The Justice for Palestine Israel Report to the Methodist Conference – 10 years on
Lessons and More to do
It is now ten years since the Methodist Conference received the Justice for Palestine Israel Report. The working party members drawn together to produce the report were chosen in such a way that it guaranteed a particular narrative, which is why there was much criticism of the State of Israel and only a passing mention of Palestinian terrorism. It caused a furore at the time and much criticism from the Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council, the then Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, and the Council of Christians & Jews (CCJ).
What has happened since? Have the relationships between Methodists and Jewish communities healed? Have some lessons been learnt?
Following the 2010 Methodist Conference there has been a fringe meeting each year organised to promote greater awareness and better practice. These were organised in the first two years by the Board of Deputies, CCJ and a small number of us who went on to found the Methodist Friends of Judaism (MFJ). These featured demonstrations of a Seder and a Shabbat meal. After, MFJ took over the organising of fringe meetings and they included a much-remembered visit by the current Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and an event with Palestinian and Israeli speakers.
MFJ was founded in 2013 with three aims firstly, to celebrate the contribution of Judaism to the world and in particular the Christian Church; secondly, to raise awareness of anti-Judaism within the history and practices of the Christian Church and finally, to challenge antisemitism in whatever the guise. Our membership, as with our influence, has been steadily growing year on year.
Attempts to discredit Christian Zionism and to embrace fully BDS have both been thwarted. However, there are still voices within the Methodist Church who seem unable to appreciate the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This continues to impact upon some of the things written in the Methodist Recorder, elsewhere and even in the occasional Presidential statement. One such Presidential Statement for example claimed that Israel was committing a crime against humanity when protests taking place at the Gaza-Israel border led to 19 deaths; Hamas acknowledged that the vast majority of those killed were in fact their operatives engaged in hostile acts against Israeli security forces. The statement was temporarily withdrawn before it was redrafted after much concern was raised at the time.
In the Methodist Recorder just over the last few weeks two articles and a book review have been of concern. Firstly, in a deeply offensive piece written by Christine Kinch, the selection at Auschwitz used as a comparison to the Last Judgment. A significant number of gracious letters appeared in the Methodist Recorder complaining about the piece but an apology was not forthcoming from either the Editor or writer.
In a recent edition of the Methodist Recorder, one of the JPIR working party members, Dr Stephen Leah, concluded his review of a book on Iran with the unqualified comment that it is ‘a great country’. We may not want to take his opinion too seriously as on occasion at the podium of the Methodist Conference he strongly recommended the works of the Revd Dr Stephen Sizer.
Most recently, another of the JPIR working party members, the Revd Warren Bardsley, claimed that he has witnessed the ‘Judaisation’ of Jerusalem, ‘a population of several thousand people being sacrificed to a theme park, part of the gradual Judaisation of the city. I knew at that moment where the steps of Jesus would lead today: straight into that cauldron of dispossession and injustice.’ Mr Bardsley is a well-known critic of the State of Israel. On occasions, he tends to forget restraint, not least when he circulated amongst almost 80 of his email contacts an anti-Semitic rant on video by white supremacist David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Despite efforts by the Church to build bridges with the Jewish communities, and to increase a greater appreciation of the complexities of the conflict, much still needs to be done to ensure that a dual narrative is the most clearly heard. Thankfully, the Methodist Church has finally removed from its website the recommended book list that accompanied the JPIR, after many expressions of concern over the years. Some works on the newly published list still give cause for concern but at least the more balanced list is a step forward. In addition, the Church is currently organising and offering bursaries for a political tour of the West Bank under what some might think of as a rather misleading title of Living Christianity in the Holy Land. The tour is to be led by the Methodist Church’s former Mission Partner based in Bethlehem the Revd John Howard. During his time there, he encouraged Church members in the UK to pray for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike. He omitted to mention their crimes, which included a list of terrorist atrocities. Mr Howard did not provide an accompanying prayer for the innocent victims of those atrocities.
Thankfully, the Methodist Church is not where it was ten years ago, there have been attempts to right the wrongs of the JPIR. Grants have been made to both CCJ and a programme to build bridges across the two communities, of which the CTiBI and Board of Deputies are a part. However, these grants are but a percentage of what the cost has been in the dozens of notices of motion and memorials to Conference on Israel Palestine (more than any other issue). In addition, there have been costly debates, reports and helping to fund an office in Jerusalem (contributions that began incidentally in the year the Methodist Church ceased to employ an Inter Faith Officer, thankfully a part time officer is again in place, eight years on). The Methodist Church may not have embraced the IHRA definition of Antisemitism but the definition in its own Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Toolkit created just a few years ago is quite clear:
Any belief, policy or action that discriminates against or incites hatred towards Jewish people, either by race or religion, or caricatures Jewish people and culture. This can include denying the right of Israel to exist, or judging it by standards not applied to other nations.
The Revd Bruce Thompson
Chair Methodist Friends of Judaism
Lessons and More to do
It is now ten years since the Methodist Conference received the Justice for Palestine Israel Report. The working party members drawn together to produce the report were chosen in such a way that it guaranteed a particular narrative, which is why there was much criticism of the State of Israel and only a passing mention of Palestinian terrorism. It caused a furore at the time and much criticism from the Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council, the then Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, and the Council of Christians & Jews (CCJ).
What has happened since? Have the relationships between Methodists and Jewish communities healed? Have some lessons been learnt?
Following the 2010 Methodist Conference there has been a fringe meeting each year organised to promote greater awareness and better practice. These were organised in the first two years by the Board of Deputies, CCJ and a small number of us who went on to found the Methodist Friends of Judaism (MFJ). These featured demonstrations of a Seder and a Shabbat meal. After, MFJ took over the organising of fringe meetings and they included a much-remembered visit by the current Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and an event with Palestinian and Israeli speakers.
MFJ was founded in 2013 with three aims firstly, to celebrate the contribution of Judaism to the world and in particular the Christian Church; secondly, to raise awareness of anti-Judaism within the history and practices of the Christian Church and finally, to challenge antisemitism in whatever the guise. Our membership, as with our influence, has been steadily growing year on year.
Attempts to discredit Christian Zionism and to embrace fully BDS have both been thwarted. However, there are still voices within the Methodist Church who seem unable to appreciate the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This continues to impact upon some of the things written in the Methodist Recorder, elsewhere and even in the occasional Presidential statement. One such Presidential Statement for example claimed that Israel was committing a crime against humanity when protests taking place at the Gaza-Israel border led to 19 deaths; Hamas acknowledged that the vast majority of those killed were in fact their operatives engaged in hostile acts against Israeli security forces. The statement was temporarily withdrawn before it was redrafted after much concern was raised at the time.
In the Methodist Recorder just over the last few weeks two articles and a book review have been of concern. Firstly, in a deeply offensive piece written by Christine Kinch, the selection at Auschwitz used as a comparison to the Last Judgment. A significant number of gracious letters appeared in the Methodist Recorder complaining about the piece but an apology was not forthcoming from either the Editor or writer.
In a recent edition of the Methodist Recorder, one of the JPIR working party members, Dr Stephen Leah, concluded his review of a book on Iran with the unqualified comment that it is ‘a great country’. We may not want to take his opinion too seriously as on occasion at the podium of the Methodist Conference he strongly recommended the works of the Revd Dr Stephen Sizer.
Most recently, another of the JPIR working party members, the Revd Warren Bardsley, claimed that he has witnessed the ‘Judaisation’ of Jerusalem, ‘a population of several thousand people being sacrificed to a theme park, part of the gradual Judaisation of the city. I knew at that moment where the steps of Jesus would lead today: straight into that cauldron of dispossession and injustice.’ Mr Bardsley is a well-known critic of the State of Israel. On occasions, he tends to forget restraint, not least when he circulated amongst almost 80 of his email contacts an anti-Semitic rant on video by white supremacist David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Despite efforts by the Church to build bridges with the Jewish communities, and to increase a greater appreciation of the complexities of the conflict, much still needs to be done to ensure that a dual narrative is the most clearly heard. Thankfully, the Methodist Church has finally removed from its website the recommended book list that accompanied the JPIR, after many expressions of concern over the years. Some works on the newly published list still give cause for concern but at least the more balanced list is a step forward. In addition, the Church is currently organising and offering bursaries for a political tour of the West Bank under what some might think of as a rather misleading title of Living Christianity in the Holy Land. The tour is to be led by the Methodist Church’s former Mission Partner based in Bethlehem the Revd John Howard. During his time there, he encouraged Church members in the UK to pray for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike. He omitted to mention their crimes, which included a list of terrorist atrocities. Mr Howard did not provide an accompanying prayer for the innocent victims of those atrocities.
Thankfully, the Methodist Church is not where it was ten years ago, there have been attempts to right the wrongs of the JPIR. Grants have been made to both CCJ and a programme to build bridges across the two communities, of which the CTiBI and Board of Deputies are a part. However, these grants are but a percentage of what the cost has been in the dozens of notices of motion and memorials to Conference on Israel Palestine (more than any other issue). In addition, there have been costly debates, reports and helping to fund an office in Jerusalem (contributions that began incidentally in the year the Methodist Church ceased to employ an Inter Faith Officer, thankfully a part time officer is again in place, eight years on). The Methodist Church may not have embraced the IHRA definition of Antisemitism but the definition in its own Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Toolkit created just a few years ago is quite clear:
Any belief, policy or action that discriminates against or incites hatred towards Jewish people, either by race or religion, or caricatures Jewish people and culture. This can include denying the right of Israel to exist, or judging it by standards not applied to other nations.
The Revd Bruce Thompson
Chair Methodist Friends of Judaism
