The Elephant and the Mouse
Why Faith in Action Can’t Talk about Palestine
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If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Believers! Be upholders of justice, and bearers of witness to truth for the sake of Allah, even though it may either be against yourselves or against your parents and kinsmen, or the rich or the poor: for Allah is more concerned with their well-being than you are.
Noble Qur’an 4:135
After I wrote The Question of Palestine calling out Faith in Action’s inaction and silence on the genocide in Gaza, two former colleagues within the organization reached out to talk. At the beginning of the conversation, I was asked for it to be off the record. I agreed not to divulge the content of our discussions publicly without their express permission. What I learned on the call, however, made me realize that there was something I missed concerning my research into the Board. So I decided to look again more carefully and, as it turns out, the information I published from GuideStar was outdated. Only four of the board members listed there are current.
The board today is comprised of thirteen individuals — 60% of whom are people of color and 30% women. Among them are ordained pastors, reverends, and a Rabbi. Among them is a sociology professor and a state senator. None of them are Arab or Muslim. In fact, out of the fifty-five people that make up the national network’s staff, only two are Muslim, one of which is also Arab.
One of the most accomplished members of the Faith in Action Board is Senator Rosalind Osgood. Recently elected to the Florida Senate, she is an ordained preacher, former adjunct professor, CEO of a development corporation, and a Life Member of the Fort Lauderdale Broward Branch of the NAACP.
On November 8th, Senator Osgood co-introduced a bill that expressed “the Florida Senate’s unwavering support for the State of Israel.” During debate on the Senate floor, she explained that the reason she was “happy to support this resolution” was because it “allows us to collectively support Israel and stand against evil.” She later clarified that the evil she was referring to was Hamas, not Palestinian people.
The bill also appropriates $45 million to increase security in synagogues, Jewish schools, and nonprofit organizations.
Despite the fact that hate crimes are also being committed against Muslims in Florida, Senator Osgood has not introduced a similar bill to protect the safety and well-being of her Arab or Muslim constituents. She also has made no statement about the ACLU’s federal lawsuit against Florida’s ban on pro-Palestinian university groups.
The most vocal board member in support of Palestine is Rabbi Mordechai Liebling. He is a Senior Advisor at POWER Interfaith, the largest faith-based community organizing group in Pennsylvania, and an affiliate of Faith in Action. On October 14th, he was one of over 1,200 signatories of a petition organized by Academics Speak Out calling for Israel to “refrain from punishing collectively Gazan civilians for the crimes of Hamas.” The letter goes on to argue that the only way towards peace is to “end the violent oppression of the Palestinian people” through a dismantling of the apartheid system, “the West Bank’s decades-long Occupation, keeping Gaza’s two-million Palestinians under siege for 16 years, erasing the memory of the Nakba…”
Two days later, he spoke at a rally in Washington D.C. organized by If Not Now, calling for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and an end to the siege on Gaza.
In 2012, Rabbi Mordechai had a change of heart regarding his position on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Opposed to divestments at first, he saw how the political center in Israel was rapidly moving far right, how settlers were becoming more aggressive, and how much more entrenched the Israeli government was becoming in its position. Consequently, he signed on to a letter supporting a divestment campaign launched by Methodist churches in Tampa, Florida.
Why can’t Faith in Action talk about Palestine? I think part of the answer can be found above. Two of the most influential, outspoken board members are at opposite ends of the issue. Senator Osgood has allied herself politically with Zionists on both sides of the aisle in the Florida state legislature. Rabbi Mordechai, meanwhile, has built a reputation on account of his activism in support of Palestinian liberation.
The other eleven members? They likely all fall somewhere in the middle, their positions partly the result of political calculation — measuring the relative risks and benefits based on their local contexts. Most of the board members are, after all, leaders in their communities. Some are part of interfaith councils with Zionist synagogues like Shiloh Missionary Baptist church. Others are leaders in organizations funded by foundations with fiscally sponsored projects like Palestine Legal.
How can consensus ever be reached?
Let’s consider that question in the context of American chattel slavery. Or Jim Crow. Or South African apartheid. How long would black folks be waiting for freedom, if it depended on the consensus of non-profit boards?
Before, I posed the question of whether FIA has the moral courage to lead in this moment. Their continued silence has answered that question for me. Not yet. But if not now, when?
As the body count rises each day in Gaza, the voices of FIA leadership do not. Rather than lift up their collective voice like a trumpet to decry the unholy political sanction of violence against Palestinians by our government, they are diffuse. They lift up a collective voice at this moment only to celebrate fifty years of impressive organizing campaigns. But this is fifty years, too, of continued institutional silence on the question of Palestine.
FIA has always had a rich oral tradition. As a writer, it used to bother me that so little of the institutional memory was documented. I wrote, perhaps, the only new organizer and new leader manual for the San Francisco Organizing Project (now known as Faith in Action Bay Area).
I know how difficult it can be to put heavy feelings and contentious thoughts into words, though. To lighten the load, I’ve taken the liberty to write a statement for you, FIA. I think you’ll find that it reflects the values you claim to stand by. I hope it helps you find your voice.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Faith in Action Network is the largest grassroots, global faith-based organizing network. Our nonpartisan organization works with 1,000 congregations in more than 200 cities and towns through its 46 local and state federations as well as in Haiti, Central America, Africa, and Northern Europe. As a multi-faith network, we have clergy and lay leaders that are Christian, Jewish, and Muslim and that, consequently, all have a shared connection to the Holy Land.
While the majority of our campaigns are national in scope, we understand the global nature of our issues, the impact of U.S. power in other countries, and the mandate of our faith to be brothers and sisters to all. It is for this reason that we can no longer, in good conscience, keep silent about the tragedies unfolding in Gaza.
Our values as an organization compel us to condemn in the strongest terms the United States’ financial, military, and political support of a foreign power that daily kills innocent civilians and destroys churches, mosques, schools, and hospitals.
The October 7th attack on innocent people in Israel was a henious violation of human rights and international law. So to is the State of Israel’s disproportionate response, which the United Nations and human rights organizaitons around the world have deemed as crimes against humanity.
We therefore, call on our government to broker a ceasefire and reallocate financial aid currently earmarked for war towards peace, healing, and the restoration of Gaza.
Signed,
Ron White, Senior Advisor at the Humboldt Area Foundation
Richard L. Wood, Professor of Sociology at University of New Mexico
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Senior Advisor at POWER Interfaith
Chuck Mingo, founder of Courageous Love
Pastor John Rutsindintwarane, community organizer in Tanzania
Rev. Jennifer Jones, Executive Director of Shiloh’s Charitable Foundation
Rev. Jane Soyster Gould, Rector of St. Luke’s/ San Lucas Episcopal Church
Frank René López, owner of Lopez Reflective Leadership & Consulting
Father Bob Fambrini, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church
Father John Baumann, co-founder of Faith in Action
Edwin Fuller, Community Organizer with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative
Ana Garcia, Leader with Missouri Faith Voices
Postscript:
I want to appeal directly to the Faith in Action National staff. You do not need to wait on your supervisors or the Board to make up their minds about what, if anything, FIA will say about Palestine. Take note of the congressional staffers who broke rank and collectively called for a ceasefire. Don’t be silent. Audre Lorde has already taught us that our silence will not protect us. She’s already advised us not to swallow these tyrannies. Instead, remember that every attempt you make to speak the truth is an act of self-revelation. Find out who you are.
