By Doris Strub Epstein
Tribune Correspondent
Just hours after a suicide bombing killed five people in Hadera, Israel, and wounded 30 more, the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, a Jerusalem-based organization that claims to promote peace, opened a pro-divestment conference in Toronto which has been called little more than a propaganda fest against the Jewish State.
PHOTO: RAM REGEV
Christian leaders from the US held a press conference last week in Toronto to denounce the “anti-Israel narrative” of Sabeel and its leader, Rev. Naim Ateek. The press conference was organized and moderated by B’nai Brith Canada, led by Ruth Klein, National Director of Advocacy, B’nai Brith (centre). Attending were (from left) Rev. Dr. Bruce Chilton of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, who spoke about his Church’s recent decision to reject divestment; Sister Ruth Lautt, a Catholic nun and lawyer; Presbyterian Rev. William Harter, who spoke about how his Church’s divestment has created a major rift between the Jewish and Presbyterian communities; and Dexter Van Zile, of the United Church of Christ, who discussed how the divestment controversy has adversely affected his denomination and recommended constructive alternatives.
Sabeel’s founder and leader, 68-year old Anglican canon Rev. Naim Ateek is well-known for his propensity to mix religion and politics. For example, the David Project has collected a variety of quotes such as: “Jesus is on the Cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him” and “The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily.”
The fact that Sabeel uses the images of deicide to support its presentations has raised alarm bells for several Christian leaders from the United States, who traveled to Toronto specifically for the purpose of alerting Canadian churches and the general public to the dangers of such propaganda. Following a request by these leaders to join forces with B’nai Birth Canada, they spoke out at a joint press conference, denouncing Sabeel’s “traveling road show” performances in four North American cities in no uncertain terms. These leaders are part of a group called The Coalition for Responsible Peace in the Middle East, consisting of American Jewish Congress, StandWithUs, and the David Project, which have long worked together to monitor and protest Sabeel’s tactics.
In her opening remarks at the press conference Ruth Klein, B’nai Brith’s national director of advocacy, warned that “under the guise of promoting ‘morally responsible’ divestment from Israel, Sabeel is engaging in blatant propaganda that seeks to isolate and delegitimize the existence of the Jewish State. The fact that mainstream churches are hosting Sabeel events is a blow to advances made in recent years in Christian-Jewish relations.”
Canada-Israel Committee CEO Shimon Fogel said in the Canadian Jewish News that the Sabeel conference was “a nothing conference” adding that divestment was losing momentum in the US as a strategy.
United Church of Christ layman Dexter Van Zile, the Christian Outreach Director for the David Project, is convinced that Ateek’s message 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 US, Europe, Canada and Australia. He gives legitimacy to a dishonest historical narrative.”
Sister Ruth Lautt, a Dominican nun and practicing lawyer who is National Director of Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East, said she had come to Canada to alert the churches to the repeated references to deicide that crop up in Ateek’s written statements and speeches:
“I am really disturbed when …Reverend Ateek uses the language of deicide when he talks about the modern state of Israel. Deicide is the theology which condemned the Jewish people as Christ killers and which for centuries led to their isolation and persecution. And I thought we had put that ugly theology behind us after the Holocaust. We've been down this road before in 2000 years of Christian salvation history. People have accused Jews of being Christ killers, the source of all ill in society and people have marginalized Jews and oppressed them. After the Holocaust, we know all too well where that road leads and I pray that we will not go down that road again.”
In the past few years, a 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 such as singling out Israel for condemnation, and portraying Israel’s efforts to defend itself against terrorism as unacceptable.
Reverend William Harter of the Presbyterian Church, a founding member of five Christian-Jewish initiatives, spoke out against his own church’s record on this issue: “The original [pro-divestment] resolution passed by the Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly in 2004 described Israel as the main impediment to peace in the Middle East. The resolution did not deal with any terror sponsoring states contiguous to Israel, including the Palestinian Authority itself, not a state but a political entity. It did not deal with terror in terror sponsoring elements in Syria, in Saudi Arabia, in Iran or in the Sudan… later on the Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee did include the Palestinian Authority in this action, recognizing that the proposal had been so unbalanced that something had to be done to try to balance it out.
“This resolution is unfair also because it does not deal with the persecution of Palestinian Christians in the Palestinian Authority”, Reverend Harter continued. “And I can speak to you about numerous conversations I've had with Palestinians themselves, with persons of all walks of life, in which they have shared the agony and the difficulty they have because of persecution through elements that have not been controlled by the Palestinian Authority, who are involved in such activities as extortion, rape, beatings and the news recently reported a pogrom in the village of Taiba against Christians.”
Rev. Dr. Bruce Chilton, Chair of the Episcopal-Jewish Relations Committee in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, stated, “Last spring the Episcopal Jewish Relations Committee in my diocese addressed this matter. And it concluded …
‘Church-sponsored programs to disinvestment from Israel impede efforts toward a peaceful settlement by undermining the perceived legitimacy of a sovereign nation. Worse, they give the appearance of supporting Christian antipathy towards the Jewish people. The adoption of such a policy would reverse hard won gains by a generation of inter-faith scholarship and dialogue.’”
A powerful communicator, Sabeel’s Ateek, wearing the black and white clerical collar of the Anglican priest, mesmerized the audience at the opening event at Bloor St. United Church with a litany of anti-Israel accusations, such as blaming the conflict on “the continued brutal occupation of Palestinian land, by expansionist Israel”. He claimed Sharon built the security fence only to “grab” more land from the Palestinian people.
“I am hoping,” he told the approximately 100 people attending, “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 towards that for Abbas. Sure, some will be violent. You can’t control everyone.”
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