Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) a Christian response?
The sixth international Israeli Apartheid Week kicked off yesterday, with the “week-long” festivities taking place over 14 days in over 40 cities across the globe.
Organizers say this year’s events are meant to “educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement.”
No country is perfect in this world, but to vilify Israel in this manner is absurd at best, especially when you pause for a moment to consider the rogue, despot, brutal regimes that exist in our world today, most notably; Iran, North Korea, Zimbabwe and others.
As CAMERA rightly point out on their IsraelApartheidWeek website, even the name of this campaign is subtly designed to malign and delegitimise Israel:-
They come as part of “Israeli Apartheid Week,” a series of lectures, exhibits and events that single out Israel for fierce attack. Students are told the Jewish state is, by nature, a racist, colonial and oppressive state. They are told Israel should be boycotted, and even destroyed. They are told this by ideologues who distort facts about country while ignoring genuine oppression in the Middle East and across the world.
One need look no further than the event’s title to understand its malignant nature. The canard that Israel is an apartheid state is an assault on the country’s very legitimacy. South Africa’s racist, apartheid regime was rightfully dismantled, and this campaign seeks absurdly to cast Israel — the Middle East’s most progressive state and only liberal democracy — as being guilty of similar policies and equally deserving to be dismantled.
Having said all of this, the truly disheartening sight for me personally, is watching “Christian organisations” joining the chorus of Israel-bashers. Jonathan Bartley over at Ekklesia, has this to say about the Israel Apartheid Week:-
Since it was first launched in 2005, IAW has grown to become one of the most important global events in the ‘Palestine solidarity calendar’, but in the UK it often passes by without a mention.
Last year though more than 40 cities around the world participated in the week’s activities, which took place in the wake of Israel’s brutal assault against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. IAW continues to grow with new cities joining this year.
In London, most of the action takes place around universities. I see that my friend Ben White (a regular Guardian CIF contributor) is speaking at the LSE next Tuesday.
I make no secret of my Zionist theology, however, this DOES NOT equate to a “blank cheque” approach to Israel and it must be remembered that anti-Zionist theology has the potential to pose an existential threat to Israel, especially when hijacked by Israel hating radical groups and regimes. See my recent post on this:-
Ekklesia is vocal in its condemnation of Israel and it is most notable that Jonathan Bartley should mention his friend Ben White, who is a regular Guardian CIF contributor.
This is a comment from CIFWatch, which is a blog set up to combat the virulent anti-Semitism relentlessly propounded through the Guardian’s “Comment is Free”:-
When it comes to coverage of Israel on ‘Comment is Free’, readers are regularly exposed to a noxious mix of antizionism, antisemitism and other garden variety Israel-bashing.
On the pages of ‘Comment is Free’, contributors regularly label Israel as a racist and apartheid state and use emotive epithets such as “coloniser”, “ethnic cleansing”, “war crimes”, “separation wall”, “bantustans” and “war-mongering” to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist. Intentional acts of violence against the civilian population in Israel are either downplayed or totally ignored while attempts by Israel to prevent such attacks portray Israel as the unprovoked bloodthirsty aggressor that is motivated by an innate and racist hatred of the non-Jewish Arabs.
Recurring themes include spuriously characterizing Zionism as the antithesis of core Jewish values, touting of the one-state solution, comparing the acts of the Israelis with those of the Nazis, dehumanizing the Israeli settler population, morally equivocating between the Israeli right-wing and the Islamists, trumpeting the “Israel lobby” lie, accusing Jews of dual loyalties and sneering at those that dare defend Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.
It is no coincidence that Jonathan Bartley’s friend, Ben White, is a much loved contributor to the Guardian CIF, as he himself is most certainly not friendly to Israel.
Seismic Shock has blogged on Ben White and has this to say:-
…..I’ve also blogged about Ben White, a British journalist who rose to fame recently whilst defaming Israel and praising Christian anti-Zionist theologians such as Stephen Sizer and Colin Chapman. In recent months, White has gained notoriety for recommending the work of a Holocaust denier in a polemical book against Israel, banning Zionist Jews from his meetings and facebook groups, and for being alarmed at the arrest of antisemites who plotted to blow up a synagogue in New York.
It was the Seismic Shock blog that first picked up on Ben White’s infamous quote “I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, yet I can also understand why some are”.
The Modernity Blog has an interesting article reflecting on Ben White’s journalism in the Guardian.
Following is an excellent article from Seismic Shock, posted on CIFWatch, reviewing Ben White, the Guardian and also mentioning Ekklesia:-
All About Zion
White blogs about Neve Gordon, highlighting a sentence in The Nation about reaction to Gordon’s article:
But is Ben White also the ‘butt of vicious attacks’? He has complained about his critics in the past. Writing on Liberal Conspiracy, White protests:
‘A favourite tactic of die-hard defenders of Israel is to smear critics of the country’s policies through guilt by association, lies, and decontextualised quotations.
I have come to know this latter strategy quite well.’
For Ben White, it’s All About Zion. White sees himself as ‘a critic of the country’s policies’, and his critics in turn are ‘die-hard defenders of Israel’, seemingly obsessed with Zionism.
Yet Ben White is not your average critic of Israel, nor even your average boycotter of Israel. White has even stated ‘I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, yet I can also understand why some are.’ There is a strong religious dimension to Ben White’s anti-Zionism. White gives talks in churches and theological colleges, and his writing is praised by vicars, archbishops and other prominent clergymen. His book on Israel has received positive reviews on the Ekklesia website, an evangelical blog, and his letter in the Independent on Israel’s 60th birthday has raised his profile significantly amongst Christians.
He has previously written on CIF in praise of Christian “anti-Zionists” Colin Chapman and Stephen Sizer, who have developed a theology which suggests that the modern state of Israel is an offence to God, as Jews are no longer God’s Chosen People. For example, Sizer thinks that Israel is a rejected vineyard tossed into the flames by God.
Can you imagine The Guardian’s liberal-left Comment Is Free publishing praise of Christians who argue that the Curse of Ham extends to all dark-skinned people, and so black people cannot run their own countries? Or publishing praise of Christians who argue that Ishmael’s descendants are cursed, and therefore don’t have a right to run their own countries? Why did CommentIsFree publish a piece in praise of replacement theology-spouting anti-Zionists?
This is not the only disturbing aspect of Ben White’s writings and blog posts. Take his article from 11 January 2006 from The Palestine Chronicle (written four days before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s announcement of plans for a Holocaust review conference), in which he argued that Mahmoud Ahmadinjead was not really a Holocaust denier. Framing his comments in a religious context, White rationalised Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial thus:
‘The news agency goes on though to report that the President described how “some have created a myth on holocaust and hold it even higher than the very belief in religion and prophets because when a person expresses disbelief in God, religion and prophets they do not object to him but they will protest to anyone who would reject the Holocaust”. Again, Ahmadinejad is drawing attention to the extent to which European nations prosecute Holocaust deniers, yet are by and large post-Christian societies with little regard for religion. For a devout believer like the Iranian President, this must seem like a strange situation.’
White also produced this astounding sentence:
‘The Holocaust comes to symbolize the intrinsic anti-Jewish racism of ‘Gentile’ societies, and therefore proving the need for a Jewish state. More disturbingly perhaps, the Holocaust acts as a standard for human depravity set so high, that any treatment of the Palestinians is justifiable, as long as it falls short of what was experienced by the Jews in Nazi Europe.’
But why does White suggest the Holocaust ‘acts as’ or ‘comes to symbolise’ anything? Why does White see Israel’s Holocaust memorial as merely a tool of Zionism, without appreciating that millions of Israelis are simply the descendents of Holocaust survivors, and don’t want the atrocities of Nazi Europe to be forgotten? Or is the Holocaust now All About Zion?
Most offensive is the idea that Israelis gladly mete out cruelty and punishment to Palestinians, and so long as Israel doesn’t actually create gas chambers, Israel will feel it can do what it likes. Does White genuinely believe this? Is White reluctant to show sympathy with the victims of antisemitic violence?
Consider also White’s reaction to the arrest of antisemites in May of this year. White saw the arrest as a ‘fully controlled threat to our freedoms,’ as an FBI agent had infiltrated a group of four men plotting to explode a synagogue in New York. All four plotters now have prison sentences.
So how was this a ‘fully controlled threat to our freedoms’? For Ben White, what are ‘our freedoms’ in this case?
Was this about our freedom to worship in synagogues without fear of terrorist attack, or about our freedom to plot attacks on synagogues so long as we aren’t successful in carrying them out, or don’t actually have explosives?
Did the threat come from the extremists willing to launch terror against innocent Jews, or did the threat come from law enforcement agents seeking to prevent anti-Jewish terrorism?
Once again, amazingly, White appeared to sympathise with those responsible for antisemitism rather than the victims of antisemitism. To add insult to injury, White’s book (intended for ‘beginners’ to Israel/Palestine) contains a recommendation of the writings of French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy.
Now ask yourself whether Ben White’s critics always have Zionism in mind, and whether it always is All About Zion? Perhaps it’s about doing unto others as you would have done to you.
Tags: Christianity, Israel, Media
March 2nd, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Great post, thanks Stuart
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:07 pm
@James, I agree.
Coincidently, Pamela Geller has just posted about Ben White who is currently touring Columbia.
Pamela is no fan of Ben White either.
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/03/atlas-iaw-alert-protest-ben-white-this-centurys-classic-nazi.html
This doesn’t look good on Jonathan Bartley & Ekklesia at all.
Well done, good work.
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:35 pm
The battle lines are being drawn, I stand with Israel.
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:08 am
Hmmm, while I agree with you that Ben White’s approach to this issue is a little odd (and he appears to write opinion, rather than being a journalist), and Stephen Sizer could choose his speaking appointments more carefully, the actual sermon you mention by Mr Sizer is pretty mainstream evangelical thought.
You also talk about using terms such as ‘apartheid’, ‘war crimes’, ‘ethnic cleansing’, ‘colonialism’, etc. and say that they are unhelpful. Why? Apartheid is defined by the Rome Statute of the ICC, we can look there to see whether Israel meets the definition. Those who agree with the apartheid label include Jimmy Carter, but also Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert and Boaz Okon. The majority of Arabs in what is now Israel were ethnically cleansed from the land. The settlements in the West Bank are colonial outposts. There are instances where Israel has violated international law related to the conduct of war; these are war crimes. These are all factually verifiable or falsifiable statements.
You’re right that IAW focuses on Israel. There are many other pressing issues in the world, and Christians are involved in condemning many of them. But where there is oppression of the weak by the strong, Christians should condemn it. It’s happening in Israel, so Christians should condemn it there. It should be condemned in other places, too, but it should still be condemned in Israel.
March 3rd, 2010 at 10:35 am
The doofuses who organized the so-called “Israel-Aparhteid Week” seemed to have dropped their squalid little program right at the beginning of Buycott Israel Month (see http://www.buycottmonth.com). But what do you expect from bunch of clowns who can’t even get be truthful about the word “Week”?
March 5th, 2010 at 3:39 am
Instead of standing on a side, let’s stand for peace. Join the movement for peace, by following Pax_101 on Facebook.
Join the battle towards peace.
March 7th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
The fact of the matter is that Israel has to be held accountable more so than Iran, N. Korea, etc. because it is a democracy. I agree that dialogue is important, but the CONTEXT in which this dialogue happens is also important. You cannot have dialogue between two unequal partners! We need to stop deluding ourselves. If Christians cared as much about HUMAN LIFE as they did what Israel/Jewish people thought of them, there would be peace tomorrow in Israel/Palestine.
The prophets of the old testament were hated more than anything in their day. What’s right is not always popular and in this situation it stands true with North American Christians. Open your eyes Christians.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
I think it is a mistake to see most of these people as Christians, whatever they call themselves. For instance Ekklesia is merely a left-wing pressure group to push secular values into the church. I recall that it ran a campaign against Exeter Christian Union when the latter was being persecuted by the university authorities.
I doubt any of them take their lead from the bible. No, what we have here is the religious left — the Guardian-readers who hold down posts in establishment churches. It’s merely an ecclesiastical version of the general hate of the Left for Israel. They want to use the name of Christian to attack Israel (the use of the Name as a tool for secular ends is itself a sign that they care nothing for Christ).
The object of all this is to destroy Israel, in exactly the same way that the UK’s African colonies were handed over to bandits like Mugabe to loot and torch and the British expelled. These people intend to install an Arab Mugabe in Tel Aviv, by whatever means they can.
We need to find a practical way to stop this (very effective) mechanism to destroy our friends.