There are a variety of strong Protestant pro-Israeli movements. Yet one also finds many active anti-Israeli currents in some of the mainstream Protes- tant denominations. Several Protestant organizations in the Western world and developing countries play an important role in anti-Israeli activities. They often propose discriminatory measures against Israel, without suggesting taking any action against countries that are extreme human rights abusers.

U.S. scholar Eugene Korn summarizes the history of anti-Israelism in Western liberal churches:

This harsh anti-Israeli attitude had long been building in America and Europe. Since the First Intifada in the late 1980s, the liberal churches have become increasingly hostile to the Israeli understanding of the conflict, viewing Pales- tinian violence as a legitimate grassroots rebellion by oppressed natives against Israeli colonial conquerors of Palestinian lands. Moreover, during this period the World Council of Churches—which never had great sympathy for Israel— became an unabashed apologist for Palestinian rejectionism, even refusing to condemn Palestinian terror.1

Major battles against Israel have taken place in the Presbyterian church in the United States, says CAMERA analyst Dexter van Zile:

The protagonists are a relatively small number of so-called peace activists, some with ties to the Middle East, who seek to put the Jewish state in the judgment seat. Leveling chimerical accusations at Israel in the name of peace, these activ- ists seek to enlist their fellow Presbyterians—and the church’s bureaucracy—into their efforts to banish the modern state of Israel from the community of civilized nations and portray it as uniquely worthy of criticism and condemnation.2

The danger, however, is that while initially anti-Israeli incitement in such organizations starts at the top, it filters down over time to the rank and file.

Van Zile notes:

For the past several years, a group of five Protestant churches—the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America—have legitimized the increasingly virulent anti-Israel movement in the States . . . They still enjoy a considerable influence on the American scene, particularly on the left thanks to their role in American history and the affluence of their members.3

Much hate-mongering against Israel also comes out of smaller Protestant com- munities such as the Mennonites4 and the Quakers.5

Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein of the Simon Wiesenthal Center observed, “The leadership of most American ‘mainline’ Protestant churches is top-heavy with anti-Israel agitation, especially among those on mission committees. By now, a substantial number of their members have been influenced by anti-Israel rhetoric.”6

The IPMN Hate-Israel Guide

Yet another anti-Israeli action occurred in 2014 when the Israel/Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) of the Presbyterian Church released a study guide called “Zionism Unsettled” accompanied by a DVD. The president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Rabbi Steve Gutow, said that the guide was “worthy of a hate group, not a prominent American church.”

It was not only condemned by Jewish organizations but also by Presbyterians involved in dialogue with Jewish organizations. The Reverend Katharine Rhodes Henderson, president of the Presbyterian Auburn Theological Semi- nary in New York, said that “this document purports to be about love, but it actually expresses demonization, distortion and imbalance.”

John Wimberly, a co-convener of Presbyterians for Middle East Peace, a group that has been fighting against the anti-Israeli groups in the church, said that the study guide expresses “the desire to eliminate Israel as a Jewish state.” He observed, “We have always been dealing with a small group of activists who know how to manipulate the system and intimidate people. Now that will blow up in their face because very few people share their agenda.”

Major Jewish groups have rejected the church’s efforts to disclaim responsibility for the guide. Ethan Felson, a vice-president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said that the IPMN is not a separate entity and received contri- butions through the church.7

Audience Remains Silent

A more general problem, not limited to Protestant churches, occurs when organizations give inciters a platform to promote their hate and then remain silent about the slander. One such case was the 2012 General Convention of the United Methodist Church in the United States.

At this convention, a resolution was adopted calling for the boycott of Israeli products made in the West Bank. Subsequently another resolution, proposing that the denomination’s board of pensions and health benefits sell its stock in three companies doing business with Israel, Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola, was defeated.

A woman named Margaret Novak then said to the assembly, “I would just ask us all to imagine we were United Methodists in the 1930s and 40s [and] that our board of pensions held stock in the very successful manufacturing firms in Germany that bid and received the bids to manufacture the ovens for concentration camps. At what point would we decide it was time to divest? How much evidence would we ask for before it was time to stop the wholesale destruction of people?”

CAMERA remarked:

Margaret Novak compared Israeli policies in the West Bank to the destruction of Jews in Europe. She made this statement in front of several hundred people and the moderator of the assembly let her statement pass unchallenged. No- vak’s comparison between current Israeli policies and that of the Nazi regime falls under the working definition of anti-Semitism issued by the European Forum on anti-Semitism. This definition warns against “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policies to that of the Nazis.” Novak’s suggestion that the Israelis are perpetrating a genocide (“wholesale destruction of people”) is defamatory. The population of the Palestinians has grown four-fold in the decades since the 1948 war.8

A key figure in the Anglican anti-Israeli campaigns is Reverend Stephen Sizer. Anglican writer Margaret Brearley observes:

His book, Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon? (InterVarsity Press, Leicester 2004) is endorsed by many leading British and American bishops, theologians and clergy, who share his views . . . It is worth briefly examining Sizer’s ideology, on account of its influence and because it typifies a major strand of Christian hostility to Israel. Sizer utterly opposes Christian support for “Rabbinic Judaism” and for Israel . . . Like other anti-Zionists, he ignores the devastating consequences of both Christian and Arab anti-Semitism, and decontextualizes Israel politically.

She adds:

Sizer’s own theological position is, in essence, pre-Vatican II, and seems unaffected by mainstream post-Holocaust Christian theology. While he does not explicitly affirm “replacement” theology (“the idea that the spiritual church, as the ‘new Israel’ has replaced physical Israel within God’s purposes”), neverthe- less his theology of “covenantalism” is indeed essentially anti-Judaic replace- ment theology: “Covenantalism affirms that the church is Israel renewed and restored in Christ but now enlarged to embrace people of all nations.”9

In autumn 2014, Sizer participated in a conference in Iran where claims of Zi- onist involvement in 9/11 were promoted. Sizer said that he was there to present a Christian point of view. The Board of Deputies demanded an investigation by the Church of England.10

Canada

Professor Ira Robinson of Concordia University (Montreal) says:

The United Church of Canada has a five decade-old history of anti-Israel rhetoric. In 2012, it backed a campaign titled “Unsettling Goods” to boycott a list of items made by Israeli firms in the West Bank. In 2009, Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney from the Conservative party ended governmental funding—which had lasted 35 years—to the NGO KAIROS. Kenney did so because of its leadership role in the BDS campaign against Israel. KAIROS has been supported by the United Church, as well as Canadian Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Evangelical Lutheran and Mennonite churches.11

A lengthy battle between anti-Israelis and their opponents has been going on in Canada. Historian Paul C. Merkley says, “Mainline Canadian churches, like their counterparts in the United States, have addressed petitions seeking com- mitment to the Durban indictment against Israel.”

He summarizes the situation as: “The laity of Canadian Protestant churches is generally pro-Israel and they, along with pro-Israel Jewish organizations, are ultimately a stronger factor than these churches’ often anti-Israel leadership.”12

European  Churches

Similar developments have occurred in various European countries, says Eugene Korn.

In 2000, the churches of the Anglican Communion sent a fact-finding group to the Middle East to examine the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When they returned to England they published a report containing twenty-two recommendations for peace. Tellingly, not a single recommendation demanded anything substantive of the Palestinians. All were directed at what Israel needed to do for peace in the Middle East. It was eminently clear from the Anglican perspective that Israel was the root of the problem, and so they placed the blame on it exclusively.13

In 2013, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland adopted a document that aimed to discredit the Jewish attachment to Israel from a theological stand- point. It proposes that the Jews’ claim to the Land of Israel could be invalidated by their treatment of the Palestinians and suggests that the church consider boycotts and sanctions against Israel.14

In 2014, the Methodist Church in the UK issued a report on the BDS movement. Although it did not recommend that the church join the boycott, its tone was such that the Israeli embassy condemned it as an attempt to “legitimize the extremist BDS political campaign.” The Jewish umbrella organization Board of Deputies also criticized the document.15

Sweden

Zvi Mazel was Israel’s ambassador to Sweden from 2002 until 2004. In 2008, he reminisced in an interview about that period and said:

For about a decade the Lutheran Church has no longer been the state church. Its former head, Archbishop Hammar, is a well-known Israel-hater. In January 2003, he gathered seventy Swedish intellectuals to sign a petition to boycott Israeli goods, particularly those that come from the territories . . .

The Lutheran Church also has a theological institute in Jerusalem that is led by a pro-Palestinian director. When a delegation of all parliamentary parties in Sweden came to Israel in 2006, I was invited to address them. It turned out the director had arranged matters so that, besides me, they would only meet with Palestinians and extreme-Left Israeli organizations. They visited Ramallah but not Tel Aviv.

The church has been sending Swedish youth to the Palestinian Authority with the aim of accompanying Palestinians to school or work so as to “document infringements of international law.” These youngsters do not document the Palestinian Authority’s infringements of international law or the crimes against humanity by Hamas in Gaza.

The activists of the Christian branch of the Social Democratic Party continue to strengthen their links with the Palestinians and Israeli left-wing organizations. Their representatives visit the Palestinian territories regularly and their impressions are published in their newspaper, which is characterized by defamation of Israel.

In autumn 2007 the daily Göteborgs-Posten published four articles by journalists who had visited Israel and the territories under the sponsorship of the Swedish church. They harshly attacked Israel, portraying it as a colonial state and its inhabitants as a race of rulers operating an apartheid system.

To put matters in historical perspective, Mazel added: “A study by a researcher at Lund University notes that from 1937, well before World War II, Swedish Lutheran pastors would not perform marriages between Germans of Aryan blood and anyone with a Jewish grandparent.16 This racist position was adopted on the advice of the Swedish Foreign Ministry.”17

Norway

Odd Sverre Hove, former editor-in-chief of the Norwegian Christian daily Dagen, says about the situation in Norway:

The present generation of Lutheran bishops in Norway is dominated by pro-Palestinian liberation theology, as well as replacement theology. The latter claims that God’s Covenant with the Jews has been “replaced” by one with Christians. Oslo’s Bishop Ole Christian Kvarme lived in Israel for several years and speaks excellent Hebrew. His impact was crippled by a hostile campaign waged by the media and leftists before his consecration into the bishop’s seat. Kvarme is a friend of Israel, but knows how harsh media criticism will be if he states it too loudly in public.

Hove adds:

The Ecumenical Council (MKR, Mellomkirkelig Råd) of the Church Synod is a strong advocate of Palestinian theology, maintaining connections to the World Council of Churches in Geneva. The presently elected Church Synod, together with the Synod Council, is often more moderate in questions concerning “political” theology. In September 2013, the MKR sent a liturgical text on Palestinian occupation theology to all local churches to be used for one week on a voluntary basis. The MKR was subsequently criticized by the Church Synod, which argued against political statements within church liturgy.18

In early 2014, the Young Men and Women’s Christian Association (YMCA- YWCA) in Norway came out in favor of a total boycott of goods and services not only from the settlements but also from Israel itself. It justified this decision “because a long series of U.N. resolutions and negotiations for decades have not yielded results. We believe it is now appropriate to initiate an economic boycott of Israel to put increased pressure on the Israeli authorities.” The organization has thirty thousand members in more than five hundred chapters and affiliated scouts groups.19 Shortly thereafter the Oslo branch of YMCA-YWCA distanced itself from the boycott motion.20

The Netherlands

 The PKN is the umbrella organization of Dutch Protestants and represents the vast majority of them. Its church order mentions an unbreakable connection with the “People of Israel,” that is, the Jewish people. That, however, is often a mask for actions to the contrary. The PKN’s duplicitous attitude became much clearer when it sent its preachers and lay people “Kairos—A Moment of Truth —Document 2009.”

There was no valid reason to do so, as its authors were mainly minor figures in the Palestinian churches. The document had been prepared by Palestinian Christians who espouse either replacement theology or liberation theology. The former has contributed greatly to almost two thousand years of Christian hatred and continues to do so.

Rabbi Tzvi Marx, who is involved in dialogue with Christians, said:

By de facto accepting the Kairos document, the PKN has undermined 60 years of efforts to create a new relationship with the Jewish people. Liberal and Orthodox Jews feel hurt and shocked by this open support of this large Protestant organiza- tion for a document that in fact aims to eliminate Israel from the Middle East.21

Later it turned out that the original text had been made even more radical in its Dutch translation.22

In early 2010, the PKN leadership also sent the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands a letter of accusations against the Israeli government.23 A few weeks later the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) sent a sharp response to the PKN leadership. It said, among other things, “This Kairos document is noth- ing less than a frontal attack on the legitimacy, viability and existence of the State of Israel.” The SWC gave a detailed argumentation.24 There was a further exchange of letters between the PKN25 and the SWC.26

Dutch organizations criticize others quite often. It was, however, a rather unusual experience for them that the PKN had to answer foreign accusations. In 2010 the former theological adviser of the Dutch Reformed Church in Jerusalem, Geert Cohen Stuart, wrote an open letter to the PKN leaders in which he said:

The justified criticism of the Wiesenthal Center merits being taken seriously. You have opened a Pandora’s box and the liberated Christian anti-Judaism, anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism has justifiably been exposed by the Wiesenthal Center. It is shameful to give a possible Jewish dialogue partner a slap in the face on the basis of “an unbreakable connection with the People of Israel.”27

The PKN’s dubious attitude toward Israel and the Jews requires a detailed study. It must also be noted that the PKN leadership frequently looks away when Palestinian Muslim human rights violations and severe crimes against Palestinian Christians are publicized.28

In March 2014 Arjan Plaisier, secretary of the PKN, refused to oppose the BDS movement. He wrote that companies and consumers have to make their own decision. It was yet one more example of the PKN’s hypocrisy in claiming an “unbreakable connection” with the “People of Israel.”29

World Council of Churches

An example of a Christian international body that is heavily anti-Israeli is the World Council of Churches (WCC). As Van Zile noted, “WCC institutions demonize Israel, use a double standard to assess its actions, and from time to time, delegitimize the Jewish state.”30

In 2005, former Dutch European parliamentarian Rijk van Dam visited the WCC with a delegation of pro-Israeli Christians. He related that they asked the WCC representatives they met:

“Why doesn’t the WCC condemn what goes on in Darfur, or in North Ko- rea?” They replied: “In Africa and Asia we have member churches. They will object if we take a stand on their countries. In Israel we do not have influential churches.” We told them our conclusion: “What you in fact say is that you take a one-sided, biased action against Israel because you get no protest.”31

Evangelical Christians

A variety of factors play a role in Christian attitudes toward Israel and Jews. David Parsons is media director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. He said that, on the one hand, there remain Christians who wish to stick to the classic theology of “rejected Israel.” Parsons added, “Replacement theology, also called supersessionism, is the main theology of Israel’s Christian foes.” On the other hand, there are the Christian Zionists. Parsons stressed that the Protestant Evangelicals number perhaps as many as six hundred million in the world.32

Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that a major pro-Palestinian effort is underway in the United States to draw Evangelical Christians into the pro-Palestinian camp. The American evangelical author and researcher Jim Fletcher says:

A massive effort is going on in the heart of the American Evangelical Church to lure its members to the Palestinian side. There are approximately 100 million self-identifying Evangelicals in the U.S, of which a much smaller number is actively connected with their faith. There are probably about 15 million engaged Evangelical Millennials.

It is severely mistaken to think that all Evangelicals are pro-Israel. Millennials are constantly being targeted with the Palestinian narrative through media, conferences, mentoring relationships, book publishing and social networks. Frequently shown films are: Little Town of Bethlehem and With God on Our Side.

Fletcher adds, “The top power centers within American Evangelicalism are already committed to spreading the Palestinian version of the conflict. These pro-Palestinian leaders currently control the narrative within the Church.”33

Van Zile observes:

The beginnings of what some commentators have called the “Evangelical Intifada” can already be seen in 2010. This was the year that With God on Our Side (an anti-Zionist film) . . . was released. It was also the year of the first Christ at the Checkpoint conference that took place in Bethlehem. This event, which was attended by approximately 250 people from 20 different countries, was organized by the Bethlehem Bible College (which at the time was led by Bishara Awad) and the Holy Land Trust, a so-called peacemaking organization led by Bishara’s son, Sami Awad.

The conference, which was targeted at evangelical Protestants, presented messages that undermined the legitimacy of the Jewish people and of their state. For example, Mitri Raheb, a Lutheran pastor in Bethlehem, reported that “Israel represents Rome of the Bible, not the people of the land” and that Israeli President [sic] Benjamin Netanyahu really is not a Jew with legitimate ties to Israel, because he “comes from an East European tribe who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages.” . . . Manfred Kohl, a supersessionist theologian from Germany, told the audience that Palestinians are experiencing a “holocaust action” at the hands of Israeli Jews who, because of their tribal self-understanding, think they are “superior, better, or even ‘chosen’ by God.”

. . . the 2010 conference received sparse coverage, but the 2012 Christ at the Checkpoint Conference can be legitimately described as a watershed moment for the cause of anti-Zionism in American Evangelicalism. The March 2012 conference attracted approximately 600 attendees, including a contingent of 35 students from Wheaton College, which has been referred to as the “Evan- gelical Vatican.”34

About the 2014 conference Van Zile wrote:

If the testimony offered at the Christ at the Checkpoint (CATC) Conference . . . in Bethlehem is reliable, Christianity is a religion that allows—and encourages

—its adherents to malign the Jewish homeland while behaving in a submissive manner toward Muslim extremists who are oppressing and killing Christians in Muslim countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.

He added:

But instead of holding Muslims directly accountable for the violence they perpetrated, speakers directed their ire at Israel, its Christian supporters and at Christians in both the West and the Middle East who have allegedly failed to be loving enough to Muslims who oppress and murder Christians. The conference gave its audience a heavy dose of magical thinking in which authentic expres- sions of Christian love toward Islamists could bring about peace and justice.35

Palestinian  Christians

Palestinian Christians play an important role in the demonization of Israel. Van Zile sums it up:

Arab Christians, especially those living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, have had a corrosive and narcotic effect on church and para-church organiza- tions in Europe and the United States. These Christians successfully portray Israel as the worst human rights abuser and singular threat to peace in the Middle East. Often they falsely depict Christian-Muslim relations in the region as good. In those instances when they are willing to acknowledge that there is a problem between Christians and Muslims, they blame these difficulties on Israel.36

One institution promoting hatred of Israel is the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. It was established in 1994 by the Reverend Naim Ateek. Van Zile says:

This Anglican priest who holds Israeli nationality, and his associates, portray the Palestinians as victims like Jesus in his time. In a text published in 2005, the Sabeel Center equates the situation in the Gaza Strip with Christ being nailed to the cross. They compared the construction of the West Bank security bar- rier with Christ’s crucifixion. Sabeel also promotes the idea that Israel insists on repeating the sins of the ancient Israelites as detailed in the Old Testament. Ateek has created a powerful international anti-Zionist infrastructure. On various occasions, he has influenced church-wide assemblies in the United States. Sabeel has succeeded in turning anti-Zionism into a competing reli- gious practice in American mainstream churches and a persistent element in Protestant thought. This has even occurred in a number of churches where anti-Zionist activists have not been the majority at national assemblies.37

Fletcher considers Sami Awad another important Palestinian Christian inciter against Israel. The Holy Land Trust “is a Bethlehem-based Palestinian Chris- tian organization with close ties to the Sabeel Center and other Israel-hate groups. Awad has perfected the model of bringing the Palestinian narrative into American churches.”38

The Kairos Document

The Kairos Document plays a major role in the demonization of Israel. This paper was published in 2009 by some Palestinian Christians. Its offi al title is “A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering.”

Dutch Protestant theologian Hans Jansen comments: “In many countries, the media has greatly overstated the relevance of the signatories. It has also understated the importance of the major opposition against the document.”

Jansen gives this summary:

The central argument of the Kairos document is that only Israel is responsible for the problems in the region. The document called for considering the Israeli occupation policy as “a sin.” The main aim of the document is to call for an international economic boycott against Israel.

Later it became known that the Kairos document had been promoted in various countries as a declaration of the most prominent Palestinian Christian leaders such as the Greek Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, the Lutherans, the Anglicans and the Baptists. This was entirely false—not a single leader of these churches signed the document.

Jansen says:

The document had been signed by only one church leader, Monib Younan, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. He later retracted his signature. This church has a few hundred members in the ar- eas under the Bishop’s authority and was founded in 1959 by German Lutheran missionaries. Its membership is miniscule compared to the 400,000 Christians who live in these areas.39

Muslim Persecution of Palestinian Christians

A factor that should be considered as well in the context of Christian demonization of Israel is the widespread persecution of Christians in many Muslim-dominated countries. This issue is greatly underreported. The same is true for the situation of Christians in the Palestinian territories.

International human rights lawyer Justus Weiner said in 2008:

The disputed territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been ad- ministered by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and in more recent years, in part, by Hamas. Under these regimes, the resident Christian Arabs have been victims of frequent human rights abuses including intimidation, beatings, land theft, firebombing of churches and other Christian institutions, denial of employment, economic boycott, torture, kidnapping, forced marriage, sexual harassment, and extortion.

Muslims who have converted to Christianity are the ones in the greatest danger. They are often left defenseless against cruelty by Muslim fundamentalists. PA and Hamas officials are directly responsible for many of the human rights violations. Christian Arabs also fall victim to the semi-anarchy that typifies PA rule.

Weiner concludes:

The human rights crimes against the Christian Arabs in the disputed territories are committed by Muslims. Yet many Palestinian Christian leaders accuse Israel of these crimes rather than the actual perpetrators. These patriarchs and archbishops of Christian Arab denominations obfuscate the truth and put their own people in danger. Th s is often for personal benefit or due to intimidation. Th s motif has been adopted by a variety of Christian leaders in the Western world. Others who are aware of the human rights crimes choose to remain silent about them.40

In 2014, Weiner presented additional examples: Steve Khoury, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Bethlehem, said in May 2013 that Christians are facing continuous harassment. Because of this many of them refrain from bearing crosses in public and carrying Bibles. He added that they are often told by Muslims to “convert to Islam. It’s the true and right religion.” Khoury’s church has been fire-bombed fourteen times.

In December 2013 Samir Qumsieh, a Christian community leader from Beit Sahour near Bethlehem, provided several examples of the intimidation the Christian community faces. He showed some examples of souvenirs sold by Christians around Bethlehem’s Manger Square, including T-shirts of the Church of the Nativity that do not bear crosses as would be customary. On another occasion Qumsieh stated: “We are harassed but you would not know the truth. No one says anything publicly about the Muslims. This is why Chris- tians are running away.”41

A Different Voice

In October 2014 Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Greek Orthodox priest from Naza- reth, spoke to the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of UN Watch. He began his speech with the statement: “while I stand before you today, the earth of the Middle East is soaked with the blood of Christians being killed daily.”

He then offered examples, such as how 20 percent of the Middle Eastern population was Christian at the turn of the twentieth century compared to 4 percent today, and how the Syrian Christian population has shrunk from two million to 250,000. He mentioned the exodus of 77 percent of Iraq’s Christian population in 2000 alone.

Naddaf followed these statistics by observing:

If we look at the Middle East, Mr. President, we realize there’s only one safe place where Christians are not persecuted. One place where they are protected, enjoying freedom of worship and expression, living in peace and not subjected to killing and genocide. It is Israel, the country I live in. The Jewish state is the only place where the Christians of the Holy Land live in safety.

Yet, according to Naddaf, by demonizing Israel the global community is com- plicit in assisting the groups that want to destroy their Christian minorities.

He concluded his speech with the statement:

I, Father Gabriel Naddaf of Nazareth, stand before you and plead: O world leaders and supporters of peace, stop those who want to destroy the only free

Jewish state in the region. It is the only refuge welcoming and protecting all of its citizens. It is the only place that does not attempt to push out Christians, forcing them to leave their land in search of security.42

Father Naddaf has faced criticism for his pro-Israeli views in the past, in particular his support of Israeli Christians enlisting in the IDF. In May 2014, the Greek Orthodox leadership removed him from his church for his political involvement.43 His pro-IDF views also endangered his son, who was severely beaten by an activist from Hadash, the Arab-Jewish political party in the Knes- set, because of his father’s stance on enlistment.44

Complacent about Genocidal Intentions or Accomplices to It?

Are those Christians who look away from the glorification of murderers at the highest level in the Palestinian Authority just complacent about the frequent absence of basic moral values at the top echelon of Palestinian society? Or are they accomplices to people who consider murderers of civilians praiseworthy, provided the victims are Israelis? This question is even more emphatic con- cerning those who criticize Israel and omit the genocidal intentions of Hamas. These questions can be posed justifiably about many of the other hate- mongers against Israel and the Jews. Yet, in view of the lengthy, violent, and murderous history of parts of Christianity, the anti-Israeli hate mongers among Christians are in a different league because of the many crimes committed by adherents of the religion against Jews over many centuries.

The Palestinian Jesus

The distortion of the historical background of Jesus does not necessarily originate in Christian circles, yet has to be mentioned. It is an important element of the PA’s propaganda strategy. It has depicted Jesus as a Palestinian liberator, the “Palestinian” prophet, and even “the first Palestinian.” Many of these claims add Palestinian identity to ancient fallacious anti-Semitic motifs, such as “Christ . . . is a Canaanite Palestinian . . . killed by the Jews.”

According to Palestinian Media Watch, the PA tries to “hide from Palestinians that Jesus was a Jew who lived in the Land of Judea/Israel. PA leaders repeatedly define Jesus as a Palestinian who preached Islam, thus denying not only Jewish history, but also the history and legitimacy of Christianity.”45

This distortion of Jesus’ historical background has important precedents. Nazi Germany before and during World War II propounded the propagandistic fallacy that Jesus was not a Jew but an Aryan. The Nazis’ Institute for the Study and Eradication of the Jewish Influence on German Church Life intended to “redefine Christianity as a Germanic religion, whose founder, Jesus, was no Jew but rather had fought valiantly to destroy Judaism, falling victim to that struggle.” The image of Jesus as an Aryan hero was disseminated by the Nazis throughout Europe, and was widely accepted by lay leaders and churchgoers alike.46

Notes

1. References to many anti-Israeli church documents and related Middle East positions can be found in Eugene Korn, Meeting the Challenge: Church Attitudes to- ward the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (New York: Anti-Defamation League, 2002).
2. Dexter van Zile, “Mainline American Christian ‘Peacemakers’ against Israel,” Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism, 90, November 15, 2009.
3. Ibid.
4. Dexter van Zile, “Key Mennonite Institutions against Israel,” Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism, 83, August 2,2009.
5. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, “Mainline American Christians against Israel,” Israel National News, July 8, 2013.
6. Ibid.
7. Ron Kampeas, “Presbyterians push back against church group’s anti-Zionist study guide,” JTA, February 18,
8. “Anti-Semitic Rant Passes Without Challenge at Methodist Convention,” Snap- shots, CAMERA, May 3,
9. Margaret Brearley, “The Anglican Church, Jews and British Multiculturalism,” Posen Papers in Contemporary Anti-Semitism 6, Vidal Sassoon Internation- al Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2006.
10. John Bingham, “Church of England vicar denies backing ‘anti-Semitic hate-fest’ in Iran,” The Telegraph, October 6,
11. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Ira Robinson, “Canada, Too, is Home to Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism,” Israel National News, March 20, 201
12. Paul Merkley, “Anti-Zionism and the Churches: The Canadian Scene,” Post- Holocaust and Anti-Semitism, 94, February 1, 2010.
13. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Eugene Korn, “Divestment from Israel, the Liberal Churches, and Jewish Responses: A Strategic Analysis,” Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism, 52, January 1, 200
14. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Kenneth Collins, “Ein für Juden und Israel brutales Dokument der Church of Scotland,” Heplev, June 10, (German)
15. Tim Wyatt, “Israeli Embassy criticizes Methodist BDS briefing,” Church Times, May 2,
16. “Sweden Applied Nazi Race Laws in Wartime, Study Shows,” Haaretz, April 6,
17. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Zvi Mazel, “Anti-Israelism and Anti-Semitism in Sweden,” in Behind the Humanitarian Mask (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, 2008), 85-8
18. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Odd Sverre Hove, “Christian Foes and Friends of Israel in Norway,” Israel National News, November 22,
19. “Norwegian YMCA embraces boycott Israel policy,” JTA, March 2,
20. Miranda McGonagall, “Oslo chapter of YMCA/YWCA reject YMCA/YWCA Israel boycott,” Norway, Israel and the Jews, March 13,
21. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Tzvi Marx, “Christelijk-Joodse relaties,” in Manfred Gerstenfeld, Het Verval, Joden in een Stuurloos Nederland (Amsterdam: Van Praag, 2010), 164-173. (Dutch)
22. Eildert Mulder, “Noodkreet Palestijnen aangedikt,” Trouw, April 20, (Dutch)
23. Letter from the PKN to the Government of the State of Israel, February 17,
24. Letter from Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to D P. Verhoeff and A. J. Plaisier of the PKN, March 3, 2010.
25. Letter from the PKN to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, March 10,
26. Letter from the Simon Wiesenthal Center to the PKN, March 24,
27. Open letter from Geert Cohen Stuart to the Synodan Board of the PKN, April 12, 2010. (Dutch)
28. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Justus Reid Weiner, “Palestinian Crimes against Christian Arabs and Their Manipulation against Israel,” Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism, 72, September 1,
29. Jonas Kooyman, “PKN over BDS,” NIW, April 4, (Dutch)
30. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Dexter van Zile, “The Anti-Israel Policies of the World Council of Churches,” in Demonizing Israel and the Jews (New York: RVP Press, 2013), 70-72.
31. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Rijk van Dam, “Anti-Israeli Bias in the Eu- ropean Parliament and Other EU Institutions,” in European-Israeli Relations: Between Confusion and Change? (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the Adenauer Foundation, 2006), 79-90.
32. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with David Parsons, “Christian Friends and Foes of Israel,” in Demonizing Israel and the Jews (New York: RVP Press, 2013), 67-69.
33. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Jim Fletcher, “The Pro-Palestinian Campaign to Woo US Evangelicals,” Israel National News, October 28,
34. Dexter van Zile, “Evangelical Anti-Zionism as an Adaptive Response to Shifts in American Cultural Attitudes,” Jewish Political Studies Review 25, 1-2 (Spring 2013).
35. Dexter van Zile, “Bethlehem Conference Promotes Submissive Dhimmi Narrative,” CAMERA, April 10,
36. Dexter Van Zile, “Palestinian Christian Abuse of Christian Organizations in the West,” in Alan Baker, , Palestinian Manipulation of the International Com- munity (Jerusalem: JCPA, 2014), 127.
37. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Dexter van Zile, “Sabeel Christian Anti-Zionist Organization Gains Power,” Israel National News, April 3,
38. Gerstenfeld, interview with
39. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Hans Jansen, “Protestants and Israel: The Kairos Document Debate,” in Demonizing Israel and the Jews (New York: RVP Press, 2013), 80-8
40. Gerstenfeld, interview with Weiner,
41. Manfred Gerstenfeld, interview with Justus Reid Weiner, “How Christians are Persecuted in the PA,” Israel National News, September 30,
42. “Nazareth Priest Tells N. in Arabic: ‘Israel is only country in Mideast where Christians live in safety,’” UN Watch, September 29, 2014.
43. ICEJ News, “Father Nadaf reportedly fired from Greek Orthodox Church,” In- ternational Christian Embassy Jerusalem, May 12,
44. Ariel Ben Solomon, “Son of Greek Orthodox priest who supports IDF enlistment attacked in Nazareth,” The Jerusalem Post, July 12, 201
45. “Jesus misrepresented as ‘Muslim Palestinian,’” Palestinian Media Watc
46. Susannah Heschel, The Aryan Jesus (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008), 2-4.