WSJ: Israel, Armenia and Presbyterians

The Wall Street Journal has published an article saying that an American church has a glaring double standard when it comes to settlements in the West Bank and the Karabakh region. Caliber.Az reprints the article.

The Presbyterian Church of the United States of America, whose annual General Assembly begins this weekend, has lengthy been pugnaciously anti-Israel. It routinely passes resolutions accusing the Jewish state of “settler colonialism,” “apartheid,” and “illegal occupation.” Yet the PCUSA has a long-established program devoted to supporting settlements in occupied territory—and funds quite a lot of pro-settler charities.

The PCUSA’s method to the Israel-Arab battle lies at the crossroads of liberation theology and alternative theology, the traditional doctrine, incessantly invoked by anti-Semites, that God’s covenant with the Jews has been annulled in favour of others. Since 2014 the church has pursued a boycott of Israeli companies. It additionally calls the Jewish state’s presence in biblical areas a “violation of international law” and “sin against God.”

But in Nagorno-Karabakh, an space as soon as a part of Soviet Azerbaijan, settlements apparently aren’t an issue for the PCUSA. The space had blended Armenian-Azeri inhabitants till 1994, when Armenia occupied the area after protracted warfare. Many Armenians regard Karabakh as a part of their historic homeland, however, the United Nations and the U.S. contemplate it occupied Azeri territory.

The Azeri inhabitants fled through the warfare and haven’t been allowed to return. At the identical time, the Armenian management in Yerevan inspired the motion of settlers into the occupied territory.

The PCUSA is the first sponsor of the Jinishian Memorial Foundation, an Armenian charity that leads initiatives to help “Artsakh,” the normal Armenian title for Karabakh. In some brochures, the Presbyterian group describes it because the “Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the title of the self-proclaimed Armenian puppet state that enjoys no worldwide recognition. It funds quite a lot of financial and welfare initiatives in Armenian settlements. The basis advertises excursions for donors involved in “exploring and enjoying Armenia and Artsakh.” Many of the initiatives aren’t in contrast to those supported by Jewish charities within the West Bank. Those charities’ tax-deductible standing has lengthy been a specific goal of progressives, who definitely received to prolong their efforts to the PCUSA.

The hypocrisy is a particular person in addition to institutional. The head of the PCUSA’s “Israel/Palestine Mission Network”—its everlasting workplace of Israeli delegitimization—is herself a vocal supporter of the Armenian occupation.

The PCUSA additionally gives political help to the settlements. In September 2020, one other spherical warfare broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia, with Baku, in the end, recapturing elements of Karabakh. Ignoring the “occupied” standing of the territory, the PCUSA got here out absolutely behind Armenia. Jinishian launched a marketing campaign to assist the breakaway area, in partnership with Armenian settler organizations, below the slogan “We Are Our Borders; All for Artsakh.”

The PCUSA is absolutely inside its rights to help Armenian settlements. Nothing in worldwide regulation requires boycotts or sanctions in opposition to such communities. It is comprehensible if, as Christians, the PCUSA’s members are touched by the plight of 1 of probably the most historical church buildings in Christendom. It shouldn’t be against the law for members of a specific ethnic group to dwell in a part of its historic homeland, and absolutely the PCUSA could be scandalized if third events boycotted Armenians for returning to Karabakh.

Yet that’s precisely what the PCUSA urges in relation to the Jewish state. It has made Armenian nationalism funding precedence whereas treating Zionism as a horrible crime. The PCUSA is much from alone. As I’ve written in these pages, vocal critics of Jewish settlements within the Holy Land on the far left, corresponding to Rep. Rashida Tlaib and senior officers at Human Rights Watch and CodePink, have been energetic supporters of Armenian settlements.

The PCUSA says anti-Semitism doesn’t drive its obsession with the Jewish state. Instead, it acts below the pretence of upholding worldwide regulation, which it claims Israel violates by permitting Jews to dwell in elements of the West Bank. Doubtless, the PCUSA’s function in supporting settlers in occupied territory won’t lead it to disavow its Karabakh initiatives. Nor will it drive a wedge between the denomination and the various different progressive “anti-occupation” teams with which it makes frequent triggers. This highlights how “settlements” and “illegal occupation” aren’t normal phrases of worldwide applicability. Rather, they’re a part of particular vocabulary, a type of impartial euphemism, designed to debate just one specific individual.

The church sees itself as progressive, however, its views on Israel are a throwback to one thing very previous.