The Israel Palestine Mission Network joins the Stated Clerk of the PC(USA), as well as other peace seeking organizations and religious communities in condemning the act of violence that occurred when a bomb was detonated near a bus station in Jerusalem on March 23rd. We also join J Street in stating that “the security of Israel depends on ending the conflict with the Palestinian people through a two-state solution.” The recent escalation of violence against the Palestinian community is also of grave concern to us, especially as those deaths do not get equal coverage in our media. We call upon people of all faiths to pray for the victims of the Jerusalem bus bombing as well as those innocent civilians, including children, who were killed in Gaza this week. We pray for the de-escalation of attitudes and rhetoric that leads to a perpetual cycle of violence.

The Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the PC(USA) (IPMN) condemns with the strongest force, the murder of the Fogel family in the settlement of Itamar, near the West Bank town of Nablus.

There can be no justification, political or otherwise, for such a horrific act of murder. The fact that the victims were living in what is a settlement, considered illegal under international humanitarian law, is not justification for any kind of attack, let alone cold-blooded murder. Civilians are protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention in any circumstance. Furthermore, the many documented settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank are not justification for any kind of attack or reprisal. The IPMN strongly condemns any revenge attacks, which are not justifiable under any law.

The Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) joins with the world community in celebration of the dawn of a new era in Egypt. We rejoice in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the dismantling of his three decades-old police state, in favor of building a democratic one. The people marching in the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities cried out for freedom through peaceful demonstration and non-violence. The amazing truth in which we rejoice is that peace and non-violence ultimately won in this struggle for an unfettered voice among all the peoples of Egypt. We mourn the loss of life that occurred as a result of Mubarak’s final efforts to remain in power, and we pray for those who have been injured as a result. We pray also for all Christians, Muslims and Jews in a land where in unison they have sounded the cry: “Let our people go!”

NEW YORK — December 4, 2010 — The Israel Palestine Mission Network, a key player in assuring the passage of the Presbyterian Church’s Middle East Study Committee Report at the denomination’s national assembly in July, has responded to the recent attack on the church which appeared in an Op-Ed piece written by Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in the Wall Street Journal on December 3rd.

NEW YORK - The Israel Palestine Mission Network* (IPMN) of the Presbyterian Church (USA), The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF) and the National Middle East Presbyterian Caucus (NMEPC) oppose the misuse of the grand jury process by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and the accompanying FBI raids. The DOJ served a total of nine federal grand jury subpoenas to Chicago area Palestinian solidarity activists in the month of December alone, raising the total subpoenas served to 23. These Presbyterian groups call upon their own denominational leadership, as well as Churches for Middle East Peace, the National Council of Churches and all concerned Christian denominations to join them in denouncing the DOJ's bold attempts to suppress peaceful dissent on the part of those working for an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

Washington, DC (October 28, 2010)—Responding to reports in the Israeli media earlier this week that Caterpillar is delaying the delivery of tens of D9 bulldozers—valued at $50 million—to the Israeli military, U.S. organizations called today on the Obama Administration to stop all deliveries of bulldozers to the Israeli military due to human rights concerns.