A plan to develop a comprehensive policy statement on the Middle East for the National Council of Churches which includes sending a fact-finding group to the Middle East early in 1980 has been hailed by a Jewish spokesman as “a constructive, responsible and statesmanlike approach for dealing with the Middle East issues in all their complexity.”
Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee in praising the plan, also said it constituted a rejection by the National Council general board, which held its semi-annual meeting here last weekend, of a “one-sided, strident” resolution, “scapegoating Israel” as the so-called “unique” violator of human rights in the Middle East which was offered by the Antiochian Christian Archdiocese of New York and All North America.
Continuing, Tanenbaum said the resolution, which called for the suspension of all U.S. aid to Israel, “studiously avoided making a single reference to the flagrant denial of human rights of Christians, Jews, and Kurds in Iran; of Copts in Egypt and Ethiopia; of Christians and Jews in Libya, South Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon, in which the PLO has played its consistently destructive and violent role.”
Meanwhile, the Antiochian church abandoned a plan to seek to add Zehdi Labib Terzi, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s observer at the United Nations, to its list of proxies on the governing board. Tanenbaum said he attended the sessions of the general board with Rabbi James Rudin, the associate interreligious affairs director, as “official fraternal delegates.”
SERIES OF TASKS ASSIGNED TO THE PANEL
Tanenbaum said that two weeks ago, a special Middle East panel of 16 influential leaders of the main Protestant and Orthodox denominations in the National Council was set up. The Antiochian resolution was turned over to the special panel earlier last week. Its extremist position was found unacceptable by many National Council members.
Tanenbaum said the special panel was assigned a series of tasks, one of them involving the projected fact-finding trip to the Middle East late February and early March. Basically, the panel will seek to organize a series of discussions and meetings with Christian and Jewish leaders, both in the United States and in the Middle East, to develop approaches for the projected comprehensive Middle East policy.
Preparation of a detailed outline of issues, development of issue papers, a series of forums to discuss the issue papers both ins.
Preparation of a detailed outline of issues, development of issue papers, a series of forums to discuss the issue papers both inside and outside of the National Council, and review and drafting of a new policy statement are among the basic tasks assigned to the special panel.
In January and early February, the panel will hold open hearings on the proposed policy statement of which representatives of concerned organizations may request time to speak. Tanenbaum said the AJCommittee bad been offered and had accepted an invitation to appear at one of the open hearings.
Also scheduled are informal discussions by the panel with selected groups concerned with the Middle East, such as Jewish, Arab Christian or Palestinian representatives.
During the Middle East visit, the panel will seek to meet with Arab Christians and Moslem religious, cultural and political leaders. The visit will focus on human rights, the PLO, the security needs of the peoples in the region, policy related to the holy places, and the extent of the exodus in the region due to “religious, cultural and economic oppression” in the countries of the region.
Tanenboum said that it would include examination not only of charges of Christian Arabs being driven from Jerusalem, but also Jews being forced out of Arab countries. He said “we are insisting” that in the panel’s examination of such displacements, “the situation of Jews driven out Arab countries be given appropriate consideration.”
The panel also will seek opportunities to discuss its concerns with government leaders in the Middle East and will develop recommendations for consideration by the governing board on such issues as National Council recognition of the PLO human rights violations “or other issues assigned to it or deemed essential.”
The panel is under instructions to assimilate all of its findings before April 1 and to advise the National Council policy development work group as it writes its final draft for a first reading in May at the next general board meeting. (By Ben Gallob)
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