The Archbishop of York has joined a growing chorus of experts and activists who claim that Israeli actions in Gaza have a genocidal dimension. The Chief Rabbi has strongly criticised his words on what’s a contentious issue inside Christianity.
Various UN bodies and figures, in addition to human rights organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have also suggested that Israel is committing genocide.
Israel has denounced such claims as false and as “blood libel”, while Israel’s key ally, the US, has also denied that genocide is going down.
Speaking to The Church Times, Archbishop Stephen Cottrell said that Israel had committed “genocidal acts” in Gaza and that the country was liable for instituting a type of “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing”.
Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi denounced Cottrell’s “irresponsible” comments, telling The Telegraph, “reaching for the incendiary and morally inverted accusation of ‘genocidal acts’ will serve only to foster yet more enmity and division”.
Meanwhile, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said that it might be in contact with Cottrell’s office to make clear his comments, which, they said, “concerned” them.
It just isn’t just Israel’s conducting of its current war that concerns Cottrell nevertheless, but its ongoing treatment of Palestinians within the West Bank. It is, he said, a “deeply discriminatory political regime that intentionally and clearly prioritises the political, legal and social rights of Israeli settlers over Palestinians living in the identical territory”.
Similar comments were made last yr by Justin Welby, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, who said that Palestinians, Christian and Muslim alike, lived under “systematic discrimination”.
The issue of support, or not, for Israel is certainly one of considerable debate inside Christianity. The divide is, no less than partially, a theological one between Supersessionism (the view that the Christian church has taken over from Israel as God’s chosen people) and Dispensationalism (the view that Israel/the Jewish individuals are still of central importance to God’s plans).
Anglican priest Michael Coren said that church leaders preoccupied with Israeli actions towards the Palestinians were ignoring severe anti-Christian persecution by Muslim nations.
Writing for The Telegraph, Coren argued, “For one thing, it’s rather a lot easier to criticise the wrongdoings of the Jewish state than the sins of countless Muslim ones, where lively persecution of Christians is rife. There’s a fear of alienating the Muslim community, and a desire for ecumenism with a big and growing minority faith.”
Martin Davie has similarly argued that Israel has been unfairly blamed by the Church for its actions, while Hamas isn’t held to account. Indeed Hamas’ refusal to return to an accommodation with Israel was cited by Davie as certainly one of the first causes of the continued devastation of Gaza.
He called recent statements by Church of England leaders “unhelpful”.
“What is sort of astonishing is that the onus for achieving an enduring peace rests wholly with Israel. The only people whose attitudes must change are the Israelis,” he said.
He added, “The major roadblock on the solution to peace is the incontrovertible fact that the Palestinian leadership and the Iranians and their proxies don’t currently need a two-state solution any greater than they’ve wanted it on the times when it has been offered from 1937 onwards.”
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