The Church in Wales (C-i-W) has a long history of standing with suffering Palestinians.  When a C-i-W funded health centre in Gaza was destroyed by an Israeli rocket last year during Operation Cast Lead, the 'Biggest Coffee Morning' fund raising effort was just one example of its Christian response to their hardship.

But for some senior figures in the Church in Wales, support for Palestinians has included support for those who oppose Israel’s existence, to the consternation of some clergy and lay members.

An example was Archbishop Barry Morgan’s statement on the death of Yasser Arafat, when he said that he would remember Arafat not for the many civilian murders for which he was responsible, but for his perseverance and resolve.

Other concerns include the frequent input from Canon Naim Ateek of  Sabeel Centre, whose attitude towards Israel's right to exist has been markedly ambivalent.  Ateek revived the accusation of deicide against the Jewish state, likening Israelis to 'Herods' in his 2000 Christmas message and Palestinians to the crucified Christ dying at the hands of the Jewish state at Easter 2001.

Church in Wales policies do not distinguish between Palestinian attacks on Israeli citizens and Israel’s use of force to defend them, instead calling both 'revenge violence'.  Palestinian aggression is blamed on Israel’s resolve to place their citizens' safety above any other consideration and Israel's 'Security First' policy condemned.

Many members of the Church of Wales are dismayed at the level of disrespect towards Jews and Jewishness tolerated in Church in Wales publications. A few years ago for example, after complaints about an Irish joke that appeared in a C.i.W. parish magazine, an apology from the vicar appeared in an official press release.  In another incident Archbishop Barry Morgan himself collected up copies of the C-i-W Welsh language magazine Y Llan which contained an offensive cartoon and went on TV to apologize to Welsh Muslims.

However no such apologies were deemed necessary when Y Llan ran an article in which a fictitious contemporary of Jesus opined that none of His disciples were of any use except Judas.  The name of this 'contemporary'?  Abel Cohen.

And why was the phrase 'the Jews are cowards' allowed to remain on the Church in Wales Jubilee Fund website for a year in 2002-3, despite numerous complaints - including Archbishop Rowan Williams' description of the comments as 'deplorable' and 'inflammatory language about Jews'.

Last year, St David’s Diocese produced a series of short films for use in the 'Menter' teaching course.  Filmed in the Holy Land and Wales, Menter contains inspiring material for those wishing to learn or reflect upon the Christian faith.  But the word 'Israel' appears only once.

Neither the Law nor the Prophets nor Jesus or His disciples are identified as Jewish.  No Jews contribute or are interviewed.  Instead only a Palestinian Anglican is described as 'indigenous' and there are frequent shots of Arab Israelis and Palestinians.  It is as though there are no Jews today's Holy Land.

And in his 2009 Christmas message Dominic Walker, Bishop of Monmouth, wrote that 'God so loved the world that he sent Jesus to be born in Palestine'.  Yet Jesus was a Jew, born in Bethlehem of Judea more than one hundred years before the Romans expelled the Jewish population from the province of Judea and renamed it Palaestina after Israel's great enemies, the Philistines.

The Scriptures themselves say that 'Salvation comes from the Jews', and senior figures in the Church of Wales might reflect on whether they are in danger of uprooting Jesus from the Jewish soil which bore Him.