Michael Hines, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem
October 22, 2004

Fresh from their controversial General Assembly decision to divest from American corporations whose products "are being destructively used against the Palestinians" by Israel, the US Presbyterian church has sent a high level delegation to meet with the leadership of Hizb’Allah in Lebanon, telling the Washington-designated terrorist group that dealings with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than those with the Jews.

Criticizing the "unhelpful" security barrier Israel is building as a bulwark against Palestinian suicide bombings delegation head Rev. Nile Harper told the AP on Monday that the fact-finding mission is designed to advise the church about withholding its $8 billion of investments to increase pressure on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian lands.

"The occupation by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza must end because it is oppressive and destructive for the Palestinian people," Harper said defending the policy-making role of the Presbyterian church’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, whose members made up his 24 person group.

But it was the delegation’s decision not only to pay their respects to the Hizb’Allah leadership in Lebanon that has attracted the ire of Jewish groups, but to play into the hands of Islamic fundamentalist propaganda by appearing on the terror group’s satellite TV channel.

In the words of Rev. Ronald Stone, a retired social ethics professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, who spoke for the Presbyterians on Hizb’Allah’s al-Manar network "relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders."

"We treasure the precious words of Hizb’Allah and your expression of good will towards the American people," Rev. Stone added, just days before the 21st anniversary of the 1983 Beirut US Marine barracks blast on Saturday, in which a Hizb’Allah truck bomb claimed 241 American peacemakers as they slept in their bunks.

In the A-Team of Global Terror

The comments also came in a week in which Israeli intelligence officials disclosed details of Hizb’Allah’s widening influence over the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure to Britain’s Guardian newspaper, claiming that the Iranian-backed militia now boasts direct financial and operational control over some 44 Palestinian terrorist cells in the West Bank through a secret wing known as Unit 1800.

According to The Jerusalem Report, this unit -- which answers directly to Hizb’Allah head, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, has made the Lebanese group "the central player in Palestinian terror warfare," building on its already well-established control of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and close ties to Hamas.

Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman denounced the Presbyterian ministers’ comments saying it was "deeply disturbing" that church leaders would seek to meet "members of a terrorist organization that is directly responsible for attacks against both Americans and Israelis and that has repeatedly denounced America and Israel as enemies of Islam."

The American Jewish Committee meanwhile said the Presbyterians had "lent legitimacy to what American government officials call the 'A-Team' of global terrorists" and delivered "a blow to peace efforts in the region." It called on the Presbyterian Church "to repudiate immediately" the delegation's actions, which the Church authorities declined to do.

Questioned by the AP, Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the chief executive at church headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, simply said the Hizb’Allah visit and comments from delegation members "do not reflect the official position of the Presbyterian Church (USA) on peace in the Middle East."