[saymaListserv] IMP^o^ 142a Appendix D - Israel/Palestine minute
Larry Ingle
lingle at bellsouth.net
Mon May 13 20:22:23 JEST 2002
Chattanooga meeting discussed this matter at its meeting for business
yesterday (the 12th) and decided, as our clerk will probably communicate,
that we wanted to reaffirm out commitment to the 1661 peace testimony.
One reason we chose to do this is that we are not sure to whom minutes like
this are addressed and what their purpose is. Are they designed to
influence public opinion? (If so, they need to be provisions for
circulating them more widely than merely our minutes.) Are they designed to
petition members of Congress or the administration, either U.S., Israeli, or
the Palestinian authority? (If so, they need to be sent to those people.)
Are they designed to express our own stand? (If so, they should require
less laboring over them than they are getting right now, or even perhaps
more laboring with less specifics. We tended to this last position, which
is why we believe that a reaffirmation of the peace testimony is adequate.)
I trust that those who are working on such statements will give some
thoughts to these questions and will be prepared to respond to them at
SAYMA.
For what it's worth.
Larry Ingle
Chattanogoa Meeting
----------
>From: "Mary Calhoun" <moriah at preferred.com>
>To: "sayma" <sayma at kitenet.net>
>Cc: <friends at Swarthmore.edu>, "GuilfordGwenErickson" <gerickso at guilford.edu>
>Subject: [saymaListserv] IMP^o^ 142a Appendix D - Israel/Palestine minute
>Date: Mon, May 13, 2002, 1:48 PM
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> IMP ^o^ Bulletin 142a
> Draft Israel/Palestine minute
> coming before Yearly Meeting (June 20-23)
> ........................................................................
> Appendix D (minute 10) - Spring Rep Meeting Minutes
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> (from the Administrative Assistant;
> Appendix D supplied by Carol Lamm, Recording Clerk, and Sharon
> Annis, Clerk)
>
>
> <|> The text below is from Appendix D, regarding Israel and
> Palestine,
> referred to by minute 10 from the 4-6-02 Rep Meeting.
>
> <|> In addition to the two minutes below, two earlier monthly meeting
> minutes on this concern have been presented to SAYMA --
> -- Crossville FM (see minute 20, YM '01)
> -- Celo FM (see minute 14, Fall '01 Rep Mtg)
>
> <|> The contact for work on the draft minute is Sallie Prugh --
> 3122 Monroe St, Columbia SC 29205
> ingham123 at aol.com 803-254-0626
>
> <|> West Knoxville Minute on Israeli-Palestinian Relations
>
> West Knoxville Friends are deeply disturbed by events in Palestine
> and Israel, especially the killing and maiming of people on both sides,
> the destruction of the social and economic infrastructure of Palestine,
> and attacks on Palestinian government officials. These actions have
> lost all sense of who is counter-attacking and impair the Palestinian
> Authority's capacity to restrain individually initiated violence against
> Israelis.
> We also strongly oppose the confiscation of land by Israeli troops
> and the violent ghettoization of Palestine. We are disappointed in the
> reporting of the American media including the press. While many Jewish
> people and other Israelis are peacefully protesting the government's use
> of force against Palestinians, the media fails to report this and
> instead focuses on sensationalizing the continuing violence of one side
> against the other. The flight of Palestinian refugees to other Arab
> nations puts undue economic pressure on those nations and results in
> those nations supporting insurgency among the Palestinians.
> We urge that Palestinians and Israelis acknowledge each other's
> humanity and recognize that continued violence will not resolve their
> conflicts. We call on the United States government to cease supplying
> weapons and intelligence to the Israeli government and instead encourage
> dialogue and put pressure on the Israeli government to return land to
> the Palestinians as required by United Nations resolutions 242 and 338,
> as agreed to in the 1967 accord. We demand that the Israeli government
> and the Palestinian Authority stop the killing. We call upon them, with
> the support of the United States and the international community, to
> resume negotiations and to negotiate until they arrive at a resolution
> that respects the human rights of all the people of Israel and
> Palestine.
>
> <|> Columbia Minute on the Middle East
>
> We believe that there is that of God in the people of Israel and of
> Palestine, even those who are fighting and engaging in violent acts. We
> cherish both peoples and the lands in which they live.
> We believe that violence does nothing but create more violence and
> will never allow the people of this region to live next to each other in
> peace and the fullness of human joy.
> We acknowledge the centuries of conflict, oppression,
> discrimination, poverty and segregation that have led to the violence,
> ". . . visiting the sins of the fathers to the 3rd and 4th
> generations."
> Both sides of the conflict as well as many outside interests
> (groups, countries, and alliances) have caused or increased the
> violence. With such a weighty history, stopping the fighting and
> creating peace will be a long and arduous task, but it is imperative
> that we find ways to start.
> As Quakers we have struggled to suggest ways that this conflict
> might be resolved including economic sanctions, political pressure and
> supporting peace negotiations. Several Monthly Meetings have approved
> Minutes listing policies and activities that the international community
> or the United States Government should follow.
> This is a terrible crisis and one fraught with conflicting religious
> conviction, fear of retaliation and annihilation, redress of past
> wrongs, and struggle over power and economic control.
> Beyond the political responses that we as individuals may choose to
> make as Quakers we will continue to hold all of the people in the area
> in the light. We will find ways to support individuals and groups who
> are seeking peaceful solutions (the Israeli physicians who are going
> into the West Bank to treat the Palestinian people, the Israeli soldiers
> who are refusing to go to the West Bank to destroy homes, AFSC staff who
> are working on peace in the Middle East). We will actively support
> efforts such as the peace tax fund, which would allow us to live more
> fully the Quaker Peace Testimony. We will support the Quaker Meeting and
> School in Ramallah in their search for peaceful solutions. We will talk
> with our Jewish and Islamic friends, relatives and neighbors about this
> crisis and about our belief that there is a peaceful solution, which
> although difficult to achieve, will be better than violence. We will
> search for "ways that open" which will help lead the world to a time of
> peace.
>
> ~~~~~~ end ^o^ ~~~~~~ 1stpost 051102 ~~~~~~
>
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