Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace | Page 12

Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace
Palestinian firms in the West Bank and Gaza. Agricultural and manufactured goods
made in Palestine by Palestinians should be able to reach American markets with the
same ease as goods made in Israel.
3. supports US Government enforcement of laws requiring correct labeling of the place
of production for imports to the US of goods from Israeli settlements and of laws
sustaining the prohibition on Israeli participation in the US Visa Waiver Program
until Israeli ceases to discriminate against US Passport holders of Palestinian origin.
Provisions of trade acts that do not distinguish between Israel and the territories it
occupies disregard human rights and international law.

III. The Two-State Approach from a Values Perspective: A Brief Study
PRECIS:
The repeated failure of the peace process in Israel-Palestine is also a failure of national
and international politics to address the human rights of a people kept stateless by
military occupation and exile. This report reviews the status of the “two-state” solution,
but it does not engage in further political solutions-thinking, given the limited support for
a Palestinian state by the United States and the international community in the face of
Israeli government resistance. As a church based in the United States, we continue to
believe that both Israel and the Middle East would be safer if Palestine were a free and
viable state and not an arena for deep ethnic and religious hostility, a hostility that infects
the profile of the United States and of Christianity in the region. The Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) in this report assesses the situation through a lens of Reformed Christian moral
values and commitment to integrity, witness, and solidarity with the Christian community
in Palestine and worldwide.
This report is addressed to the ecumenical Christian community, Jewish and Muslim
communities, and all persons of good will who refuse to accept the verdict of power
politics that the cause of peace is lost. As that cause can no longer be kept waiting for an
ideal political solution, two-state or otherwise, the church and non-governmental
organizations must prepare to advocate for full Palestinian rights within the zone of
Israeli sovereignty, whether temporary or permanent. Our goal is to witness for justice,
peace, and equal rights for all persons living in Israel-Palestine. Our prayer is that
violence and suffering do not increase in the absence of more democratic alternatives.

12