| The problem now, Makari says, is that, with the peace process stalled for the past four years, "things are deteriorating with such rapidity" that it is hard to tell what strategy will be most effective.
The Palestinian economy has ground to a standstill. Many families are living on less than $2 a day, according to the United Nations. And the wall is under construction now on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Abu-Assal is proposing that U.S. churches help émigré Palestinians return home - just as the Israelis help Jews establish themselves in Israel. "We need to do exactly what the Jews do . Pay for their travel. Give them (money) to begin over. Provide them housing. Try to find them a job. I think we can do the same. But we cannot do it alone."
Abu-Assal says the Episcopal Diocese owns vacant property, but doesn't have money to build on it. He envisions shelter not only for émigrés, but for Palestinians who would otherwise be cut off from Jerusalem by the wall.
"What do we need here?" he says. "We need to bring back those who've emigrated. Otherwise, I fear for the Christian presence in the area."
Ann Hafften, coordinator of Middle East Networks for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA),understands that some Lutherans are content to work within the church's system, but others need to engage issues in less traditional ways. "We have a traditional strategy. But then, we're a traditional church," she says.
She says some individual Lutherans have joined secular groups like one in Texas that is trying to launch a boycott of Caterpillar tractors, the U.S.-made equipment the Israeli army uses to demolish Palestinian homes on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.
The Lutheran Bishop of Jerusalem, Munib Younan, told the Presbyterian News Service that he'd also like to see housing for Palestinians built on Lutheran-owned property on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Palestinian leaders often liken the situation in Palestine to that in South Africa under apartheid. "The situation here is worse than in South Africa," Abu-Assal says, yet the international church equivocates instead of acting.
Raheb, who was a book tour in the United States when former President Ronald Reagan died, says:
"I'd like to hear the church telling Bush and Sharon, 'Tear down this wall. Especially now. The moment of truth has come. I'd like for churches to speak very clearly about the wall, and the apartheid system."
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