Melanie Phillips writes in The Spectator:

In the Guardian, Giles Tremlett writes about Europe’s first Christian theme park in Mallorca. He writes:

Exact details are scant, but the Buenos Aires park offers its re-enactments of the creation of mankind, the birth of Christ, the resurrection and the last supper eight times a day. With a cast of extras in the costumes of Romans and early Palestinians, the park advertises itself as ‘a place where everyone can learn about the origins of spirituality.

‘Early Palestinians’, eh? And just who were these ‘early Palestinians’? Well, they were what we would otherwise call… Jews. Jesus was a Jew. The ‘last supper’ was the Jewish Passover seder. The land of the New Testament was called Judea and Samaria. The people who lived there and were persecuted by the Romans were not called Palestinians. They were Jews.

Yet Jews do not figure at all in Tremlett’s story (whether they figure as such in Mallorca’s theme park itself is not clear). This is not some idle mistake. This is the wholesale adoption of the fictional Arab narrative which airbrushes the Jews out of their own story and claims, falsely, that Jesus was a Palestinian.

Much of this rewriting of history comes from Arab Christians based at the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre in Jerusalem under the aegis of Father Naim Ateek (who is such a personal favourite with so many in the Church of England), and which is a crucial source of systematic, theologically-based lies and libels about Israel. Ateek has revived the ancient Christian doctrine of supersessionism, or replacement theology – the doctrine which said the Jews had forfeited all God’s promises to them which had been inherited instead by the Christians, and which fuelled centuries of Christian anti-Jewish pogroms — and fused it with ‘Palestinianism’ to create the mendacious impression that the Palestinian Arabs were the original inhabitants of the land of Israel and that Jesus was a ‘Palestinian’.

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There seems to be quite an infatuation blossoming on the part of the Guardian for the so-called ‘Human Rights’ group Breaking the Silence (Shovrim Shtika). In the past week both Rachel Shabi and Harriet Sherwood  have quoted them at length, with the latter stating that “[n]ow two former female conscripts have spoken out about their experiences”.

“Now” is a bit of an exaggeration, of course. Breaking the Silence actually produced its 136 page report entitled ‘Women Soldiers’ Testimonies’ back in January 2010 and of the two women Sherwood interviewed in her article, one – Dana Golan – is actually the Executive Director of the organisation and was responsible for the report’s publication, although Sherwood somehow forgot to mention that. In fact it would not be incorrect to say that Dana Golan was paid to produce this report as its compilation was financed by an eclectic group of bodies and organisations including ICCO a Dutch church organization), SIMVO (also Dutch), Oxfam GB , The Spanish Agency for International Development Co-operation (131,000 Euros in 2009-10) , the British Embassy in Tel Aviv (which also gave £40,000 in 2008), the New Israel Fund and the Moriah Fund ($30,000). Director of the Moriah Fund Judith Lichtman also sits on the International Council  of the New Israel Fund.  All in all, Breaking the Silence’s foreign donors accounted for a budget of some 1.5 million shekels in 2008.

Read full article and discussion at  CIFWatch

We arepleased to announce the launch of Methodist Friends of Israel.  This comes at a critical time after the Methodist Church in Britain decided to boycott goods produced by Jews living in Judea and Samaria.

We look forward to co-operating with Methodist Friends of Israel on issues of common concern.  We will bring more news on this as it develops.

This excellent article by Walter Reich in the Financial Times is worth reading (register free at the FT):

Meeting a friend in a coffee shop in an old West Jerusalem neighbourhood, I asked him what he wanted most in life. One of the giants of Israel’s intellectual life, my friend is deeply committed to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. With what was surely some exaggeration, but also obvious pain, he answered: “I want my children to emigrate.” Just then his daughter stopped by, greeting her father with a warm hello before hurrying off. He shrugged. “She doesn’t want to go. What can I do?”

My friend’s despair is shared by an increasing number of Israelis. They watch as Iran, whose leaders have said Israel must be eliminated, rushes to develop nuclear weapons. They feel themselves increasingly abandoned, most frighteningly by the US, whose president, Barack Obama, has “reached out” to the Muslim world but has not similarly convinced Jews that he appreciates, and is genuinely sympathetic to, Israel’s existential plight. In his White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, Mr Obama tried to address this perception. But for many in Israel, his words lacked substance and were inspired by domestic political needs, not an emotional conversion. The president needs to do more. For until Israelis feel sufficiently secure to take what they see as massive risks for peace, progress will be impossible.

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Anglican Friends of Israel is disappointed at the decision by the Methodist Church to boycott goods produced by Jews living in Judea and Samaria.

In convening the Working Group which produced the Report ‘Justice for Palestine and Israel’ the Methodist Church deliberately decided not to include the views of any who might have disagreed with a boycott, hardly a just approach.

The historical section of the Report was, by the admission of the Working Group’s own Chairman Graham Carter, incomplete.  Many would add that it was also inaccurate, including Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks who described the Report as “unbalanced, factually and historically flawed” giving “no genuine understanding of one of the most complex conflicts in the world today.  Many in both communities will be deeply disturbed”.

Theologically the Report’s findings are justified by the Rev Nichola Jones using the arguments of the Replacement Theology that underpinned Christian anti-semitism for 1500 years, and which has been widely rejected by other Churches.

Methodist Church Media Officer Karen Burke writes, ‘The Methodist Church has a long history of interfaith relationships; it greatly values the relationship it shares with its Jewish brothers and sisters and hopes that that relationship will continue to flourish.’

However, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council have accused the Report’s authors of “(abusing) the goodwill of the Jewish community, which tried to engage on this issue, only to find our efforts were treated as an unwelcome distraction”.

Burke goes on to insist that “Israel should not be singled out above all other countries for opprobrium and international sanction.”  Yet despite many other far more pressing human rights issues, including those in which Christians’ human rights are violated, only Israeli Jews apparently merit Methodist punishment.

The decision to boycott the produce of Israeli Jews in the disputed territories will benefit no one, least of all Palestinians whose livelihoods depend upon the work provided by those Jewish communities.

Christians should be praying and working towards bringing a peaceful solution.  It is sad that the Methodist Church has adopted a course of action that is more likely to add the conflict rather than to the solution.