Christian NGOs and Israel

December 27, 2012 Leave a comment

A few days ago, the Commentator published an article by me (text below) on the reasons why so many Christian organisations working in the Middle East are hostile towards Israel. There are a good number of excellent pro-Israel organisations, who seek to serve both sides of the divide in Israel and who successfully keep a non-political stance. Why can so many others not do the same. If the organisations working in Palestinian areas insist on being so poisonously anti-Israel, why do the pro-Israel groups not behave in the same way towards Palestinians? Who is showing a more Christian face to the world; the ones serving Palestinians while actively and loudly denigrating Israel, or the ones quietly serving both communities and hating neither?  This blog in the Times of Israel by NGO Monitor echoes these concerns.

Dexter Van Zile (Why are Christian charities bashing Israel? 15th December) admirably exposed a major problem in the Christian development agency universe; a problem that too often seems to focus on only one geographical area in the whole world. Embrace the Middle East (an evolution of a long-standing agency with a history of excellent work on behalf of the poor of the Middle East), Christian Aid, World Vision, The Amos Trust and many others do provide aid to the poor and they do engage in commendable development projects in the cultural and religious turmoil we call the Middle East. Sadly, however, the majority of such charities seem to have an unacceptable political bias where this one geographical area is concerned – that narrow strip of land popularly known as “Israel-Palestine” or “Palestine-Israel” depending on your worldview! As someone who has worked in the Christian charity sector for over 25 years and with a special concern in the Middle East, I would like to offer a four point rationale for this anomaly in the mindsets of otherwise thoroughly admirable, caring organisations. Read more of this post

Filed under Antisemitism, Minorities in the Middle East, The BDS Campaign, The Delegitimisation of Israel Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Israeli Government Report on PA Incitement

December 11, 2012 Leave a comment

The cabinet of Bibi Netanyahu was recently (Dec 2nd) presented with a detailed report on PA incitement against Israel and Israelis in the form of a Powerpoint presentation. This was released and we are pleased to be able to show it to you here. It demonstrates that the PA as an official policy is teaching its people three things:

  1. The whole of what is now Israel, “from the river to the sea”, is part of “Palestine”.
  2. The demonisation of Jews and Israelis
  3. All forms of struggle – including terrorist acts – are legitimate forms of opposition to Israel

The international community expects Israel’s government to make concessions and talk peace to the PA, who are clearly demonstrating that they do not want peace. The international community should instead be pressuring and penalising the PA for refusing to sit down and negotiate with Israel without pre-conditions. Anyway, enough already! On to the show…

Filed under Current Events, Palestinian Incitement, The Delegitimisation of Israel, The Peace Process Tagged with , , , , , ,

Habima at the Globe

June 5, 2012 Leave a comment

Having already done a piece for The Commentator as immediate news, I thought I would let the dust settle and see what else was said and done before blogging on the performance by Habima at Shakespeare’s Globe theater here in London.

Firstly, the Globe Theatre is to be complimented for going ahead with their invitation to Israel’s national theatre company in the face of some fairly high level pleas from British theatrical figures to boycott them. Secondly, Habima executed not only a superb performance of the apposite Merchant of Venice, to packed houses and rave reviews, but they refused to be put off by the few demonstrations that made it past the tight security and didn’t pause their acting once when banners were displayed or other demonstrations took place. Not only was the Globe’s security apparatus swift and efficient in dealing with troublemakers, but the strong police presence and airport-style search arches combined to remove most demonstration banners from anti-Israel protestors before they even reached their seats. Congratulations to both Habima and The Globe.

I am an inveterate people-watcher and I love going to marches and demonstrations to observe both sides, as well as the reactions of passers-by. In the case of the anti-Habima demonstration, the Zionist Federation organised a Jewish/Christian counter-demonstration, which the police had placed round a corner out of sight of the pro-Palestinians. Walking around between the two, it was clear that no more than 40-50 pro-Palestinian supporters had turned out (this was at the Monday, first night, performance). Read more of this post

Filed under Antisemitism, Current Events, The BDS Campaign, The Delegitimisation of Israel Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

Seventy Years or Seven Hundred, Things Still Don’t Change!

January 20, 2012 Leave a comment

The venue for the Wannsee ConferenceIn a week’s time Britain will mark Holocaust Memorial Day and events will take place all over the country to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and to remember the death of (probably more than) 6 million Jews in Hitler’s “final solution of the Jewish question” during World War 2.

Today however is another anniversary, as significant but hardly remembered; January 20th 2012 is the seventieth anniversary of the Wannsee conference in Berlin. That one day conference meeting brought together some of the top figures in the Nazi regime to finalise plans to rid not only Germany but all of Europe of its Jewish population. History – and the Holocaust Research Project website – tell us the rest of the story, but the question is whether or not the stupendously horrific shock of the holocaust actually taught mankind any lessons.

Sadly, mankind has not learnt their collective lessons from the events that followed the Wannsee conference. While it has been rightly understood that a race that has any claims to common humanity must do its best to ensure there can never be another ‘Shoa’, we still see antisemitism on the rise in Britain and mainland Europe.

In British universities antisemitic speakers are allowed (or worse, invited) onto campus to incite hatred of Israel and Jewish people. The accelerating growth of Muslim communities in Europe has led to anti-Israel demonstrations where hate speech laws are blatantly flouted – and the delegtimisation and boycotts campaigns of groups like the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign continue to demonise the Middle East’s only true democracy and the world’s only Jewish state.

It may only be seventy years on from Wannsee, but even seven hundred has not been enough for antisemitism – hatred without a cause – to be leached out of humanity. The world’s oldest hatred is alive and well!

Christian Middle East Watch laments bitterly that it was an avowedly Christian country that sponsored the Wannsee conference and the subsequent holocaust. Just as with the crusades, the Medieval ghettos, the Inquisition and the pogroms, this was not in the heart of the God that we worship!

Filed under Antisemitism, Current Events Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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