Israel-Palestine Issue Tensions Raised by Holy Week Prayer

Something as seemingly innocent as a prayer apparently can be explosive when involving the taut feelings of Palestinians and Israel’s Jews. That combustible mix has set off a Holy Week furor.

The uproar was ignited by a prayer prepared by the Middle East Council of Churches and distributed to U.S. church leaders, along with the council’s request that it be read during Palm Sunday services this weekend.

The prayer “seems to be extremely provocative, recalling the worst uses of Christian Holy Week as a club against Jews,” said the Rev. Elliott Wright of the U.S. National Conference of Christians and Jews.

Protests also came from Jewish organizations. The Dutch Council of Churches and Protestant churches in West Germany reportedly have declined to approve use of the prayer.

Criticism of the 400-word prayer focused mainly on three paragraphs, one of them dealing by implication with a Palestinian state, but not specifying it, saying in part:

“We come to Jerusalem . . . and we see . . . that people remain in agony and suffering. Strengthen those who . . . have been deprived of the right to live in dignity. . . . Free them from oppression; restore to them the right to life and to independence in their own land.”

The Middle East Council of Churches, embracing heavily Palestinian denominations, proposed this Sunday’s prayer as the start of a 50-day linking of world churches in prayers for Holy Land peace, culminating on Pentecost, June 1.

The Rev. Gabriel Habib, the council’s general secretary, said in a letter presenting the plan:

“We hope that the solidarity in prayer . . . will emphasize both the tragedy of the situation--the denial of the rights and dignity of the Palestinian people--and the faith that . . . the grievous wrongs can be righted.”

As for wording of the opening prayer itself, it may seem innocuous to many Christians, but critics point out its stickier connotations.

It “is a thinly veiled attack on the state of Israel in liturgical form,” said the American Jewish Committee, adding that using the prayer “would inject a divisive and polarizing element” into Christian services.

Wright, senior vice president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, which for a half century has worked for interfaith partnership, said the prayer could “cause Jewish-Christian tensions in U.S. communities.”

It is “a carefully constructed, ideologically subtle document,” he added. “Sentences and paragraphs do not always end up where you think they are headed.”

He said some consider the prayer “a pro-Palestinian political statement combined with a narrow, exclusive theological point of view.”

Rabbi A. James Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s interreligious affairs director, and the associate director, Judith H. Banki, said the prayer “is filled with mischievous innuendoes.”

Rudin and Banki said the wording “makes the reckless and unjustified claim that Palestinian Arabs are being deprived of their ‘very right to life’ by Israel.”

“Such language implies that the physical destruction of the Palestinian community is the goal of policy of Israel. This is a malicious slander,” they said.

Others have criticized portions that refer by implication to Israelis without naming them, saying in part:

“We come to Jerusalem . . . and we see that there are those who live in fear. . . . Free them from the illusion that depriving others of their rights, or even eliminating them, will provide security or reaffirm self-identity.”

The other criticized paragraph refers to Jerusalem itself and projects its unity in “one body,” equated with Christianity, saying:

“When we meet in you (Jerusalem) as one body . . . carrying the Good News, and when we bring to realization your justice on Earth, then will Jerusalem become the community of all believers.”

Rudin and Banki pointed out that many noted Christian theologians have publicly repudiated such “religious triumphalism,” and added that Jerusalem today is, in fact, a community of Jewish, Christian and Muslim believers.

The proposed prayer was distributed in this country to heads of denominations and to local ecumenical councils by the U.S. National Council of Churches, including most major Protestant and Eastern Orthodox bodies.

(In Los Angeles, however, Chuck Jones, director of the Southern California Ecumenical Council, said this week that he did not recall receiving the material. Charles Kimball, director of the Middle East office of the National Council, said by telephone that he knew the large Riverside Church in New York was going to use the prayer, but he had no idea of whether many denominations have sent the materials to local churches. “The controversy over it really stems from the recent interpretations given to it, not from the document itself,” Kimball said.)

A covering memorandum with the prayer said that the material “clearly reflects the perspective of the Middle East Council of Churches,” and was being sent at its request.

Wright said it was uncertain whether U.S. denominations would pass the text on to congregations.

“I expect that everyone would agree that prayer is in order for peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” Wright said. “Efforts to counteract anti-Semitism in no way diminish concern for the Palestinians and for a genuine and lasting peace in the area.”