PORTLAND, Ore., June 25, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC deplored the adoption by the Presbyterian Church (USA) of a report that lays the foundation for the denomination to repudiate the vision of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Commissioners endorsed "Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace" by a vote of 429 to 129. The report was approved despite efforts to send it back to the committee that wrote it for a full and fair examination of the current situation and the role that all parties need to play in reconciliation and peace.
"For those who seek an enduring Israeli-Palestinian peace it is deeply disappointing that a major Protestant denomination in the U.S. with deep roots in the Middle East has chosen to be a cheerleader for those whose vision of peace does not include the State of Israel," said Emily Soloff, AJC Associate Director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations, who attended the PCUSA General Assembly in Portland, Oregon. "Sadly, efforts to moderate the Presbyterian trajectory toward rejection of peace were derailed."
The report is filled with inaccuracies, innuendos and unsubstantiated claims. It perniciously leads readers to the conclusion that the goal of two states is unattainable and that Israel is solely responsible.
In 2014, the PCUSA GA called for a review of the Church's support for two states for Israelis and Palestinians, but Church representatives chose instead to use that review process to create yet another one-sided document that condemns Israel.
As it did in 2010 with its notoriously biased Middle East Study Commission Report, the Church chose to follow those who prefer rejection over reconciliation and punitive language over peaceful pursuit.
SOURCE AJC
CONTACT: Kenneth Bandler, AJC Director of Media Relations, 212.891.6771, bandlerk@ajc.org
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