Pursue Justice, Seek Peace!
Framing the Discourse - Mobilizing for Action
A Friends of Sabeel Conference
October 1-3, 2009
Shiloh Baptist Church
1500 9th Street, NW
Washington, DC
“The arc of the moral universe is long but bends towards justice.”
Martin Luther King
Friends of Sabeel - North America (FOSNA) and the Washington area Friends of Sabeel are organizing a conference in Washington DC on October 1-3, 2009. The conference titled “Pursue Justice, Seek Peace! Framing the Discourse – Mobilizing for Action” will offer local churches, other religious and secular peace and justice organizations in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore metro area an opportunity to inform ourselves, network widely and provide tools to become pro-active peacemakers.
The conference will bring together people of faith and people of conscience to explore and affirm our shared commitment to the active, nonviolent pursuit of a rights-based, just peace in Palestine and Israel. We will move beyond the artificial polarization of “pro-Israel” and “pro-Palestinian” agendas to capture a pro-justice, pro-peace message that unifies individuals and organizations across religious, ethnic and geographic boundaries. We will help each other build a successful case for human rights, justice and peace by learning from and through the experience of others, exploring diverse strategies, and challenging ourselves to construct innovative efforts at peacemaking.
The conference organizers hope to assemble renowned religious leaders, theologians, peacemakers and internationally recognized speakers. Presenters from Israel, the West Bank, and from around the United States will discuss peace, justice, and human rights in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They will cover issues of biblical and theological relevance, and explore themes including the impact of non-violent resistance to the occupation, and the unique role U.S. Christians, especially African-Americans, can play in the peacemaking effort. The conference will also consider the role of the mainline and evangelical churches in I/P and seek to explore the challenges and obstacles facing those working for peace and justice within the faith communities. Confirmed speakers include Rev. Naim Ateek (director of Sabeel), Jeff Halper (Founder and Coordinator, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), Bernard Lafayette (Civil Rights Movement activist, co-founder of Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, currently Distinguished Senior Scholar at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia), Phyllis Bennis (fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, and member of the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation), Nadia Hijab (Senior Fellow at the Institute of Palestine Studies), Dr. Rosemary Radford Ruether (theologian and scholar, visiting Professor of Feminist Theology at Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University) and George Rishmawi (Coordinator for Siraj, Center for Holy Land Studies).
The conference format includes plenary sessions, panel discussions and workshops. Topics being considered include:
o Common threads in the practice of liberation theology throughout the world
o Lessons learned from activism during the civil rights and anti-apartheid movement
o Non-violence as a strategy during the civil rights movement and in I/P
o The use and misuse of Scripture
o Alternative strategies for advocacy work in the US including discussions on the one state/two state options, BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) and the apartheid paradigm
o The role of mainline churches in promoting peace and justice in Israel/Palestine including obstacles and challenges
o Human rights and international law - their application in I/P
o Current U.S. policy towards the conflict
o Building alliances across ethnic, religious lines
o The Israel/Palestine Conflict for Beginners
Sabeel is an ecumenical peace movement initiated by Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land and based on the Gospel call to justice and peace through nonviolence. The Sabeel Ecumenical Center works to build understanding and relationships among Christians and people of other faiths in many countries, and seeks to build a worldwide movement to end military occupation of the Holy Land through advocacy of international law, human rights and a faith based call to peacemaking. We invite you to learn more about the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center (www.sabeel.org), based in Jerusalem, and Friends of Sabeel - North America (www.fosna.org) which is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.
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