Christian Friends of Israel – and Christian Foes
They’re really pulling out all the stops these days – those perverse Christians who seem to detest the existence of Israel. Last week the Quakers’ headquarters in Manchester hosted both Israel-basher Gideon Levy of Ha’aretz and – like so many Christian places of worship up and down the British Isles – Rod Cox’s notorious Israel-demonising exhibition of children’s drawings from Gaza. “Greenbelt”, a four-day musical festival at Cheltenham Racecourse that began this past weekend, organised by Christian groups with a pro-Palestinian agenda including Christian Aid and – fresh from their June call to boycott produce from “illegal” West Bank settlements – the Methodists, asks the 12,800 people attending to “confront the stark contrast” between the festival and the “day-to-day life” of Gazans.
Replacement theology and Successionism is undermining Israel, and many Christians have been seduced by Naim Ateek, founder of the Palestinian Christian organisation Sabeel, who denies that the “Old Testament” justifies Zionism and has made conflicting statements regarding Israel’s right to exist. Churches have produced one-sided reports about the situation in the Middle East that depict Hamas as a charitable organisation, completely overlooking its terrorist credentials and its antisemitic genocidal Charter. There’s even a tendency in some quarters to twist reality for political purposes and depict Jesus as a Palestinian rather than as a Judean. In London both the Bloomsbury Baptist Church and St James’s Church, Piccadilly, hold carol services in conjunction with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign with the words to well-known carols altered to demonise Israel.
And so on.
Tags: Church Life, Israel
September 1st, 2010 at 9:18 am
The state of Israel and people who are Jewish are two separate things. Any secular government must be open to public scrutiny and criticism. That Includes Israel and Vatican State in spite of their religious undertones.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:31 am
Agreed….no blank cheque approach, but no veering the other way either…..
September 1st, 2010 at 12:15 pm
The Christian imperative is to stand up for the weak when they are being oppressed by the powerful. To stand up to the state of Israel when it systematically oppresses Palestinians is therefore a Christian thing to do, just as standing up for Jews persecuted in Europe and Christians persecuted in Iran are both right.
September 1st, 2010 at 6:34 pm
I agree with Philip. I have Christian friends who will not criticize the State of Isreal for any of its actions because they are “God’s chosen people”. This seems in direct contrast to the OT prophets who often condemned the Iseaelites of the day for their behaviour and unjust practises.
I personally see nothing wrong in having an exhibition of children’s drawings from Gaza, Jewish childrens drawings from Auswitch or Iraqi childrens drawings from Fallujah. Essentially they all tell the same story, that of man’s inhumanity to man.