Lament for One, Invisibility for Three

Stand Firm by David Fischler 

 

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What’s the difference between one dead Palestinian and three dead Israelis? The first is a tragedy, the second’s invisible. That’s the answer from the PCUSA, which posted this on July 3:

Too much death. Too much violence. One more young life taken. We grieve the news that a Palestinian teenager has been abducted and found dead in Jerusalem. The church condemns the actions of those responsible for this death and for all acts of violence.
We grieve with all families in Israel and Palestine who suffer the loss of children and the hope for the future that dies with them. We join the National Council of Churches in the United States of America, “We pray no one else, not a single Israeli or Palestinian, will die in this struggle.”

The first line of the second paragraph is the closest the PCUSA has gotten to acknowledging that three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered, and their bodies found earlier this week in Hebron (there was no previous article on Presbyterian News lamenting their deaths). That both killings ought to be recognized and condemned in the harshest terms is obvious to any thinking person. But not to the leadership of the PCUSA.