Judeo-Christian Alliance
For Immediate Release
Sept. 6, 2005

Protestant leaders in the U.S. are silent again. After years of blaming Israel for the suffering of Christians in the disputed territories, leaders of mainline Protestant churches are keeping mum about the Muslim riot in Taybeh that destroyed the homes of 14 Christian families on Sunday, Sept. 4. The riot is part of a long string of attacks on Christians in areas under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority that have been ignored by Protestant leaders in the U.S., says Dexter Van Zile, director of the Judeo-Christian Alliance, an initiative of the David Project Center for Jewish Leadership and Advocacy.
   
“The PA has failed to protect the rights of its Christian minority from Muslim oppression for years. Mainline Protestant leaders in the U.S. have said nothing,” he says.
   
A growing number of mainline Protestant denominations have approved resolutions that blame Israel for the suffering in the disputed territories, but they have said nothing about the role Muslim extremists have played in making life unsafe in the disputed territories, said JCA president Dennis Hale.
   
“Mainline Protestants in the United States will be shocked to learn that Muslims are attacking Christians on the West Bank. Their leaders assert Palestinian Christians are being oppressed by Israel. The riot is proof the mainline Protestant story about the Middle East is full of holes,” Hale said. “Mainline churches are getting their information from Palestinian Christians who must remain silent about their Muslim tormentors in order to stay alive. They are rewarded for their dishonesty by anti-Israel activists in the US. The true story of the Palestinian Christians is almost completely unknown among the mainline denominations.”
   
Protestant leaders have failed to condemn boycotts of Christian business owners in Bethlehem and the campaigns of harassment suffered by Muslim converts to Christianity, Van Zile reports.
   
“Leaders of mainline Protestant churches complain when they believe the Jewish state of Israel is responsible for the suffering of Palestinians, but they remain silent when the Palestinians themselves are to blame,” Van Zile says. “It’s disturbing. Until denominational leaders condemn Muslim violence against Christians and Jews with the same force they condemn Israel, their motives will be suspect, with good reason.”

Contacts:
Dexter Van Zile (617) 428-0012 (dvz@davidproject.org)
Dennis Hale (617) 552-4165
www.judeo-christianalliance.org