Episcopalians in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles held silent prayer vigils in protest of Israeli treatment of Palestinians on May 24, the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress about the peace process.
They sought to send a message about the Israeli government’s policies towards Palestinians in general and specifically the refusal to grant Anglican Bishop Suheil Dawani a permit to reside in Jerusalem. As bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, Dawani, a Palestinian Christian, oversees congregations and institutions in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian Territories.
“He [Netanyahu] passed by us. I don’t know if he paid attention to our signs or not” on his way to the Capitol, said the Rev. Susan Burns, rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Diocese of Washington, D.C.
Netanyahu was in Washington, D.C., to address the joint session about alternatives for a meaningful peace process in the Middle East, four days after rejecting President Barack Obama’s vision for ending Israeli-Arab conflict in the troubled region. His address has been considered both an attempt to garner additional support for Israel and an effort to avert an upcoming United Nations vote to establish a Palestinian state over his government’s objections. About 40 Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians and others held aloft signs designed to “inch by inch, call the leaders of Israel back to their better selves,” Burns said during a telephone interview at the conclusion of the two-hour vigil
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“The signs had quotes from Leviticus about welcoming the stranger, and from Rabbi Hillel about what is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor,” she said.