That remark and others by the Rev. Naim Ateek have sparked criticism of the plan to honor him during the Episcopal Church USA’s General Convention. He’ll be named a co-winner of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s John Nevin Sayre Award, along with Madeleine Trichel, founder of the local Interfaith Center for Peace.

Ateek, a Palestinian and an Israeli citizen, is the founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. He encourages Christian churches to divest holdings in companies dealing with Israel.

The Rev. Bruce Chilton, an Episcopal priest at Bard College and rector of St. John the Evangelist Church in Barrytown, N.Y., said giving Ateek the award "strikes me as making a mockery of the process."

"His ultimate goal includes the removal of the state of Israel, which is not a vision of peace at all but a matter of forcible elimination," said Chilton, chairman of the Episcopal Diocese of New York’s committee on Episcopal-Jewish relations.

"He has spoken very warmly of the tactic of suicide bombing, explaining it as a logical outcome of the difficult situation in which many Palestinians live."...

...Ateek’s statements have included a 2002 article in Cornerstone, the Sabeel newsletter, in which he condemned suicide bombings. But he said that such bombings are the result of Israeli oppression.

Similarly, in a May article in Joint Advocacy Initiative magazine, Ateek said the Hamas group elected to govern the Palestinians must become nonviolent.

"People, however, need to remember that Hamas’ violence was provoked by Israel’s policies against the Palestinians as well as Israel’s contempt of international law," he said.

He raised ire in April 2001 when he said in his Easter message to Sabeel supporters: "In this season of Lent, it seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him. ... The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily."...