The churches against Israel
Christian blood libels revived, with Israel being painted as evil,
having no right to exist
Giulio Meotti Published: 07.03.11, 20:02 / Israel News
share
A few days ago UK researchers announced that 17 skeletons belonged to
Jews were found at the bottom of a medieval well in Norwich, England.
The Jews were murdered in a pogrom or had been forced to commit
suicide rather than submit to demands for conversion to Christianity.
The bodies date back to the 12th or 13th Centuries, at a time when
Jewish people faced killings, banishment and persecution throughout
all Europe. Those 17 Jews were killed because of "replacement
theology," the most ancient Christian calumny arguing that because of
their denial of the divinity of Christ, the Jews have forfeited God?s
promises to them which have been transferred to the Church.
Special
Historian's study of 'blood libel' angers fellow Jews / Ynetnews
Italian-Israeli historian suggests some ritual murders of Christians
might have really been committed by Ashkenazi Jews seeking revenge for
massacres; professor's university says it has 'always condemned any
attempt to justify the awful blood libels against the Jewish people'
Full Story
Some 10 centuries later, global Christian forums are reviving this
theological demonology against the heirs of those 17 Jews: the Jews of
the State of Israel. The World Council of Churches, an ecumenical
Christian body based in Genève and boasting 590 million worshippers,
just ended a four-day conference in the Greek city of Volos. Not a
single word of criticism was uttered there against the Islamists who
are persecuting Arabs who believe Jesus.
Receive Ynetnews updates directly to your desktop
Lutherans arrived to Volos from the United States, Catholics and
Protestants from Bethlehem and Nazareth, Orthodox Christians from
Greece and Russia, lecturers from Beirut and Copts from Egypt. The
conference declared the Jewish State "a sin" and "occupying power,"
accused Israelis of "dehumanizing" the Palestinians, theologically
dismantled the "choseness" of the Jewish people and called for
"resistance" as a Christian duty.
The conference denied 3,000 years of Jewish life in the land
stretching between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, took sides
against the very presence of Israel, likened the defensive barrier
that has blocked terrorism to "apartheid," attacked Jewish homes in
Judea and Samaria invoking the name of God and conceptually dismissed
the Jewish state, imagining it to be a mixture - Islamic, Christian
and perhaps a bit Jewish. It even legitimized terrorism when it talked
about the "thousands of prisoners who languish in Israeli jails,"
proclaiming that "resistance to the evil of occupation is a
Christian's right and duty."
Copying Ahmadinejad?s rhetoric
In the last few months we have seen a radical and dangerous increase
of attacks on Israel by the Protestant and Catholic churches. While
the US is home to many Christian supporters of Israel, the groups more
closely linked to global public opinion, European bureaucracy, the
media industry, the United Nations and various legal forums are all
violently anti-Israel and anti-Jewish. They are paving the way for a
new Jewish bloodbath by the theological exclusion of Israel's Jews
from the family of nations.
The patriarch of the Antioch Church, the Catholic Melkite Gregory III
Laham, proclaimed that there is a "Zionist conspiracy against Islam,"
reviving old conspiracy theories that led to infamous pogroms. In
Antwerp, once called "the Belgian Jerusalem," a highly respected and
government-funded Catholic school, the College of the Sacred Heart,
just hosted a "Palestine Day" replete with anti-Semitic references and
activities for youngsters. One stall at the event was titled "Throw
the soldiers into the sea," allowing children to throw replicas of
Jewish and Israeli soldiers into two large tanks.
The most influential international Catholic peace movement, Pax
Christi, just promoted a boycott of Israel's goods "in the name of
love." The most hated Israeli product includes Ahava, the famous
Israeli cosmetics company, whose shop in Covent Garden, London, has
just been closed by the company after years of demonstrations.
Strangely, Ahava body lotion tubes have been chosen as a satanic
symbol of Jewish colonialism.
Today, most of the divestment campaign against Israel is driven by
Christian groups such as the Dutch Interchurch Organization and the
Irish Catholic group Troicaré, both funded by the EU. The United
Church of Canada, a very popular and mainstream Christian
denomination, just voted to boycott six companies (Caterpillar,
Motorola, Ahava, Veolia, Elbit Systems and Chapters/Indigo) and South
African bishop Desmond Tutu convinced the University of Johannesburg
to severe all its links with Israeli fellows.
Last year the Methodist Church of Britain voted to boycott
Israeli-produced goods and services from Judea and Samaria. The
catholic Pax Christi is also leading the campaign glorifying Mordechai
Vanunu, Israel's nuclear whistleblower who had converted to
Christianity.
La Civiltà Cattolica, the Vatican magazine reviewed by the Holy See
secretary of state before publication, in January opened with a
shocking editorial on Palestinian refugees. Adopting the Islamist
propagandist word "Nakba," just recently invoked by Arab mobs to
breach Israel's borders, the paper declared that the refugees are a
consequence of "ethnic cleansing" by Israel and that "the Zionists
were cleverly able to exploit the Western sense of guilt for the Shoah
to lay the foundations of their own state." Indeed, Ahmadinejad's
rhetoric is alarmingly similar.
Israel a ?foreign implant?
Israel?s relationship with the Vatican is different from Jerusalem?s
relationship with Albania or Luxembourg for example, because the
Catholic Church has more than one billion adherents and a global moral
authority. At the Rome synod, Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, a
cleric chosen by Pope Ratzinger to draft the synod?s 44 final
propositions, denied the Jewish people?s biblical right to the
Promised Land. "We Christians cannot speak about the Promised Land for
the Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people", Bustros said,
reviving the "replacement theology."
Edmond Farhat, a Maronite Apostolic Nuncio, who is a sort of Vatican's
ambassador, described Israel?s place in the Middle East in terms of a
rejected "foreign implant" that which has no specialists "capable of
healing it."
Elsewhere, the current Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, named
by Pope Ratzinger to represent the Catholic community in Israel and
the West Bank, is sponsoring an appeal against the "Judaization of
Jerusalem." Indeed, at this time, new anti-Israel policies by the most
powerful Christian groups are breathing new life into Medieval
doctrine that demonized Jews for hundreds of years.
Advertisement
The latest excavations in England suggest the Jews were thrown down
the well together, head first, the kids after the parents. Five of
them had a DNA sequence suggesting they were likely to be members of a
single Jewish family. Some 10 centuries later, five Jews from the same
Israeli family, the Fogels of Itamar, were slaughtered in their own
beds. A famous Italian priest, Mario Cornioli, wrote immediately after
the massacre in a subliminal justification of the killings: "What is
Itamar? An illegal Israeli colony built on stolen land.?
The replacement calumny has changed its language, yet it still marks a
death sentence for the Jewish people: Israelis, like Lucifer, were
God's chosen but were cast out for their rebellious and evil ways, and
now deserve to be obliterated from the so-called "Holy Land,? the
argument goes. From Norwich to Itamar, the Jewish martyrs are an
everlasting and heroic stain in this horrible, theological blood libel.
Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book
A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism
Christian blood libels revived, with Israel being painted as evil,
having no right to exist
Giulio Meotti Published: 07.03.11, 20:02 / Israel News
share
A few days ago UK researchers announced that 17 skeletons belonged to
Jews were found at the bottom of a medieval well in Norwich, England.
The Jews were murdered in a pogrom or had been forced to commit
suicide rather than submit to demands for conversion to Christianity.
The bodies date back to the 12th or 13th Centuries, at a time when
Jewish people faced killings, banishment and persecution throughout
all Europe. Those 17 Jews were killed because of "replacement
theology," the most ancient Christian calumny arguing that because of
their denial of the divinity of Christ, the Jews have forfeited God?s
promises to them which have been transferred to the Church.
Special
Historian's study of 'blood libel' angers fellow Jews / Ynetnews
Italian-Israeli historian suggests some ritual murders of Christians
might have really been committed by Ashkenazi Jews seeking revenge for
massacres; professor's university says it has 'always condemned any
attempt to justify the awful blood libels against the Jewish people'
Full Story
Some 10 centuries later, global Christian forums are reviving this
theological demonology against the heirs of those 17 Jews: the Jews of
the State of Israel. The World Council of Churches, an ecumenical
Christian body based in Genève and boasting 590 million worshippers,
just ended a four-day conference in the Greek city of Volos. Not a
single word of criticism was uttered there against the Islamists who
are persecuting Arabs who believe Jesus.
Receive Ynetnews updates directly to your desktop
Lutherans arrived to Volos from the United States, Catholics and
Protestants from Bethlehem and Nazareth, Orthodox Christians from
Greece and Russia, lecturers from Beirut and Copts from Egypt. The
conference declared the Jewish State "a sin" and "occupying power,"
accused Israelis of "dehumanizing" the Palestinians, theologically
dismantled the "choseness" of the Jewish people and called for
"resistance" as a Christian duty.
The conference denied 3,000 years of Jewish life in the land
stretching between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, took sides
against the very presence of Israel, likened the defensive barrier
that has blocked terrorism to "apartheid," attacked Jewish homes in
Judea and Samaria invoking the name of God and conceptually dismissed
the Jewish state, imagining it to be a mixture - Islamic, Christian
and perhaps a bit Jewish. It even legitimized terrorism when it talked
about the "thousands of prisoners who languish in Israeli jails,"
proclaiming that "resistance to the evil of occupation is a
Christian's right and duty."
Copying Ahmadinejad?s rhetoric
In the last few months we have seen a radical and dangerous increase
of attacks on Israel by the Protestant and Catholic churches. While
the US is home to many Christian supporters of Israel, the groups more
closely linked to global public opinion, European bureaucracy, the
media industry, the United Nations and various legal forums are all
violently anti-Israel and anti-Jewish. They are paving the way for a
new Jewish bloodbath by the theological exclusion of Israel's Jews
from the family of nations.
The patriarch of the Antioch Church, the Catholic Melkite Gregory III
Laham, proclaimed that there is a "Zionist conspiracy against Islam,"
reviving old conspiracy theories that led to infamous pogroms. In
Antwerp, once called "the Belgian Jerusalem," a highly respected and
government-funded Catholic school, the College of the Sacred Heart,
just hosted a "Palestine Day" replete with anti-Semitic references and
activities for youngsters. One stall at the event was titled "Throw
the soldiers into the sea," allowing children to throw replicas of
Jewish and Israeli soldiers into two large tanks.
The most influential international Catholic peace movement, Pax
Christi, just promoted a boycott of Israel's goods "in the name of
love." The most hated Israeli product includes Ahava, the famous
Israeli cosmetics company, whose shop in Covent Garden, London, has
just been closed by the company after years of demonstrations.
Strangely, Ahava body lotion tubes have been chosen as a satanic
symbol of Jewish colonialism.
Today, most of the divestment campaign against Israel is driven by
Christian groups such as the Dutch Interchurch Organization and the
Irish Catholic group Troicaré, both funded by the EU. The United
Church of Canada, a very popular and mainstream Christian
denomination, just voted to boycott six companies (Caterpillar,
Motorola, Ahava, Veolia, Elbit Systems and Chapters/Indigo) and South
African bishop Desmond Tutu convinced the University of Johannesburg
to severe all its links with Israeli fellows.
Last year the Methodist Church of Britain voted to boycott
Israeli-produced goods and services from Judea and Samaria. The
catholic Pax Christi is also leading the campaign glorifying Mordechai
Vanunu, Israel's nuclear whistleblower who had converted to
Christianity.
La Civiltà Cattolica, the Vatican magazine reviewed by the Holy See
secretary of state before publication, in January opened with a
shocking editorial on Palestinian refugees. Adopting the Islamist
propagandist word "Nakba," just recently invoked by Arab mobs to
breach Israel's borders, the paper declared that the refugees are a
consequence of "ethnic cleansing" by Israel and that "the Zionists
were cleverly able to exploit the Western sense of guilt for the Shoah
to lay the foundations of their own state." Indeed, Ahmadinejad's
rhetoric is alarmingly similar.
Israel a ?foreign implant?
Israel?s relationship with the Vatican is different from Jerusalem?s
relationship with Albania or Luxembourg for example, because the
Catholic Church has more than one billion adherents and a global moral
authority. At the Rome synod, Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, a
cleric chosen by Pope Ratzinger to draft the synod?s 44 final
propositions, denied the Jewish people?s biblical right to the
Promised Land. "We Christians cannot speak about the Promised Land for
the Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people", Bustros said,
reviving the "replacement theology."
Edmond Farhat, a Maronite Apostolic Nuncio, who is a sort of Vatican's
ambassador, described Israel?s place in the Middle East in terms of a
rejected "foreign implant" that which has no specialists "capable of
healing it."
Elsewhere, the current Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, named
by Pope Ratzinger to represent the Catholic community in Israel and
the West Bank, is sponsoring an appeal against the "Judaization of
Jerusalem." Indeed, at this time, new anti-Israel policies by the most
powerful Christian groups are breathing new life into Medieval
doctrine that demonized Jews for hundreds of years.
Advertisement
The latest excavations in England suggest the Jews were thrown down
the well together, head first, the kids after the parents. Five of
them had a DNA sequence suggesting they were likely to be members of a
single Jewish family. Some 10 centuries later, five Jews from the same
Israeli family, the Fogels of Itamar, were slaughtered in their own
beds. A famous Italian priest, Mario Cornioli, wrote immediately after
the massacre in a subliminal justification of the killings: "What is
Itamar? An illegal Israeli colony built on stolen land.?
The replacement calumny has changed its language, yet it still marks a
death sentence for the Jewish people: Israelis, like Lucifer, were
God's chosen but were cast out for their rebellious and evil ways, and
now deserve to be obliterated from the so-called "Holy Land,? the
argument goes. From Norwich to Itamar, the Jewish martyrs are an
everlasting and heroic stain in this horrible, theological blood libel.
Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book
A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism
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