Disciples of Christ to Israel: Tear down the wall

By SAM SER - The Jerusalem Post    July 28, 2005

The general assembly of the Disciples of Christ has adopted a resolution calling for Israel to dismantle its West Bank security barrier, passing the measure by a clear majority on Wednesday in a vote that was postponed by a day.

Although amended slightly before the vote, the resolution was nearly identical to the one adopted earlier this month by the closely related United Church of Christ. As in that case, the Simon Wiesenthal Center was among the most vocal of Jewish and Christian groups calling for the church to dismiss the resolution. On Wednesday, it expressed its extreme dissatisfaction at the vote's outcome.

"The resolution is an abomination," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center. "It is shocking and depressing that a vanguard of social activism like the Disciples of Christ would be so blind and deaf to Jewish suffering," he told The Jerusalem Post.

After speaking with many of the delegates to the general assembly in Portland, he added, "I believe that this does not represent the grassroots members" of the Disciples of Christ church. And we in the Jewish community need to see that it does not become representative of them."

The center had arranged for Tzippi Cohen, a survivor of the Cafe Hillel bombing in Jerusalem in 2003, to address the assembly before the vote, but the Disciples of Christ denied her that privilege in a late schedule change.

"I have no doubt that had theses delegates seen the human face of the victims of Palestinian terrorism, the outcome could have been much different," Cooper said.

The Jerusalem Post contributed to this report.