US Presbyterian Church:  Israel is Apartheid State, creates Nakba Remembrance Day.   The resolutions called Christian Zionist doctrine heretical and idolatrous and compared Israel's treatment of the Palestinians to the Holocaust of World War I.                  The US Presbyterian Church voted to declare Israel an Apartheid State and establish a Nakba Rememberance Day, as well as passing two other resolutions highly critical of Israel on Tuesday at the American religious body's 225th General Assembly.  "Israel's laws, policies and practices regarding the Palestinian people fulfill the international legal definition of Apartheid."  The church claims that non-Jewish Arabs living in Israel and the disputed territories have "an inferior status" and Palestinians are unable to participate in the "political, social, economic and cultural life of their country."                       This overture is pursued with the hope it will lead to a peaceful reconciliation for the people of Israel and Palestine similar to that "which occurred in South Africa when apartheid was internationally acknowledged," the resolution explained as the rationale behind the vote.    After WW II when the horror of the Nazi Holocaust was reveiled, Jews around the world said 'never again',  read the resolution.  "Christains too vowed that never again would they be silent if a government passed laws establishing and maintaining the domination by one ethnic group over another ethnic group through systematic separation, opression and denial of basic human rights.  Silent in the face of evil was wrong then, and is wrong now."  Notibly, the Racial Equity Advocacy Committee supported the resolution with the recommendation that it replace mentions of antisemitism with "Anti-Jewish" as it is believed that Antisemitism "encompasses other people groups in addition to Jewish siblings."                     In January, the stated clerk Rev. Dr. Herbert Nelson II of the US Presbyterian Church described Israel's treatment of Palestinians as "enslavement."        

Commemorating Nakba Remembrance Day:  The international engagement committee unanimously passed a resolution directing church leadership bodies to designate May 15 as "Palestinian Nakba Rememberance Day" and to commemorate it annually as part of the Presbyterian planning calendar.                 Each May 15, Palestinians commemorate the Nakba (catastrophe), the establishment of the State of Israel and the exodus of Palestinian refugees caused by the 1948 war of independence when the nascent state was attacked by several of its Arab neighbors.                The resolution emphasized past documents that state that Nakba "does not refer to the establishment of Israel itself, but rather the effect that the war had on the palestinian people," which the new resolution described as the "expulsion by terrorism and force of 750,000 Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim."         Collective Punishment of Palestinians:    The Presbytery of New Castle's resolution calling for an end to the "siege of Gaza" and the "collective punishment of innocent Palestinians and Israeli citizens," also passed unanimously at the 2022 General Assembly.    The resolution called on Israel to end all military action in Gaza, which it describes as being disproportionate and collective punishment against Palestinians.      Since 2005, Gaza has ruled by the terrorist organization Hamas, which has launched cross-border attacks and rockets against Israeli civilians.  The resolution also called on Gaza to stop firing rockets indiscriminately into Israel, which it also described as a policy of collective punishment.              Beyond religious tolerance, the church rejected the Trump Administration's move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, saying that it damaged peace prospects.     "The face of Jerusalem has been changing rapidly in the direction of a heightened Zionist-Jewish identity, with intensified restrictions on the movement, residency, and human rights of Muslim and Christian Palestinians."  The statement singled out the installment of metal detectors at the temple mount, which it claims saw "Massive nonviolent resistance" in response.        Reaction to the Resolution:  Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum, condemned the Resolution declaring Israel an Apartheid State.  "This resolution by the Presbyterian Church, with its plethora of antisematic tropes, crosses all acceptible boundaries and descends into full-blown Jew-hatred, that will only incite and fuel further violence against Jews," said Ostrovsky.  "Furthermore, by making such medacities accusations and deplorably invoking the Holocaust to compare to contemporary Israeli policy, places the Presbyterian Church in direct and flagrant violation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, including in the U.S."    The church has garnered criticism in the past for its harsh position on Israel.  In February it joined 29 NGO's in calling on US Congress to reject the Abraham Accords, describing the peace deal normalizing relations between Israel and Arab States as dangerous."