Palestinian human rights front and center at General Synod

Despite the wind and rain, General Synod delegates and other supporters held a vigil outside the Cleveland Convention Center Sunday, June 28, in support of Palestinian human rights and divestment from corporations that profit from Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Bearing signs asking for prayers for Palestine and advocating for divestment, activists quietly talked with Synod delegates arriving for the afternoon activities.

“We will be a presence here until 3 p.m., when the General Synod Sunday worship begins,” said Catherine Alder of the UCC Palestine-Israel Network (UCC PIN), “trying to educate and talk to delegates.”

In addition to UCC members, Palestinian and Jewish Americans also participated in the vigil.

“Nelson Mandela said, ‘We must free the occupier as well as the occupied,'” said Maya Rotem, a Jewish Israeli American advocate attending the vigil. “We must fight for Palestinian equality and human rights in the entire 1948 Palestine.”

Rotem said that she fully supports the work of UCC PIN and the several UCC Conferences bringing the resolutions on the Middle East to the table. She cited her work in East Jerusalem documenting the violence against Palestinians and fighting the arrest of children as well as housing evictions “based on racist laws.”

News reports from the Daily Kos and other outlets state that children as young as 6 years old have been detained and interrogated for hours, without legal representation or their parents present.

General Synod delegates are debating two resolutions on a Just Peace in Israel-Palestine.