Is this what peacemaking looks like? Apparently, for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran World Alliance, the answer is yes.
Dexter Van Zile..
Times of Israel..
12 May '17..
Link: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/this-is-peacemaking/
The Palestinian Authority owes a hospital in Israel $41 million. The hospital in question is Augusta Victoria Hospital. Augusta Victoria, located on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, is operated by the Lutheran World Federation, an umbrella organization of Lutheran churches located across the globe.
The hospital is hugely important to the welfare of Palestinian children in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These children are able to obtain all sorts of medical care such as cancer treatment and kidney dialysis from the hospital. The Palestinian Authority is supposed to pay for the treatment.
The PA, however, does not pay its bills and as a result, Augusta Victoria is in dire straits financially. Relaying information obtained from a press release published in Arabic, blogger Elder of Ziyon
reports, “The Palestinian Authority owes the hospital NIS 150 million ($41 million) and the debt has been accumulating at the rate of $4 million every month.”
The PA has been in arrears for a while. In 2014, the PA owed the hospital more than $15 million, prompting the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to ask the U.S. Congress to instruct the United States Agency for International Development to cover the Palestinian Authority’s unpaid bills. Since 2014, ELCA has issued a number of advocacy alerts to its members in the United States asking them to call their representatives in Congress to instruct USAID to pay off the PA’s debts.
ELCA’s lobbying has been effective. In 2016, USAID gave the hospital $11 million to cover approximately 30 percent of the PA’s outstanding debts to the hospital. This left the hospital more than $25 million in the hole. In August, 2016, ELCA issued an
update on the hospital’s cash flow crisis. In the update, ELCA thanked its members “who have been engaged in advocacy for Augusta Victoria Hospital this year and last year!” The update continues:
We are grateful that the Palestinian Authority (PA receivables) have been reduced and are hopeful that a system will soon be put in place for more regular payments to avoid these crisis situations.
Amazingly enough, the American Jewish Committee helped ELCA lobby Congress. Writing for the Jewish News Service, Rafael Medoff
reported in late March that “for the past several years, senior officials of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) have undertaken the task of pressing U.S. officials, including members of Congress, to pay millions in unpaid bills the PA has racked up at the Lutheran-sponsored Augusta Victoria hospital in eastern Jerusalem.”
Rabbi David Rosen, who represents the AJC in Jerusalem, told Medoff that in addition to lobbying Congress, he spoke with American diplomats in support of the effort to get American taxpayers to pay the Palestinian Authority’s unpaid debt to the hospital. After the story came to light, the AJC
stopped its lobbying efforts.
On one hand, giving money to a hospital seems like the right thing to do. Augusta Victoria needs the money and the Palestinian children need the medical care provided by the hospital.
The problem, however, is that by covering the PA’s unpaid debts, the United States government is subsidizing terrorism against Israelis. This is undeniable. It is a fact — an indisputable fact.
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