A press release from the Boston Israel Action Committee:
The Presbyterian Church, USA, has joined End the Occupation, a coalition that includes several organizations that endorse terrorism.
Within the last twelve months, PCUSA delegations have twice met with Hezbollah, a listed terrorist organization.
Although leaders of the PCUSA have issued formal statements repudiating terrorism, they have sometimes admitted to having difficult recognizing it. In his 2004 Christmas message, PCUSA Moderator Rev. Rick Ufford-Chase wrote: “It’s increasingly difficult to distinguish between”¦ the victims of terrorist attacks or well-executed military campaigns”¦ the United States or Osama Bin Laden….”
By joining End the Occupation, the Presbyterian Church places itself in close alliance with several organizations that endorse terrorism. Among these are the International Solidarity Movement, which views the murder of Israelis by suicide bombers as a “form of ‘jihad'”; Al Awda — The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, a group dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish State “by any means necessary”; and the Palestine Solidarity Movement, which, at its National Convention at Duke University in October, 2004, voted to defeat a floor motion to condemn terrorism — a vote greeted with thunderous applause. Rev. Mark Davidson, pastor of the PCUSA Church of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill, NC, was a featured speaker at the PSM conference. This marks the third year in a row that the PSM National Conference has voted overwhelmingly in favor of maintaining its endorsement of terrorism as one of the “strategies and tactics,” appropriate in the elimination of the State of Israel.
End the Occupation is a large coalition. Some member organizations are legitimate religious groups, such as the American Friends Service Committee. Some are political associations with questionable attitudes toward terrorism, such as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Many member organizations are radical left groups such as the International Socialist Organization and the National Lawyers Guild. This week the National Lawyers Guild held a dinner to honor Northeastern University Professor Shahid Alam, notorious for comparing the 9/11 hijackers to the Founding Fathers — favorably. Most groups on the list are single-city committees, often affiliated with one of the national anti-Israel groups: the ISM, PSM, and Al Awda.