affairs of The American Jewish Committee.

Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, Director of Interfaith Affairs of the Anti-Defamation League, said: “This trip is meant to knock everyone off their high chairs.” He added that the problem was not so much divestment but “a greater misunderstanding that occurs between Jews and mainline Protestants over Israel, the Holy Land, covenant, mission, ultimately rightful claims to land and space”.

The 17-strong delegation representatives of eight Christian denominations and national organisations, including the Vidette Bullock Mixon, director of Corporate Relations and Social Concerns of the United Methodist Church and Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana, Associate General Secretary for Interfaith Relations at the National Council of Churches.

Six national Jewish organisations and religious movements will be represented by Jewish members of the visiting group, including Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor and Dr David Elcott.

The delegation will go on a “walk through Jewish history” tour today, as well as visit the site of a terrorist attack and meet with Knesset members, one of the negotiators in the Camp David peace talks lead by the then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and a representative of the Vatican in Israel.

The stay will also include a visit to Bethlehem University, as well as a visit to a section of the security section, meetings with Palestinian leaders, and a visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Authority. The group will also meet to Arab Israelis and with Palestinians whose homes were demolished by the Israel Defense Forces.