Peter Makari, Executive for the Middle East and Europe of the Common Global Ministries Board of the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)(Photo: Dexter Van Zile)

Rev. Dr. Peter Makari, area executive for Europe and the Middle East for Global Ministries for the United Church of Christ and The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) spoke to a reporter from the American Free Press in earlier this year about a letter to Congress. The letter, sent to lawmakers on Oct. 5, 2012 was problematic, but the his decision to give an interview with the American Free Press was also a bad one. The publication was founded by Willis Carto, a man described by the ADL as ”one of the most influential American anti-Semitic propagandists of the past 50 years.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a press release calling for his ouster. CAMERA wrote about the interview, here and here and contacted the leaders of both the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ, asking about the interview.

After getting no response, CAMERA began corresponding with Conference Ministers in the United Church of Christ and Regional Ministers with the Disciples of Christ.

After sending out more than 70 notes about Rev. Dr. Peter Makari’s interview with the American Free Press, CAMERA obtained a statement from Global Ministries sent to officials in both the UCC and Disciples. It reads in part as follows:
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With Israel’s announcement that it plans to proceed with construction in Area E-1, east of Jerusalem, earlier falsehoods about that land reemerge. Thus, Ha’aretz reports that construction in E-1

would effectively bisect the West Bank and sever the physical link between the Palestinian territories and Jerusalem.

Similarly, the New York Times reports:

Construction in E1, in West Bank territory that Israel captured in the 1967 war, would connect the large Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim to Jerusalem, dividing the West Bank in two. The Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem would be cut off from the capital, making the contiguous Palestinian state endorsed by the United Nations last week virtually impossible.

So is it true that construction in E-1 would bisect the West Bank, severing Palestinian contiguity, and cutting off Palestinian areas from Jerusalem? The answer is no. As CAMERA pointed out in 2005 (“The Contiguity Double Standard“):

Palestinian contiguity in the West Bank would be no more cut off with the so-called E-1 corridor than would Israeli contiguity if Israel were to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders, even with slight modifications.

Here’s why. First, take a look at this map of the region:

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