Proposed Document Asks Presbyterian Denomination to Condemn Israel's 'Apartheid Against the Palestinian People

There's a controversial Presbyterian Church (USA) -- referred to as the PC(USA) -- document floating around that may cause unease among those individuals and institutions standing in support of Israel. It seems that some in the denomination, which is different from the Presbyterian Church in America (see editor's note below this article) and claims to have 11,000 congregations and 2.3 million members nationwide, are taking a hard-line stance on what they're calling Israel's "apartheid" policies against the Palestinian people.

(Related: Jewish Groups Accuse Presbyterian Church of Facilitating Anti-Israeli & Anti-Semitic Sentiment)

A document, entitled "Recognition that Israel’s Laws, Policies, and Practices Constitute Apartheid Against the Palestinian People," will be presented at the denomination's General Assembly this summer. The proposal, which uses the controversial word "apartheid" 91 times, says that "Israel’s laws, policies, and practices constitute apartheid against the Palestinian people" and it urges the church body to intervene to "seek appropriate ways to bring an end to Israeli apartheid."

Just to clarify for understanding's sake, apartheid means, very literally, "any system or practice that separates people according to race, caste, etc.," thus the document is calling for the entire denomination to label Israel as a discriminatory culprit in the ongoing Middle Eastern political drama.

"This rationale will demonstrate how Israel’s practices and actions in the occupied Palestinian territories combined with Israel’s physical changes to the land and infrastructure of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, fit the United Nations and World Court definitions of apartheid," the document proclaims. Here are some select portions that showcase the overall sentiment presented within it (you can read the entire proposal here):

...Palestinian land and businesses have been expropriated, homes demolished, and property and farmland destroyed as a half-a-million Israeli settlers have moved into the West bank, including East Jerusalem.   The illegal settlement colonies, the bypass roads that connect them, and the Separation Wall imprison Palestinians in isolated enclaves, eviscerate the Palestinian economy, and prevent the creation of a viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent Palestinian state.  And the pace of Israeli human rights abuses and violation of international law appears to increase every year.

We support the state of Israel and want it to live up to its potential to be a democracy with equal rights for all people living in security and prosperity.   It is therefore with pain and sorrow that friends of Israel witness Israel’s oppressive policies and actions in the West Bank. [...]

...as Presbyterians we believe the prophetic mission of the church is to speak the Word of God courageously, honestly and lovingly in the local context and in the midst of daily life; following the example of Jesus, the church is called to stand alongside the oppressed to help bring about justice, peace and reconciliation.  It is because of this call that we must sometimes get out of our comfort zone and risk controversy and criticism from people or organizations with which we are in relationship.  It is because of this call that we must recognize what we witness in occupied Palestine, which is that Israel’s laws, practices, and polices constitute apartheid against the Palestinian people.

"Silence in the face of evil was wrong then, and it is wrong now," the document reads, referring to the deafening silence many Christians maintained during the Holocaust.

In what looks to be a January 2012 church bulletin posted on the Westminster Presbyterian Church (Wooster, Ohio) web site (the church where the document appears to have been crafted), Pastor Andries "Dries" Coetzee shared his deep support for the document and the opinions held within it. While Coetzee, who was born in South Africa, admits that he was told in seminary that it is best to remain neutral when it comes to addressing controversial issues, he says he disagrees on this particular overture.

"It is with sadness that I traveled to Israel and Palestine last year only to observe very much the same world of my country of origin, South Africa," he wrote, reiterating his support for the document. "In fact, many South African anti-apartheid activists like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu will tell you that the conditions in Israel/Palestine are even worse than that of apartheid South Africa."

"God is using Westminster and the Presbyterian Church (USA) in a very special way," Coetzee contends.

But not everyone in the PC(USA) denomination agrees. In fact, one woman -- Myra Warne, an ordained Elder who currently serves as the Clerk of Session for Brighton Presbyterian Church in Zanesville, Ohio -- was so disturbed by the document that she reached out to The Blaze. Warne, who oversees her church's records on official business (baptisms, ordinations and other related items), keeps the minutes at official meetings and has heard, first hand, about this overture.

On January 18, she says she first came across the controversial apartheid document. It was previously presented at a "special called meeting" of the Muskingum Valley Presbytery (a presbytery is a governing body within the PC(USA) church; Coetzee's church is a member of this same presbytery) on January 10.

"[Our] Presbytery typically has four-six scheduled meetings per year," Warne said in an e-mail interview with The Blaze. "'Special' meetings are called when [there is] urgent business that cannot wait."

Warne went on to say that another meeting had been held in December and that it seemed as though this particular gathering was called primarily to address the Israeli proposal as well as some budgetary items. Thus, it appears that the Israeli business, in the eyes of church leaders, was too pressing to wait on.