EXTERNAL ADVOCACY

The External Advocacy subcommittee promotes our network’s ecumenical and interfaith relationships in an ongoing effort to maintain a meaningful dialogue with our U.S. Senators, Representatives and other governmental leaders and entities. Through external advocacy we work with such organizations as Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), B’Tselem (The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories), Presbytery Peacemaking Committees, etc., as well as other Protestant and Catholic denominational equivalents of the PC(USA)’s Israel Palestine Mission Network in order to reach beyond our denominational boundaries for the cause of Just Peace in Israel/Palestine. Members of our Advocacy Committee have met with many governmental officials about our concerns and spearheaded the sending of a letter of concern, signed by over 500 Presbyterians throughout the denomination, to President Barack Obama on the occasion of his inauguration to office. Most recently, the Advocacy Committee, in response to the crisis in Gaza, wrote a statement about that crisis which was approved and sent out by the IPMN Steering Committee as a statement of the whole network.