at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Annual Summit

 by VJP board member Rev. Dr. Ron Shive

John Lewis, the U.S. Congressman from Georgia, knew how to get into good trouble. He was a leader of Bloody Sunday – that fateful and tragic day on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965 . On numerous other occasions throughout his life, John Lewis stirred up good trouble. When he returned to the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 1, 2020, just four months before his death, to commemorate the bloody events fifty-five years earlier, he challenged us all with these words, “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.” 

John Lewis’ moral call was heard and answered by Voices for Justice in Palestine and a number of other sponsoring organizations of the Interfaith Action for Palestine (IAP). Over 700 Jews, Muslim, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians gathered in Washington, D.C. July 28-30 to protest the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Annual Summit at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, MD.

CUFI is the largest Zionist organization in the United States, with over 11 million members—more members than the number of Jews in the United States. “The majority of support in the U.S. (for Israel) doesn’t come from the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Abby Stein, who came from Brooklyn to help lead some of the protests. “I think it’s very important to understand where that power comes from.”

CUFI was founded in 2006 by John Hagee, the current pastor of Cornestone Church in San Antonio, Texas. For years, CUFI has pressured the United States government to embrace a broad-based unconditional support of Israel and the continual funding of Israel’s deepening occupation and apartheid at the expense of Palestinians and Israelis.

Our Interfaith Action for Palestine ( IAP) gathering was the largest multi-faith effort yet to disrupt the influence of Christian Zionism on U.S. policy. We gathered to create good trouble, or should I say holy trouble? We gathered to expose Christian Zionism’s role in the genocide, and to pressure national leaders to stop funding this genocidal assault on Gaza.

Over two days, IAP temporarily shut down CUFI with 10 unique direct actions. While it was impossible for any one person to be involved in all these, I was involved in several of these direct actions. 

On Monday morning, CUFI held the opening of their summit at the Gaylord Convention Center. Twenty of our IAP participants and I registered for the CUFI Summit and joined close to 1000 Christian Zionists in the convention center. We divided into five groups of four IAP participants. We secured our seats and awaited the commencement of the morning session. It was a bit surprising when a speaker told us that our morning session would be delayed by thirty minutes. It was only later that we learned the reason for the delay. An interfaith chorus of over 100 IAP participants had entered the conference center and formed a chorus and were singing songs in solidarity with Palestinians. Their disruption was the beginning of the holy trouble that was to continue for the next two days. 

The thirty-minute delay gave those of us who were in the conference hall an opportunity to talk and get to know the people around us. I engaged in an extended conversation with a man and his wife who were from Maine. It was quite interesting to learn that they were basically good hearted people who have simply been lead down a wayward and deadly path. 

When the morning program began, John Hagee opened the convention with a prayer in which he asked God to bless those who love and unconditionally support Israel and to pour out God’s wrath on those who resist Israel. I knew then I was not witnessing a foretaste of Jesus’ kingdom.

As soon as Hagee began his opening speech, the first of our five groups interrupted him and began chanting, “This theology kills!” Immediately security guards acted and forcefully removed them. A few minutes later, the second group stood and yelled in Spanish, “Alto al Genocidio (Stop the Genocide).” After their forceful removal, Hagee said, “Folks, we are at war now.” Each of the remaining three groups interrupted Hagee with chants such as “God loves Gaza” and “Jews are not your pawns.” 

When I led our group to stand up and chant, “God loves Gaza,” the man and his wife I had spent time talking with, turned to me in disbelief and stared in astonishment that a sports coat wearing, old, white man would be the one creating holy trouble. I looked him in the eyes and said with passion and love, “God love Gaza! Stop the Genocide!” He paused for a brief second-which I pray was a moment of epiphany. 

That evening, the attendees of the CUFI gala could not even enjoy the sunset as they walked out of their banquet room that overlooks the Potomac River. Immediately upon glancing at the serene setting of the river, they saw forty banner-wielding kayakers, led by Jewish Voices of Peace, with a sign that read, “CUFI Kills!”  

One of CUFI’s private security guards, who had earlier roughed up some of our IAP “yellers,” was seen looking at the kayakers’ “CUFI Kills” banner in the sunset, and rubbing his head in exasperation. 

On Tuesday morning, the CUFI participants gathered for a pep rally at the Gaylord Center prior to their 11:00 departure for Capital Hill to lobby their representatives for their unconditional support of Israel. There was only one obstacle—which was the only road that led in and out of the grounds of the Gaylord Convention Center. 

The leaders of IAP had researched and planned an amazing direct action- a human blockade to the exit to prevent the CUFI participants from departing for Capital Hill. Thirty of us, each with specific tasks, at the precise moment swarmed the road, blocking the road with twelve-foot banners (reading “Stop Arming Israel” and “G-d Loves Gaza”) and eight participants locked hand-to-hand together with lock boxes and PVC pipes. For one hour, the road was blocked and the CUFI participants sat on their bus. For an hour in front of CUFI’s participant buses, we sang, “Palestine Will Be Free.”

One of our IAD participants was tasked with being the liaison for the bus driver. She initially approached him and said, “Don’t worry. This is a non-violent protest. It will last for some time, so keep your bus running and the air-condition going.” After about thirty-minutes of listening to our chants and singing, he stuck his head out of the bus window and said, “I am Syrian. Thank you for what you are doing. Please keep up the good work.”

CUFI attendees were eventually escorted by police to other buses nearby, and the protest dissipated without arrests.

I like to think, though, that for at least one hour, we blocked Christian Zionist from lobbying our lawmakers for funding the killing of more women and children in Gaza. I like to think that one hour of holy trouble is far better than no holy trouble at all. 

Jonathan Brenneman, a Palestinian Christian and national leader with Christians for a Free Palestine, who participated in the blockade of CUFI’s buses said, “As people of faith, we are sickened that our elected leaders, lobbied by CUFI, are fulfilling the genocidal goals of a far-right, Christian nationalist organization — an organization whose chief spokesperson has a long history of making anti-Muslim and antisemitic statements. We refuse to turn a blind eye to our government’s unconditional arming of Israel and to the miseducation CUFI provides to its audience that prevents all people in Palestine/Israel from being able to live in peace, safety, and dignity.”

Until the day all people in Palestine/Israel live in peace, safety, and dignity, I pray that I will have ears to ear John Lewis’ call to engage in good trouble – holy trouble!

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