I am a journalist in Toronto and have just
covered a conference by a little known group called Sabeel, based in Jerusalem.
Its leader is Anglican Rev. Canon Naim Ateek, a Palestinian Christian. He is
extremely dangerous. While espousing peace and "morality" he delivers
a one-sided, impassioned anti-Israel, anti- Semitic narrative, filled with
distortions and falsehoods without context and scrutiny to an audience of
mostly well-meaning Christians, who don't challenge him and believe everything
he says. He is calling for a third "non-violent" intifada. In the
conference kit was a flyer announcing an "International Nonviolence
Conference in Bethlehem, to learn first hand about nonviolent activism.” It
will take place in Bethlehem Dec 27-30. They expect over 1000 people.
A rep from the David Project was there to
challenge him.
You are welcome to use my article.
And thank you for your brave work.
Dorit Evan
Toronto ======================================================== October 26, 2005 Dorit Evan
PALESTINIAN CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATION SPEARHEADS
ISRAEL DIVESTMENT CAMPAIGN
The day after a suicide bombing killed five
people in Hadera and wounded scores more, the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation
Theology Center, a Jerusalem based organization which claims to promote peace
in the Israeli- Palestine conflict, is urging divestiture and economic
sanctions against Israel, until they destroy the security fence and withdraw
the Israeli army from the West Bank. Sabeel's founder and leader, the Anglican
canon Rev. Naim Ateek, 68, who was born in Beit She’an, is also calling for a
third intifada. No mention is ever made of the Arab and Palestinian violence
against Israel and they make no demands on the PA to stop terrorism.
They publicly blame the occupation for all their
suffering and remain silent about Islamic violence, even the persecution of the
Palestinian Christians. The fact that Palestinian terrorism began years before
there was any occupation, does not seem to matter to their determination to blame
the Jewish state for all their ills. The Sabeel center tries to give Christian
religious justification as support in their presentations. In 200l, Ateek,
wrote that, "Jesus is on the Cross again with thousands of crucified
Palestinians around him. The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating
daily.”
Throughout October, across North America, Ateek
and Sabeel-trained speakers have been delivering anti-Israel rhetoric, often
couched in Christian imagery, in a series of conferences beamed at mainline
churches and the general public. October 26, they were in Toronto for a three
day gathering, delivering their message without context and for the most part,
without scrutiny.
A powerful communicator, the silver-haired
Ateek, wearing the black and white clerical collar of the Anglican priest,
mesmerized the audience at Bloor St. United Church with a litany of historical
distortions and slander.
He reframed the conflict to blame "the
continued brutal occupation of Palestinian land, by expansionist Israel"
as the sole cause. And - "Hamas emerged through the promotion of the
Israeli government in order to split the (Palestinian) people." He claims
Sharon built the wall only to "grab" more land from the Palestinian
people.
"I am hoping," he told the approximately
100 people, "for another intifada like the first. The first was
non-violent, the second was primarily armed. Palestinians need a non-violent
revolution – another intifada. Sabeel will do the best we can toward that for
Abbas. “Sure," he added, "some will be violent,’ he shrugged, ‘You
can't control everyone."
He accused the settlers of "being worse
than the soldiers." And "the Palestinian extremists are responding to
the Israeli extremists. Israel will never be secure as long as it occupies. It
will have peace only when it ends the occupation." Which he calls
"illegal."
The Torah permits ethnic cleansing when it says,
"expel them or kill them.” He declared that "Zionism was the biggest
vice because it high-jacked Judaism.” While he didn’t accept the statehood of Israel
in l948, "no Palestinian, whether Christian or Muslim would have accepted
a new state on their land (everyone was Palestinian then, including Jews. It
was after the war of l967 that Palestinians became the group we now recognize,)
he does now. Although he says he accepts the State of Israel now, he would like
to see one state - a bi-national state. This idea, writes Alan Dershowitz
"is a transparent fraud calculated to end Israel's existence. The one
state that would emerge (because of demographics - there would be far more
Muslims than Israelis) would be a Palestinian Muslim state.
Ateek's speech was prefaced by a message of
support from South African Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu. A spokesperson from
Kairos, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, one of the co-sponsors of the
conference, gave him a warm introduction.
Kairos has received significant funding from
CIDA. Stockwell Day, now official Opposition Foreign Affairs Critic, said in
Parliament Thursday, October 27, "I do not think that Canadians would be
supportive of their tax dollars (through CIDA) being used to finance a campaign
urging disinvestment in Israel. Sabeel has been criticized broadly for their
indifference to the security concerns of Israel and for their uncritical
support of the Palestinian cause. Please advise me of what steps the government
will be taking immediately to stop the taxpayer funding of groups lobbying for
Israel's disinvestment." Kairos received almost three million in
taxpayers' dollars from CIDA in 2003 and 2004.
Dr. Charles McVety, President of Canada
Christian College called on the government to order CIDA to immediately stop
funding Kairos. He said it was "outrageous for the government to hand over
Canadian's hard earned money to groups that seek to undermine its stability for
political reasons."
Though not listed as one of the conference
sponsors, the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations based in Ottawa, worked
behind the scenes, organizing, sending out press releases, arranging a press
conference and interviews and making sure everything ran smoothly.
Dexter Van Zile from the United Church of Christ
is convinced that Ateek is "dangerous. He's able to wrap up Palestinian
nationalism in the language of Christian Witness and essentially that agenda
then gets legitimized by churches in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia. He
gives legitimacy to a dishonest historical narrative."
He was one of four prominent Christian clergy
who asked B'nai Brith Canada to join forces to denounce the radical anti-Jewish
and anti- Israel agenda of Sabeel, which has spearheaded the campaign to
isolate Israel through divestment. They spoke in a press conference organized by
B'nai Brith and moderated by Ruth Klein, National Director of Advocacy, B'nai
Brith Canada.
Sister Ruth Lautt , a lawyer and Dominican nun,
of Churches United for Just Peace in the Middle East and Rev. William Harter of
Presbyterians Concerned for Jewish Relations and the National Christian
Leadership Conference for Israel, spoke against the group's agenda. Rev. Dr.
Bruce Chilton, chair of the Episcopal-Jewish relations Committee in the
Episcopal Diocese of New York discussed the Episcopal Church's recent decision
to reject divestment in favour of a strategy of positive investment among
Palestinians and Israel.
In the past few years, a growing number of
mainline Protestant churches in the US have voted to divest from companies
doing business with Israel. While the language of the resolutions vary, they
all share common characteristics:
* A denial of the religious, regional and racist
nature of the war against Israel;
* A singling out of Israel for condemnation
* An effort to portray Israel's efforts to
defend itself against terrorism in pejorative terms
* An unwillingness to acknowledge the motives
and consequences of Islamic terror on Israelis
* They are under the influence of Palestinian
Christians who focus on Israel's "sins" and are silent about the
corruption of the Palestinian Authority, the violence of Hamas, the Arab
anti-semitism and anti-Christian attitudes that pervade their society.
"These groups do not speak on behalf of
Christians in any way," said Dr. Charles McVety. "They are a radical
fringe indulging their ant-=Semitic, anti- Israel bias under the guise of
neutrality." Ruth Klein, "Under the guise of promoting "morally
responsible" divestment from Israel, Sabeel is engaging in blatant
propaganda that seeks to isolate and delegitimize its existence. The fact that
mainstream churches are hosting Sabeel events is a blow to advances made in
recent years in Christian Jewish relations and an unfortunate throwback to a
time when anti - Semitism was a core feature of Christian theology.
Deeply concerned about the programs and message
that the Palestinian Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre is bringing
to North America, a coalition called The Coalition for Responsible Peace in the
Middle East has formed, consisting of, American Jewish Congress, StandWithUs,
and the United Church of Christ. They state: "They (Sabeel) undermine
hopes for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, for greater understanding
about the conflict and for the spread of religious tolerance."
Sabeel promotes the extremeist Palestinian
narrative and excuses terrorism
Sabeel distorts facts in order to demonize
Israel.
Sabeel promotes one-sides program. The Israeli
side is silenced
Sabeel promotes intolerance and extremist
theology. It foments traditional prejudices against Jews.
Sabeel promotes continued intolerance against
Christians in the Palestinian Authority and the larger Middle East.
Sabeel promotes the new anti-Semitism.
Sabeel promotes policies that will retard
instead of advance the peace process. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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