But Vatican Rips Anti-Zionism
...leaders of the largest Presbyterian denomination officially equated the Jewish state with apartheid South Africa and have voted to stop investing in Israel.Eric J. Greenberg
With the decision, approved in a 431-62 vote at the 216th annual General Assembly of Presbyterian Church (USA), the church, boasting nearly 3 million members, is believed to be the largest organization or institution to join the divestment campaign against Israel.
It is the first Christian denomination to do so, according to Sister Patricia Wolfe, executive director of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of 275 Christian denominations.
"This now raises the issue," Wolfe said, "and will cause ICCR to have a discussion." In 2001 the combined value of the church's foundation and pension fund was estimated at $7 billion.
Leaders of Presbyterian Church (USA), a mainline Protestant church, approved several other anti-Israel resolutions at their gathering in Richmond, Va., and also refused to halt funding for "messianic congregations" that target Jews for conversion.
The Presbyterian resolutions came just as Jewish organizations were hailing the results of a historic international interfaith meeting in Buenos Aires last week, where Roman Catholic officials for the first time signed on to a document equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism. The declaration, also signed by Jewish communal leaders, calls for "the total rejection of antisemitism in all its forms, including anti-Zionism as a more recent manifestation of antisemitism."
The declaration also decries terrorism, calling it a sin against man and God, and declaring that "terror, in all its forms, and killing 'in the name of God' can never be justified."
"While the Catholics are decrying antisemitism in any form, it appears as if the Presbyterians are pretending it doesn't exist," said Rabbi Gary.
Forward 26.Jul.04
Vatican officials are playing down a recent Catholic-Jewish statement that condemned "anti-Zionism," insisting that it does not mark a shift in Vatican policy towards Israel or the Middle East.
The statement, issued at the end of a Catholic-Jewish meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 5-8, was quickly hailed by Jewish leaders as marking a[n] "historic" turn in official Catholic attitudes.
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A senior Vatican official told NCR July 22 that when the declaration was read out in Buenos Aires, a Catholic participant observed that the Holy See had already addressed anti-Zionism in a 1988 document of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace titled "The Church and Racism: Towards a More Fraternal Society." The language in the Buenos Aires declaration, this official said, should be read in light of the earlier document. In paragraph 15, the 1988 document states:
"� As if some had nothing to learn from the crimes of the past, certain organizations, with branches in many countries, keep alive the anti-Semite racist myth, with the support of networks of publications. Terrorist acts which have Jewish persons or symbols as their target have multiplied in recent years and show the radicalism of such groups. Anti-Zionism - which is not of the same order, since it questions the State of Israel and its policies - serves at times as a screen for anti-Semitism, feeding on it and leading to it."This text, the Vatican official said, makes it more clear that "anti-Zionism" is not identical with anti-Semitism, and that one can question the policies of Israel without automatically being guilty of prejudice.
John L. Allen Jr.
National Catholic Reporter 23.Jul.04
