From: If Americans Knew

Christian Evangelicals increasingly support Palestinian human rights

Alison Weir
If Americans Knew
September 26, 2014

An article in Middle East Quarterly, a pro-Israel publication, reports that support for Israel is eroding among American evangelical Christians, with only 30 percent currently stating support for Israel above Palestinians.

This trend is even more pronounced among youth, according to an article by David Brog, Jewish-American executive director of “Christians United For Israel (CUFI), a major pro-Israel organization. Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu has called CUFI “a vital part of Israel’s national security” and columnist Charles Kauthammer has said, “I do not know of an organization in the world more important to Israel than CUFI.”

Brog’s article, “The End of Evangelical Support for Israel?”

[…]

Much of the increased awareness of the situation, Brog reports, comes from evangelical experts on the Middle East who are speaking and writing widely on this issue, producing documentaries, organizing trips to the region, and creating conferences to inform Christians on the facts.

In the last few years three documentaries were made by Christians specifically for Christians to inform them on Palestine: With God on Our Side, Little Town of Bethlehem, and The Stones Cry Out. They were created by, respectively, Porter Speakman, a former Youth with a Mission member, Mart Green, chairman of the board of trustees of Oral Roberts University, and Yasmine Perni, an Italian journalist. Brog also names evangelicals such as Jim Wallis, Stephen Sizer, Tony Campolo, Serge Duss and sons Brian and Matt, and Palestinian Christians such as Sami Awad and Naim Ateek as among those educating Christians on Palestine.

Christian Universities and Palestine

Brog reports that while numerous people are aware of the work on college campuses for justice in Palestine, “many observers do not realize that such efforts are also “being waged on America’s Christian campuses.”

In his article Brog describes activities on four of America’s major Christian colleges:

Wheaton College

Brog reports that Wheaton College in Illinois is “commonly referred to as the “evangelical Harvard,” noting, “Some of the most prominent church leaders in America have graduated from Wheaton, including the Rev. Billy Graham, Sen. Dan Coats (Republican, Indiana), and George W. Bush’s former speechwriter Michael Gerson.”

Today, Wheaton is the home of Professor Gary Burge, an author who speaks widely on Israel-Palestine. “When Christians United for Israel (CUFI) announced plans to hold an event at Wheaton in January 2009, Burge went on the offensive,” Brog reports. “CUFI’s student members came under such intense pressure that they moved their event off-campus: There would be no pro-Israel event at the evangelical Harvard.”

Oral Roberts University

Brog writes that Oral Roberts University “has deep conservative Christian roots.” “Oral Roberts himself was a Pentecostal televangelist and a strong friend of Israel,” a number of major preachers in America graduated from the school, and pro-Israel preacher John Hagee has been on its board of trustees.

Today, however, the chair of the board of trustees chair is the aforementioned Mart Green, whose film is a powerful depiction of the Palestinian nonviolence movement. The university’s current president is Dr. William “Billy” Wilson, who was named as a speaker for what Brog calls “the leading anti-Israel Christian conference,” Christ at the Checkpoint, held at Bethlehem Bible College in March 2014.

Bethel University

Brog writes that Bethel is “representative of the direction that America’s Christian colleges are taking.” He notes, “Like many Christian schools, Bethel emphasizes racial reconciliation and cultural openness and has accordingly developed numerous opportunities for its students to study abroad.”

 

Entire Article Here

Related:

(video) Alison Weir: History of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict — “Come to Palestine, Americans, and see your tax dollars at work, millions and millions of them, every day, and weep with me for our victims…”

(video) “Life In Occupied Palestine,” Anna Baltzer: A wonderfully moving introduction to the plight of the Palestinians, in simple, everyday terms — Checkpoints, settlements, Israeli activism, 1948 War refugees, censorship, the Wall, ongoing annexation of Palestinian land — “It is five times more likely for an ISRAELI SOLDIER to commit SUICIDE than to be killed in a terrorist attack. So when people talk about this occupation as helping the Jewish people, they don’t realize how many Israelis are actually against it, and how IMPORTANT it is FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE AS WELL AS the PALESTINIAN people to end this”

(video) Israeli settlers uproot Palestinians’ OLIVE TREES in occupied West Bank — 8,000 trees, some HUNDREDS OF YEARS OLD!

(video – real history) Miko Peled: The General’s Son & Return of the General’s Son — Israel’s war crimes & dehumanization must stop. There is a better solution.

(video) Miko Peled: Israeli General’s Son – Geneva 5/14/14 — “Israeli historians have been validating what Palestinians have said all along. It was not the Palestinians that began an assault. The Zionist militia began a massive campaign against an unarmed civilian population that lasted for twelve months with the CLEAR INTENTION of completing the ETHNIC CLEANSING of Palestine.”

(video) Miko Peled: Myths of 1967 (Israel’s Six Day War)

(video) The Dirty Truth About Israel — Real history that mainstream & ‘Christian’ media won’t tell US

(video) Israeli School Books’ Racist Representation of Palestinians: Israeli General’s Daughter, Nurit Peled-Elhanan — Priming Israeli children for military service

Hamas Was Founded by Mossad — Israeli PM Golda Meir saw this as a an opportunity to counterbalance the rise of Arafat’s PLO

(video) Ron Paul: HAMAS ESTABLISHED BY ISRAEL To Counter Yasser Arafat — “”So through Israel we helped establish Hamas. Then we have elections. Then Hamas becomes dominant. So we have to kill them”

(video) ISRAELIS CHEER AS CIVILIANS ARE MURDERED IN GAZA

(video) Inside Israel’s Pro-War Nationalist Camp — WE’RE HUMANS; THEY’RE ANIMALS” — Israeli soldier • “The most moral thing to do is to FLATTEN GAZA into a parking lot” — fmr. ISRAELI *PARLIAMENT* MEMBER • “A Jew is a soul; an Arab is a…”

Israelis Who Cheered On Missile Strikes Threatened to Destroy CNN Reporter’s Car

(video) Jews’ Racial Hate Rally: “A JEW IS a darling. AN ARAB IS a son of a b—” “May the Israel army win and f— up the Arabs. … Death to the Arabs!”

Bombing Gaza Like ‘Mowing the Lawn’: Israeli hardliners JOKE about the periodic need to decimate each new generation of Palestinians

Jews for Justice: The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict — The root cause is clear. During the 1948 war, 750,000 Palestinians fled in terror or were actively expelled from their ancestral homeland and turned into refugees. The state of Israel then refused to allow them to return and either destroyed their villages entirely or expropriated their land, orchards, houses, businesses and personal possessions for the use of the Jewish population. This was the birth of the state of Israel.

(video) Israeli School Books’ Racist Representation of Palestinians: Israeli General’s Daughter, Nurit Peled-Elhanan — Priming Israeli children for military service

Israeli General’s Daughter: How Israeli School Textbooks Teach Kids to Hate

(video) ABC Manipulates Truth to Fit Pro-Israel Bias | Weapons of Mass Distraction

(video!) Dead Palestinians Don’t Matter to Mainstream Media

(video) Israel Targeting Civilian with Banned Weapons

Sarah Palin demonstrates why most evangelicals dissed Ron Paul, who wanted to bring the troops home. ‘Christians’ have two sets of books: one for US and one for THEM (“who don’t deserve rights”). THEY’re not our ‘neighbor’ whom Jesus commanded US to love as much as ourselves. Maybe that’s why most evangelicals refuse to investigate 9/11. If ‘THEY’ didn’t take down the towers…???

(video) 5 Reasons Why Israel is an Apartheid State

Wonderful Israelis Soldiers refuse to serve in Gaza! — “We will not bomb children”

Father, forgive me, I will not fight for your Israel—Omer Goldman, daughter of a former Mossad chief, tells why she prefers jail to the military draft

Pentecostals in Palestine – 6 minute trailer

[Photos] Rocket Comparison: Aftermath of Hamas rocket attack on Israel vs AFTERMATH of ISRAELI ROCKET ATTACK ON GAZA!

Micael Grenholm: Blessing Israel = Ignoring Gaza? — WWJD! “What would Jesus do? Would He be silent when people with the “wrong” nationality were dying? Would He bomb Gaza and say “whoops” when an 11-month baby was killed? NO!!He would proclaim peace for the nations, heal the sick, help the poor and bring salvation to the terrorists!”

Greg Boyd: In the kingdom of God, we are not allowed to have any enemies. All body-bags are equally tragic.

Jesus: “HOW DARE YOU PROMOTE MASS MURDER IN MY NAME!!!” — WWJB?

[5-minute video] “Israel started this not Hamas” — Actually both sides are responsible, which the MSM carefully covers up

[music video] Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) ‘Song for Gaza’: We shall overcome — End the blockade of Gaza — WWJD?!!

(video) Ray McGovern: Israel/Washington Dehumanize Palestinians — Like blades of grass that have to be mowed periodically — Israeli Children’s textbooks don’t even show pictures of Palestinians

Ray McGovern: Willing to risk his life to help Israel be humane to the Palestinians

Red Cross on the Gaza blockade: Israel is in clear violation of international humanitarian law | What Would Jesus Do?

The Attack on the USS Liberty — Purpose: (1) to hide Israel’s illegal actions in the 6-Day War and (2) to bring America into the war by blaming Egypt for sinking the Liberty

‘The USS Liberty’: America’s Most Shameful Secret — Israeli warships closed and poured machine gun fire into the crowded life rafts, sinking two. As American sailors were being massacred in cold blood, a rescue mission by US Sixth Fleet carrier aircraft was mysteriously aborted on orders from the White House

Dead In The Water – The Sinking of the USS Liberty — Israel murders Americans & LBJ/McNamara cover-up!

Israel, the highest rate of prostitution in the world (CNN) | One million visits made by clients every month to brothels in Israel (population 7 million) | “For this we yearned?”

Sex and Lies in Israel: What would be the media response if the Pope issued an edict saying Catholic girls should sexually seduce enemies of the Church? Certainly such would be on the front pages of every newspaper in Europe and America, but when Jewish religious authorities make such a pronouncement, there is no media coverage at all.

[Very HEAVY!] Who is Rupert Murdoch? Could people be this evil? — The EVANGELICALS are the “fertile ground” for his message of hate and deceit — LIE to the people, give them ENEMIES to hate, arrange WARS for them to fight and stand back and watch them destroy themselves.

Former Israeli Soldier Reveals Murder Squads

Is it illegal for Christians to evangelize in Israel? — Billy Graham has held rallies in over 185 different countries, including Communist, but has never been allowed to hold a Christian evangelistic rally in Israel