Norwegian priest makes appalling accusations against Jews

Europeans have been fed this type of desinformation on Israel for decades and against the Jews for centuries. These people seem furious that the wider public either does not believe them or doesn't care, hence their obsessive exercice of repeating and repeating the same accusations.

Norway, Israel and the Jews: Norwegian priest takes a cheap swipe at the Jews 

Oh my, we can only hope the priest is capable of critical reading and thinking, as the Jewish participation Shatila incident he refers to in the text is a figment of the mentioned Palestinian’s fantasy… Also, if truly the policies against Palestinians is so cruel, so destructive, then how come the number of Palestinians is steadily growing? A mathematical mystery… More mysterious still, any mention of numerous attacks against Jews is plainly absent. It perhaps clutters the bigger picture the priest wants to paint? Palestinians are victims and Jews are monsters?

Ivar Aartun, Norwegian priest, @Stavanger Aftenblad (translated by NI&J):  Is Israel a terror State?

Many go to Israel today to see the biblical sites. Following in the tracks of Jesus is exciting. However, tourists do not experience the systematically and brutal illegal behavior against the Palestinian population. One morning, they came, two bulldozers, 10 trucks and 40 soldiers, razing his home. All furniture was carried to the outside; the building was leveled with the ground. [...]

Meanwhile a representative of the “Jew police” in USA travels to Malmö in order to investigate whether the Mayor has used anti-Semite terminology.  But the “American Jew police” have no interest in the Jewish anti-Semitism in Israel. Billions of dollars are being transferred in support of brutal crimes and occupation. Without this support the Jews could not possibly have been building in the West Bank. Who is a Semite? To the Semite language groups, both Arab and Jewish peoples belong. Very many Palestinians are also of Jewish descent. They descend from the first Christian congregations in Israel (by the 7th century, all of the Middle East was Christian). Having this context in mind, Israel is perhaps the most anti-Semite country in the world. More mosques and churches are demolished in Israel than there are synagogues destroyed in Europe. But when Israel-Jews destroy the religious buildings in Israel they are referred to as hoodlums. When synagogues are destroyed in Europe, it is referred to as hatred of Jews. But both are anti-Semite! The old fashioned hatred of Jews disappeared post WW2. And well is that: But a new hatred of Jews has arrived because of the brutal Jewish suppression of the Palestinians.

“I hate Jews”, a Palestinian–Scandinavian working in Norway said. “No, I hate Jewish politicians”, he corrected himself. He tells me: “We lived in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. One day we were surrounded by Israeli Jews. Their henchmen were sent into the camps. They raped the women, killed men, women and children in a ‘Jewish mini-Holocaust’ The Israeli Jews watched that no one got away. More than 1000 innocents were killed on that day. I lost all of my family”. No Israelis ever were held responsible over this brutal crime against the Palestinians. Are Norwegian Jews to blame over Israeli crimes against the Palestinians in Israel? Absolutely not. But the “Jewish collective” in the world, is through its statements and its political and economic support to Israel strongly implicated in the brutal anti-Semitism towards the Palestinians seen in Israel. Here in lies the cause of the new hatred of the Jews.   In particular, the American Jews and their followers are strongly implicated.  More HERE.

On the Sabra and Shatila massacre read HERE.  Of special note is this: "By contrast, few voices were raised in May 1985, when Muslim militiamen attacked the Shatila and Burj-el Barajneh Palestinian refugee camps. According to UN officials, 635 were killed and 2,500 wounded. During a two-year battle between the Syrian-backed Shiite Amal militia and the PLO, more than 2,000 people, including many civilians, were reportedly killed. No outcry was directed at the PLO or the Syrians and their allies over the slaughter. International reaction was also muted in October 1990 when Syrian forces overran Christian-controlled areas of Lebanon. In the eight-hour clash, 700 Christians were killed—the worst single battle of Lebanon’s Civil War. 10 These killings came on top of an estimated 95,000 deaths that had occurred during the civil war in Lebanon from 1975–1982."

French Protestant NGO refuses to attend Shoah commemoration

Sadly European Jews fail to see what is going on.  Strange that a French Jewish umbrella organisation invited CIMADE, an NGO involved in anti-Israel militancy to attent a Holocaust commemoration ... and they were only too happy to decline and to publicise their views...  More HERE about CIMADE.

EJC: A French Protestant organization which was strongly involved in the rescue of Jews during the Nazi occupation of France and whose then Secretary-General was honoured by Yad Vashem as Righteous of the Nations refused to attend a commemoration event marking the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Marseille Jews.

The Marseille regional branch of CIMADE, which campaigns for the rights of migrants and asylum seekers, wrote to the Marseille branch of the French Jewish organization and EJC affiliate, CRIF, that it would not attend the event on January 20 because of its opposition to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. In the letter, the group said that the work of memory also involved “the importance of not repeating horrors which were committed and because it was “equally engaged against the policies of the State of Israel, which, in our view, are colonial, discriminatory and warlike towards the Palestinians, and in violation of international law,” it was unable to attend the commemoration event.

Support from the organization also came from the collective “Cercle des Volontaires” who interviewed the head of the CIMADE branch, Jean-Pierre Cavalié on Tuesday. The interviewer suggested to Cavalié that “the so-called work of memory” also serves to create a sort of very traumatic stress syndrome in the Jews, which allows them to tolerate acts of violence committed against the Palestinians.

Their letter in French has been put on line by French anti-Zionist Jews!

'The Jews crucified Our Lord': Irish antisemitism and the complicity of the Catholic bishops

"Palestinians living in Gaza are being treated worse then [sic] animals in a zoo. Ireland must do everything we can to end Israel’s collective punishment of civilians, which is a flagrant breach of international law." (Justin Kilcullen, director of Trócaire - he is also head of CONCORD, the Brussels-based powerful European confederation of 1,600 NGOs across 21 countries for relief and development. The European Union generously provides funds to Trócaire and CONCORD.)
_____________________________________________

Ruth Dudley Edwards * @ Daily Telegraph:

Pro-Palestinian fanatics blame 'the Jews'
for Jesus' death

Sarah Honig, a recent Israeli visitor to Cahersiveen, a charming little town in County Kerry, wrote yesterday in the Jerusalem Post of being asked in its main street for a donation by three teenage boys carrying large signs saying "Free Palestine". When asked from whom Palestine was to be freed, they replied "The Jews". "Are you sure", she asked, "that this money wouldn’t fund terrorists and murderers?" She was thrown by the response: "What do you have against Palestinians? What have they done to you? They are only against Jews. Jews are evil." One of them helpfully added that the Jews "crucified Our Lord". Honig then met the teacher, who explained he had brought them out during school hours as part of a class project "to further a humanitarian goal" by inculcating a commitment to charitable work. He "nodded in agreement without a word of objection" when she told him of the children’s remarks about Jews.

Those of us who publicly address the one-sidedness of the Irish take on the Middle East are used to ill-informed and/or bigoted politicians and activists (particularly but not exclusively republican or of the Left), but the Catholic Church has been having a pernicious effect too, particularly through its official overseas development agency, Trocaire, an Irish word meaning compassion.
More HERE (In French HERE)

More on Trocaire HERE, HERE and HERE.

Brussels: anti-Israel event at the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula

Several Belgian anti-Israel NGO are organising, with the approval of the Belgian Catholic Church, a "charity concert" to raise funds for Artists against the Wall (the association is supported by the government and its anti-Israel agenda is notorious).  The concert is being given wide publicity by associations like the Brussels branch of the Anna Lindh foundation (the murdered Swedish politician known for hostility towards Israel).

The cathedral bears testimony to Jew-hatred and blood libel accusations in Europe. Several stained glass windows portray the following incident :

"In 1370, according to the legend, holy communion wafers began to bleed after being stabbed with daggers by the Jews of Brabant at the synagogue in Brussels. The remains of the hosts were venerated for centuries as the Miraculous Sacrament (Sacrement du Miracle/Sacrament van Mirakel).

It is a fact that in May 1370 some six Jews living in Brussels and Leuven were burnt at the stake after being accused of the theft and desecration of the Blessed Sacrament (the so called ‘Blood Libel’). We know that Jewish property was confiscated, and that from the very beginning it was believed that the holy hosts had actually bled. Later on, in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, it was asserted that in 1370 all Jews had been expelled forever from the Duchy of Brabant.

The guilt of the Jews was never established. On the contrary, it has never even been proven that the hosts had in fact been desecrated. Belief in the alleged miracle was the only justification for executing the Jews. Accusing the Jews lent credibility to the miracle. Moreover, the alleged miracle offered a sought-after opportunity to dispose of the Jews. For the faithful the ‘miracle’ served as a material sign and proof of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Similar ‘Eucharistic Miracles’ connected with the presumed culpability of the Jews occurred elsewhere as well during the Middle Ages. Traces of red mildew on holy wafers were taken for traces of blood, the blood of Christ.

Unholy Money, Unholy Lies: Swedish Diakonia and the UK Methodists

Source: Sweden, Israel and the Jews 

As we reported last year, in 2010 the Swedish government was funneling 800 million SEK ($111.5 mil USD) to organizations like Diakonia, a church NGO which also sponsors anti-Israel activism. Some of the funds also find their way via Diakonia and other organizations (such as SIDA) to terror-linked organizations in Gaza and the West Bank, or may be squandered through corruption and mismanagement.  As we noted regarding the Israel delegitimization efforts of these NGOs:

“In Sweden, these campaigns are a large part the contribution of aid to the Palestinians. This political lobbying is clearly not meant to get the Palestinians to the negotiation table, recognizing the Jewish state or stopping terrorism. It is solely about making Israel into a pariah state.  The top agenda items for these government-funded campaigns are: questioning Israel’s right to exist, forcing territorial concessions, and putting all the blame of the conflict on Israel.”

It must be pointed out that although Sweden is large part of this campaign as a major international donor, it is not alone. There is a linkage with other countries through Christian Aid and its activist recruiting partner Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). These international organizations work to delegitimize Israel through fund-raising and propaganda. In the UK most churches (with the notable exception of pro-Israel evangelical Christians) support Christian Aid and its agenda.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, whose representative recently visited Malmö in an attempt to promote tolerance, published a blog post which takes the UK Methodists—probably the most radical of major UK churches—to task for an article published on the official Methodist website by a church official.  The main point of the article, which purports to give Jewish and Muslim perspectives on Israel and Palestine, is that Jews use Holocaust education to justify Israel’s existence. It also complains that non-European Jewish students are being indoctrinated about an event which had nothing to do with them.

Israel’s Chief Rabbi: ‘The Vatican doesn’t’ have to tell us how to interpret the Bible’

"The priest doesn't have to teach us about interpreting the Bible. We don’t teach them how to interpret the New Testament" (Yona Metzger, Israel’s Chief Rabbi)

JERUSALEM (EJP, by Yossi Lempkowicz)---Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger said the Vatican "doesn’t have to teach us about interpreting the Bible", in a comment to remarks by a archbishop who said that the theme of the Promised Land "cannot be used as a basis to justify the return of the Jews to Israel and the expatriation of the Palestinians".

"For Christians, one can no longer talk of the land promised to the Jewish people," Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, the Lebanese-born head of the Greek Melkite Church in the United States declared, in a press conference after a Vatican Middle East Synod.

"The priest doesn't have to teach us about interpreting the Bible. We don’t teach them how to interpret the New Testament," Rabbi Metzger told EJP Monday in Berlin where he is attending a conference of the European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC). He however expressed the hope that this won’t create a diplomatic incident with the Vatican.

On Sunday, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon slammed the Vatican synod statement hugely critical of Israel as "political attacks on Israel".

'Theological intifada' against Israel run by Arab Palestinian Christian Naim Ateek

"The greatest problem with the Jews is yet not resolved, because most Jews do not want to go to Israel. There are still far more Jews outside of Israel than within Israel. Most of them did not want to go there, but the Zionists made them. Europe did not want them, so they sent them away, and at whose expense? The Palestinians. There are still Jews in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, they do not go to Israel. Some Jews immigrate to Germany, because it looks better to them than Israel. Then there is something wrong. Israel uses propaganda to entice Jews to move there, but most of the ones who would go, have gone there by now."

Note - for European consumption, the site of Friends of Sabeel-France only talks of love, justice, peace and prayer.  What a divine European hypocrisy.

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews (Supercessionist Palestinian theology develops market in Norway)

Is there a market for supercessionist Palestinian theology in Norway? Perhaps not, but there are elements in the Norwegian church who are trying hard to create one.

CAMERA (Naim Ateek Lets It All Hang Out in ... Norway!) has picked up on how Palestinian supercessionist Naim Ateek is being courted by Norwegian supporters. Unauthorized translation from the article “Runs theological intifada against Israel” from Norge IDAG on the theology of Naim Ateek:

Runs theological intifada against Israel
The Palestinian-arabic theologist Naim Ateek visited Norway last week in order to turn Christians against Israel by convincing them that the promises of land made in the Bible have been revoked, and that the Jews no longer are God’s chosen people. He believes the state of Israel ought never to have been established, and that is has become an apartheid state which ought to be boycotted.

Naim Ateek leads the Palestinian-arabic teheological grassroots organisation Sabeel, which has as its goal to further a just peace in the Middle East. He has developed a distinctive ”Palestinian liberation theology” which he actively uses in order to further pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel views to the christian west. In Israel some speak of Sabeel’s activities as a ”theological intifada”, and in a meeting with Norge I DAG Naim Ateek says he accepts this definition of his activity.

François Houtart, Hamas supporter Belgian priest, the next Nobel Peace Prize laureate ?

The ever resourceful Belgians have had yet a new fabulous idea.  They will put foward the name of a Roman Catholic priest François Houtart, 85, for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.  He is of course anti-Israel and a firm believer in creating kangoroo courts to delegitimise Israel ... and legitimise Hamas.

As we wrote previously (François Houtart, a Belgian anti-Zionist priest, awarded UNESCO prize for tolerance and non-violence) (2009):

François Houtart, a Belgian priest and professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, has been awarded (shared) the 2009 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence. The announcement reads (excerpt):

"François Houtart (Belgium) for his life-long commitment to world peace, intercultural dialogue, human rights and the promotion of tolerance, and in recognition of his outstanding efforts to advance the cause of social justice in the world. [...]"

What the announcement leaves out is that François Houtart is a staunch anti-Israeli/US militant :

* he signed an appeal launched by Nadine Rosa-Rosso to all candidates for the 736 seats in the European parliament to remove Hamas from the EU terror list (International List Of Hamas Supporters Published, Harry's Place);

* he is a member of the Russell Tribunal for Palestine, concocted by another Belgian, Pierre Galand (Brussels: Launching of the "Russell Tribunal" on Palestine) the third such mock tribunal cooked up in Belgium ...;

* he is the chairman of the BRussells Tribunal - Peple vs Total War, that is co-chaired by Jean Bricmont, professor at the Catholic University of Louvain. Pierre Klein, professor at the Free University of Brussels is the secretary; and

* he is a member of the "People's Court" in which "individuals of concience" tried Israel for "crimes committed by the Israeli army in Lebanon during the summer 2006 [which] are a violent affront to the universal human conscience"(Israel on trial in Brussels: Iranian and Syrian Ambassadors give standing ovation to judges and Lebanon war mock tribunal condemns Israel and U.S.).

'Throw Israel soldiers to the sea' educational game at Belgian Catholic school

Hardly does a week go by in Belgium without a few NGOs - which receive generous funds from the government - organizing anti-Israel events.

In Flanders alone, during the last weekend of September, several such events took place.  The city of Antwerp [!] - repeat the city of Antwerp [!] - supported, for the second year running, a "Day for Palestine". No wonder that the Antwerp Jewish community is moving out. At Bredene, NGO Belgium to Gaza held an information and sales booth at a fair.  On the 30th, there was a debate in the Herent parish hall on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

But what happened at the Heilig Hart en College (Sacred Heart College) in Halle is so sick that it beggars belief. It is worrying that a reputable Catholic school sees nothing wrong that Catholic adults exhort kids to symbolically but very physically shoot at Israelly/Jewish soldiers and throw them into the sea.  In fact, killing them.

The city, run by a right wing coalition (CD&V, N-VA et VLD), had granted permission for the event "Gaza Terminal" to be held in front of the Halle train station to ensure maximum public exposure.

In the event, because of bad weather conditions, it was transferred to the school gym hall.  The organiser was Griet Deknopper,  a Belgian woman who took part in the flotilla supposed to break the Gaza siege.  She used to be involved in Chiro, the Flemish catholic scouts, and is the niece of a CD&V alderman.   The usual anti-Israel crowd always resorts to the same propaganda methods (flea markets, BBQs, music, anti-Israël propaganda: boycott calls, accusations against Dexia bank, leaflets by the far left-islam party Egalité whose incitement is well documented).

"Throw the soldiers [Israelly Jews] to the sea with your coins!"

François Houtart, a Belgian anti-Zionist priest, awarded UNESCO prize for tolerance and non-violence

François Houtart, a Belgian priest and professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, has been awarded (shared) the 2009 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence. The announcement reads (excerpts):

"François Houtart (Belgium) for his life-long commitment to world peace, intercultural dialogue, human rights and the promotion of tolerance, and in recognition of his outstanding efforts to advance the cause of social justice in the world.

Mr Houtart is an ardent promoter of North-South cooperation and the founder of the Tri-Continental Centre (CETRI), a non-governmental organization renowned for its work on development issues and in the International Council of the World Social Forum. Known throughout his life as a defender of human rights, he has contributed significantly to the advancement of the inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue. As a noted sociologist of religions and theology, he has authored numerous publications and given lectures in over 100 universities around the world. An honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Vietnam and Cuba and a member of the Commission on Struggle against Racism of the Ecumenical Council of the Churches, he has served as President of the Committee for Human Rights in Burundi (1986-1992); founder and director of the international review "Social Compass" (1960-1990); and President of the International League for People’s Rights (2003-2008)."

What the announcement leaves out is that François Houtart is a staunch anti-Israeli/US militant :

* he signed an appeal launched by Nadine Rosa-Rosso to all candidates for the 736 seats in the European parliament to remove Hamas from the EU terror list (International List Of Hamas Supporters Published, Harry's Place);

* he is a member of the Russell Tribunal for Palestine, concocted by another Belgian, Pierre Galand (Brussels: Launching of the "Russell Tribunal" on Palestine) the third such mock tribunal cooked up in Belgium ...;

* he is the chairman of the BRussells Tribunal - Peple vs Total War, that is co-chaired by Jean Bricmont, professor at the Catholic University of Louvain. Pierre Klein, professor at the Free University of Brussels is the secretary; and

* he is a member of the "People's Court" in which "individuals of concience" tried Israel for "crimes committed by the Israeli army in Lebanon during the summer 2006 [which] are a violent affront to the universal human conscience"(Israel on trial in Brussels: Iranian and Syrian Ambassadors give standing ovation to judges and Lebanon war mock tribunal condemns Israel and U.S.).

[1] On the Centre Tricontinental (CETRI), one can find : 17 articles on Palestine, 0 article on Burundi (in spite of the fact that, according to the statement, the UNESCO prize was awarded for the priest's commitment to the advancement of human rights in Burundi), 3 articles on the Congo, 0 article on Soudan, 9 articles on Sri Lanka etc. It's strange the little attention Burundi, the Congo et Rwanda receive because they were Belgian colonies, and there is a mutually strong link between citizens of these countries and Belgium.

We had a look at the sources of the articles posted on the CETRI blog and we were not disappointed: Electronic Intifada, Le Monde Diplomatique, Counterpunch (surprise surprise Counterpunch ), Palestine Monitor, etc.


- Jean Bricmont and The De-Zionization of the American Mind - The anti-US ravings of an arrogant man

- Special Report: "Pierre Galand (Belgium) Using Political NGOs to Promote Demonization & Anti-Semitism in the UN & EU"

Kristoffer Larsson, a Swedish theologian, backs Israeli organ theft claim

"Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman managed to tacitly draw the attention to—you guessed it!—the Holocaust [...] Lieberman’s Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt blatantly refuses to cave in [...] Ostensibly, Israel is using the article to get a message across: Sweden is an anti-Semitic country. They are set to pressure the Swedish government until it condemns the ‘blood libel accusation’. All of a sudden everyone is discussing good old anti-Semitism instead of Israel’s state terrorism and its apartheid policies towards the Palestinian people."

Source: article "The Organ Theft Affair" by Kristoffer Larsson (Kristoffer Larsson is a Swedish theology student occasionally commenting on political issues. He works with the Bethlehem-based International Middle East Media Center and is a Director of Deir Yassin Remembered.)

"Swedish photojournalist Donald Boström has really infuriated the Israelis and its supporters. On August 17, Sweden’s most widely circulated newspaper, Aftonbaldet, carried an article by Boström entitled "Our sons plundered for their organs."1

The usual suspects immediately cried "anti-Semitism," claiming that the old blood libel accusation has been brought to life again.2 The Israelis have even threatened to sue him. Such reactions were anticipated, however. Innumerable hate mails have found their way into Mr Boström’s inbox since the publication, including death threats. More surprising is that Sweden’s ambassador to Israel, Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier, issued a condemnation of the article. It was "as shocking and appalling to us Swedes as to Israelis," the ambassador claimed in a press release that was later withdrawn, having attracted criticism from the Swedish foreign ministry as well as from the government.

On top of that, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that the Swedish government renounce the article, something which would be unconstitutional in Sweden. A statement from Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman managed to tacitly draw the attention to—you guessed it!—the Holocaust: "It is regrettable that the Swedish foreign ministry does not intervene when it comes to a blood libel against Jews, which reminds one of Sweden’s conduct during World War II when it also did not intervene." (I would urge Lieberman, himself a hard-core racist, to read Lenni Brenner’s excellent 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis.)

Lieberman’s Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt blatantly refuses to cave in: "As a member of the Swedish government, acting on the Swedish constitution I have to respect freedom of speech, irrespective of the personal views that I might have." His boss, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, also rejects commenting on the article. Bildt is expected in Israel in about a week’s time, but Israelis are threatening to cancel his trip.

Despite all the fuss, this isn’t the first time Donald Boström publicly vents suspicions about Israelis stealing organs from Palestinians. One chapter of the book Inshallah: konflikten mellan Israel och Palestina ("Inshallah: the Conflict between Israel and Palestine"), edited by Boström and first published in 2001, was an account of what happened to a 19-year-old Palestinian boy. It includes the photo now published in Aftonbladet. Donald Boström decided to shed new light on the affair following the mass arrest in New Jersey of people involved in illegal organ trade that included a shockingly high number of Rabbis.

Read the whole piece here

SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST SCANDOS! ISRAELIS POKE FUN!

The Islamisation of Anti-Semitism

"In the 1930s [...] a growing convergence of German and Arab enmities allowed Nazi-style anti-Semitism to penetrate the Arab world. [...] Although early in the Third Reich, a Jewish homeland in Palestine was, in fact, thought of as a convenient dumping ground for Europe's Jews, soon, a covenant between anti-Zionist Arab leaders and the Nazis began to emerge. Leaders on both sides chose to finesse or ignore the implications of the kind of anti-Semitism featured in "Mein Kampf". An article in the Nazi Party newspaper, published in 1937, explained that Arabs had been at least partly "Aryanized" through mixing with Armenians and Circassians."

Source: article by Micha Odenheimer in Ynet News

"[...] One important lesson of the past year is that Israel should have taken the Palestinian incitement to hatred seriously, and America should have paid more attention to bin Laden's declaration of war against the West. Words count. Portraying Jews as a demonic people aimed at destroying Islam and enslaving mankind may be a warning that the deployment of weapons of mass destruction against Israel is not an unimaginable next step.

For hundreds of years, the virulent form of anti-Semitism that is now endemic in the Islamic world has been the heritage of the Christian West. In Christianity, the Jews had a starring role: they were the killers of Christ, and some Christians believed that they reenacted this ultimate evil by drinking Christian blood every Passover. In Islam, the Jews were more like shlemeils than God-slayers: the Jewish tribes in Arabia opposed Muhammad, but he easily defeated them. Although the Koran contains numerous harsh statements about Jews, the bottom line in Islam was that Jews were protected under Islamic law as long as they accepted Islamic political authority and the social and political limitations this imposed. Prejudice against Jews existed, and at periods of turmoil this prejudice sometimes turned violent, but eras of cooperation and relative peace were also often characteristic of Jewish life under Islam.

Anti-Semitic ideas infiltrated into the Arab world, according to Bernard Lewis, one of the greatest living scholars of Islamic history, as Islam expanded into the West. Christian converts to Islam and Greek Orthodox Christians who found themselves living under Islamic rule introduced anti-Semitism, including the notion of the blood libel, into the Middle East. In the first half of the 19th century, Christian Arabs, who were in continuous contact with Western Christians, brought numerous blood libel charges against Jews living in the Ottoman Empire. Often, money was at the root of this evil. In many cases, the Jews were the Christians' business competitors. Attempts to inflame Arab passions against the Jewish minority "were actively encouraged by Western emissaries of various kinds, consular, commercial, priests and missionaries," writes Lewis, in his book "Semites and anti-Semites", and blood libels were often accompanied by calls for commercial boycotts. In the 1840 Damascus blood libel, the most famous of such cases in the Arab world, it was Capuchin monks who made the false accusation, backed energetically and vociferously by the French consul. Interestingly, Islamic political authorities often attempted to quell the blood libel accusations, and Islamic intellectuals attacked Christian prejudice on the pages of newspapers and journals.

The translation of European anti-Semitic tracts into Arabic began in the second half of the 19th century. Most of the tracts were written in French; all were translated and published by members of the Christian Arab community. [...]

In the 1930s, nearly two decades after the Balfour declaration aroused further Arab suspicions and hostilities, a growing convergence of German and Arab enmities allowed Nazi-style anti-Semitism to penetrate the Arab world. Although technically the Arabs were also "Semites" disdained by the Nazis, both the Germans and Arabs had hatred of the British and the French in common. To the top of this list was added the Jews. Although early in the Third Reich, a Jewish homeland in Palestine was, in fact, thought of as a convenient dumping ground for Europe's Jews, soon, a covenant between anti-Zionist Arab leaders and the Nazis began to emerge. Leaders on both sides chose to finesse or ignore the implications of the kind of anti-Semitism featured in "Mein Kampf". An article in the Nazi Party newspaper, published in 1937, explained that Arabs had been at least partly "Aryanized" through mixing with Armenians and Circassians. While some Nazis even argued that "Mein Kampf" should be emended to make clear that only Jews and not Arabs were meant as objects of Hitler's rage and disdain, the sacred text did not bear emendation.

The Nazis used radio broadcasts to propagandize in the Arab world. Attacks on their common enemy, the Jews, were a major feature of these broadcasts. At the same time, Hajj Amin al Husayni, the mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Palestine Arab Higher Committee, obsessively pursued links with fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and lived out the war years in the Axis countries. Amin's long term goal, he said, after preventing Jewish settlement of Palestine, was to lead, in alliance with Germany, a Holy War of Islam against world Jewry that would result in the final solution to the Jewish problem.

Murderous anti-Jewish riots in Iraq in 1941, in Egypt, Syria and Libya in 1945, and massacres in Aleppo and Aden in 1947 demonstrated how the anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazis, the activism of the Mufti, and increasing tension over the emergence of a Jewish state in Palestine combined to completely erase the distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. New forms of Arab nationalism also left less room for the tolerance of minority groups than had existed in the Ottoman Empire. In addition, the odd relationship that had developed between the Nazis and some Arab countries continued after the war. Egypt, for one, became a magnet for ex-Nazis. Nazi war criminal Johannes von-Lirs, an expert in anti-Semitic literature, was one of a number of Nazis welcomed warmly by Egypt for their "expertise in Jewish affairs". Von-Lirs was greeted by none other than Mufti Hajj Amin al Husayni. In his speech welcoming Von-Lirs, Husayni remarked: "We thank you for venturing to take up the battle with the powers of darkness that have become incarnate in world Jewry." [...]

Read the whole article HERE

Irish Catholic anti-Israel NGO to curtail West Bank activities

"Palestinians living in Gaza are being treated worse then animals in a zoo. Ireland must do everything we can to end Israel’s collective punishment of civilians, which is a flagrant breach of international law." (Justin Kilcullen, director of Trócaire - Trócaire press release, 25/01/2008)
___________

DUBLIN, Ireland (JTA) – A major Irish NGO that trains activists to oppose Jewish settlements is cutting back on its West Bank activity due to budget cuts.

Trócaire, a Catholic aid agency that is one of Ireland’s largest and most influential NGOs, announced it will reduce its presence in the West Bank following massive cuts in the Irish government’s overseas aid budget and a substantial drop-off in private donations. The group has been active in Gaza and the West Bank since 2002.

In Ireland, the group has used its public profile to campaign against the West Bank security fence, Jewish housing in the West Bank and in eastern Jerusalem, and Israeli military action against Hamas in Gaza. Earlier this year, Trocaire called for the suspension of EU-Israel Association Agreement.

In a report issued in March, the Israel-based watchdog NGO Monitor accused the group of helping to "fuel the conflict" through "one-sided activities." [Trócaire: Misdirected Catholic Aid from Ireland Fuels Conflict]

According to its most recent public accounts, the organization spends approximately $1.07 million per year on its Palestinian-related activities.

The Irish government cut its support of Trócaire by 22 percent. Private donations are down 10 percent, the group said.
___________

Justin Kilcullen, Director of Trócaire, the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland, AND head of CONCORD, the Brussels-based powerful European confederation of 1,600 NGOs across 21 countries for relief and development (the European Union generously provides funds to Trócaire and CONCORD) wrote:

"Gaza strip: An open air prison?"

"Last December I turned up at a border crossing leading from Israel to the infamous Gaza strip as part of a delegation of Catholic development agencies. I was looking forward to the visit, to seeing first-hand the situation in which thousands of Palestinians were living. But four hours later I walked away, together with half the group, refused entry by Israeli security because our papers for entry did not have the required approvals. While the Palestinians living within this small piece of land could not get out, I could not get in. (…)

Over 3,000 journalists are expected to descend on the Gaza strip in the coming days to watch the dismantling of the 17 settlements that have been occupied by roughly 8,000 Israeli settlers since the war in 1967."

From: Over 3000 journalists in Gaza: one Western journalist in Lhasa

Diakonia, a Swedish Christian NGO's anti-Israel obsession

"Diakonia is more a lobby group with a clear political agenda for the Middle East than a Christian aid organization. [...] In one single month, October 2008, Diakonia sponsored 10 articles in the Swedish media, nine of which dealt with the world's only Jewish country." (Ilya Meyer, Equal value of all human life?, Jerusalem Post, December 6, 2008)

NGO Monitor's "was sent to officials in Diakonia and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Diakonia responded that they would provide no comment; SIDA did not reply."

Diakonia is Sweden’s largest humanitarian NGO, receiving most of its budget from the Swedish government. Some of the organization’s programs appear to be genuine and important humanitarian projects. Diakonia’s Civil Society and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) programs overtly promote the Palestinian narrative, and fuel the conflict. Attributes "structural problems" in the conflict solely to the "continuing of the occupation," the "building of the Wall," and "the fragmentation of the Palestinian territory." The IHL website promotes a so-called "right to resist" and delegitimizes Israel’s right to self defense.

* Diakonia is Sweden’s largest humanitarian NGO, founded in 1966 by five Swedish churches. It receives most of its budget from the Swedish government (SIDA, SEK 332 million, ~$47.2 million).

* By promoting a "right to resist" (meaning terrorism) and delegitimizing Israel’s right to self-defense, the Civil Society and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) programs exploit and misrepresent international law.

* The IHL Program’s International Advisory Council is populated almost entirely with PLO advisors, Palestinians, and anti-Zionist Jewish activists.

* While some of the organization’s programs appear to be genuine and important humanitarian projects, the vast majority of resources are devoted to political campaigns, including a submission to the Goldstone Commission vilifying Israel and delegitimizing its right to defend itself against rocket attacks.

* Diakonia’s repetition of the Palestinian position refers to the "continuing of the occupation," the "building of the Wall," and "the fragmentation of the Palestinian territory" as "structural problems” behind the conflict. The pre-1967 history of terror, war and rejection of Israel’s right to exist are erased.

* The tendentious international law activities, including the Humanitarian Policy & Law Forum at Harvard University, receive more funding than any other program related to the region, and represent the only such political example in Diakonia’s worldwide activities.

* Many of Diakonia’s partners (Alternative Information Center, Sabeel, Al Haq, Al Mezan) are among the most extreme anti-Israel NGOs operating the region, employing inflammatory and, at times, antisemitic rhetoric.

* Enactment of NGO Monitor’s recommendations will provide more balanced coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Diakonia will also better serve the interests of the Palestinians, who deserve real help, not radical posturing.

* This report was sent to officials in Diakonia and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Diakonia responded that they would provide no comment; SIDA did not reply.

"Diakonia is more a lobby group with a clear political agenda for the Middle East than a Christian aid organization.... In one single month, October 2008, Diakonia sponsored 10 articles in the Swedish media, nine of which dealt with the world's only Jewish country." (Ilya Meyer, Equal value of all human life?, Jerusalem Post, December 6, 2008)

Read the full NGO Monitor report on Diakonia here

- "Are we using European tax money to promote peace or hatred?", asks ECI director
- Sweden: Aftonbladet's accusations are anti-Semitic according to Council of Europe and OSCE classification
- Swedish government funds NGOs and anti-Semitism
- Behind the Humanitarian Mask: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland
- Swedish Christian NGO Diakonia's anti-Israeli activities
- Swedish Christian NGO Diakonia totally obsessed with Israel
- Conservative Swedish FM Carl Bildt likens Netanyahu to Hamas
- Sweden: when incitement against Jews is allowed
- Swedish government funds fuel Mideast radical NGOs
- Nina Witoszek: Europe has learned little from history
- Al Haq: Europe funding anti-Israeli NGO
- European funding for the narrative war, Gerald Steinberg
- Swedish journalist looks for Swedish extremist Jews

Christian European NGOs funding anti-Israeli "Breaking the Silence"

Source: NGO Monitor

Website: http://www.shovrimshtika.org/ : Breaking the Silence (Shovirm Shtika)

* Registered company in Israel, founded in 2004.

* Funders in 2008 include the European Union (€43,514), the British government (NIS 226,589), the New Israel Fund (NIF -- $68,833 in 2008), the Netherlands (€19,999) ["Sources say Verhagen reproached senior figures in the Dutch Foreign Ministry upon learning this and gave instructions to launch an internal investigation on the matter. It showed that the embassy in Israel gave Breaking the Silence 19,995 euros to help put together its 2009 report, which discusses Operation Cast Lead and was released earlier this month. Had this figure been five euros higher, it would have required approval from The Hague."], the Spanish government, Oxfam, Christian Aid, the Moriah Fund, ICCO (Dutch church group) and SIVMO (Dutch).

* In 2007, NIF granted Breaking the Silence (BtS) $70,976 for “[r]aising public awareness of the destructive consequences that serving in the occupied territories has on Israeli society” (p.15). In 2008, BtS also received €54,393 from the EU’s EIDHR program for “Personal Encounters with Former Israeli Combat Soldiers.”

* Breaking the Silence “collects testimonies of soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories during the Second Intifadah,” claiming that the “testimonies portray a…grim picture of questionable orders in many areas regarding Palestinian civilians [which] demonstrate the depth of corruption which is spreading in the Israeli military… Israeli society continues to turn a blind eye, and to deny that which happens in its name.”

* BtS conducts tours to Hebron and the South Hebron Hills to “witness first hand the dire situation.” Criticized by Israeli police officials for “antagoniz[ing]...settlers in the hope that the settlers will attack them.”

* The NGO was active in promoting “war crimes” charges against Israel after the Gaza fighting in January 2009.

Holland to reevaluate its funding of anti-Israel NGO

The pope, the Holy Land and the truth, Denis Maceoin

"What concentration camp ever launched a single rocket at its guards, let alone over 8,000, as the Gazans have done? What Nazis ever provided oil, water, food and medicines to camp inmates, as the Israelis have done? What camps had shops stocked from floor to ceiling with goods, or are studded with expensive villas and apartment blocks? What camp inmates would ever have set about destroying £14 million worth of greenhouses provided for their well-being, as the Gazans did in 2005?"

Extract from an essay in TJP

"ISRAEL WOULD would also be a perfect place for Benedict to denounce another churchman who has indulged in a similar distortion of the truth. Cardinal Renato Martino [photo], head of the Vatican Council for Justice and Peace, recently bought in to a smaller but equally vicious lie, namely that the people of Gaza live in "a big concentration camp." This sits next to other popular lies, chiefly that Israelis/Jews are really Nazis who kill babies for sport, or that there has been genocide, even a holocaust in Gaza.

What concentration camp ever launched a single rocket at its guards, let alone over 8,000, as the Gazans have done? What Nazis ever provided oil, water, food and medicines to camp inmates, as the Israelis have done? What camps had shops stocked from floor to ceiling with goods, or are studded with expensive villas and apartment blocks? What camp inmates would ever have set about destroying £14 million worth of greenhouses provided for their well-being, as the Gazans did in 2005?

The "concentration camp" claim is a blatant lie and an insult to the millions who really did suffer and die in the camps, and the pope must denounce it and chasten the cardinal who has promoted it. Only transparency can bring eventual peace to the region.

To claim, as so many do, that there has been a genocide or a holocaust in Gaza is not merely wrong, it is indecent. According to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, the annual growth rate in Gaza is about three times the world average. The population there has grown by almost 40 percent between 1997 and 2007. What genocide has ever increased the numbers of a population? Yet that lie allows marchers round the world to call Israelis "Nazis" and "Zionazis," and cartoonists to draw hooked-nosed Jews in SS uniforms. We all know the consequences when similar lies were told about the Jews in the 1930s and '40s. There must be no question this time that a pope will denounce these fictions for their incitement to the oldest of evils.

THE POPE must also address the widespread claim that Israel is an "apartheid state." This also is both ludicrous and dangerous. There are no apartheid laws in Israel, Arabs are not excluded from restaurants, cinemas, concert halls or swimming pools, but serve in parliament and on the Supreme Court. The claim is another vicious lie and, given the Church's commitment to anti-racism, it is fitting for the pope to expose it.

Passing beyond the lies (of which there are dozens more), an urgent matter on the pope's agenda must surely be the plight of Christians in the West Bank and Gaza. Harassed by militant Islamic groups, the Christian population there has been dwindling. In 1990, Christians made up 60% of the population in Bethlehem; today, a mere 19 years later, they number just 20% and that figure is shrinking rapidly. Christians in the Palestinian territories have fallen in numbers from 15% of the population in 1950 to less than 1% today. Calls have been made for their extinction, and attacks are regularly made on institutions and individual Christians. More and more Christians pack their bags and flee. In Israel, their numbers have risen from 34,000 in 1948 to more than 140,000 today. If the pope does not speak out and make this an issue of international concern, the bombings, the beatings and the intimidation will continue, and before very long the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem will be left to the tender mercies of Islamic Jihad.

THERE IS ONE other thing Pope Benedict should consider doing before he leaves Israel. In Haifa, on the slopes of Mount Carmel, stands a UNESCO World Heritage Site made up of the gardens, shrines and international headquarters of the Baha'i religion. It is a beautiful place, one of the loveliest on the Mediterranean coast. Israel is the only country in the Middle East where these places would be safe. Iran, a country that threatens to wipe Israel off the map, is the original home of the Baha'is, who form its largest religious minority. There the holiest Baha'i shrines have been bulldozed into rubble. Since the revolution, Baha'is have been imprisoned and executed, and made the objects of severe persecution. If the pope could stand in the gardens in Haifa and proclaim his abhorrence of all religious persecution, it would send out a firm message to bullies like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and those, like Hizbullah and Hamas, whom he controls.

There is a deeper message that the pope is well-situated to convey, which is that the truth is greater than the lie, and that there can be no peace while there is falsehood. Only when the Israelis and the Palestinians can engage in complete honesty with one another, and only when the deluded marchers walking on European streets chanting "Hamas! Hamas! Jews to the gas!" have their eyes opened to the enormous deceit that has been perpetrated on them will a real and lasting peace begin to grow in the Holy Land. It's a great opportunity. I pray it is not too late for Benedict to take it."

The writer is a former lecturer in Arabic and Islamic studies, the author of several reports on radical Islam and currently the editor-designate of an international journal, the Middle East Quarterly. This piece first appeared in the Catholic Herald.

Trócaire: Misdirected Catholic Aid from Ireland Fuels Conflict

"Palestinians living in Gaza are being treated worse then [sic.] animals in a zoo. Ireland must do everything we can to end Israel’s collective punishment of civilians, which is a flagrant breach of international law." (Justin Kilcullen, director of Trócaire [he is also head of CONCORD, the Brussels-based powerful European confederation of 1,600 NGOs across 21 countries for relief and development. The European Union generously provides funds to Trócaire and CONCORD.)

Source: NGO Monitor

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"- Trócaire, founded in 1973 by Irish Catholic bishops, is the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Funders include Irish Aid (Government of Ireland), which has budgeted €116 million to Trócaire between 2007 and 2011.

- In its programs related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Trócaire displays a consistent bias, including the "campaign on the illegal Wall" and "Exile Remembered: Israel, Palestine, and the Nakba – 60 years on," marking the "750,000 people...made homeless during the foundation of the Israeli state." Trócaire's website also refers to the "nakba or catastrophe – the start of a process of dispossession which continues today."

- Trócaire's NGO partners in the region include Badil, B'Tselem, HaMoked, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Zochrot, and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

- Trócaire often engages in political campaigning to influence European policy and public opinion. During the Gaza operation, Trócaire called for "the suspension of EU-Israel Association Agreement."

- Trócaire officials make statements about international law that do not reflect expertise or objectivity. On the Gaza violence, Director Justin Kilcullen declared: "In the last seven years 17 Israeli civilians have died in Israel from homemade rocket attacks by Palestinian militants. Israel's response to this is massively disproportionate and a clear violation of international law." Whether an attack is disproportionate hinges on its relation to military necessity, not past casualty comparisons, and the right to self-defense is explicitly guaranteed under international law.

- Eóin Murray, Trócaire Palestine Programme Officer and former coordinator of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, erased the context of terror and accuses Israel of racism in an item on his blog: "[s]ettlers are allowed to do as they please but Palestinians are prevented from doing anything, on the basis of their ethnicity... [This is] systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over another to maintain a regime.""

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Read the whole report here and here

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Over 3000 journalists in Gaza: one Western journalist in Lhasa

Swedish Christian NGO Diakonia's anti-Israeli activities

"It is unreasonable to provide information about the Holocaust, in which Hitler murdered six million civilian Jews in a meticulously planned industrialised process, without at the same time providing information about 'al Naqba'." (Joakim Wohlfeil, Diakonia’s Policy Officer)

"In one single month, October 2008, Diakonia sponsored 10 articles in the Swedish media, nine of which dealt with the world's only Jewish country. ... Yet Congo, which has seen hundreds of thousands of civilians slaughtered, raped and expelled, has merited just one single article, written back in February." (Ilya Meyer)

Source: Seismic Shock

"Over the last few weeks, it has become readily apparent that charities are increasingly flexing their political muscles when it comes to Israel-Palestine. Oxfam, Christian Aid, War on Want and various other NGOs have issued factually inaccurate statements concerning Operation Cast Lead. Amos Trust, meanwhile, encouraged its supporters to watch the Go To Gaza, Drink The Sea play. For whatever reason, it appears that radical anti-Zionism is becoming increasingly more popular among NGOs. (...)

The leading Swedish Christian aid organisation is Diakonia, which was created by and is supported by the Swedish Alliance Mission, the Baptist Union of Sweden, InterAct, the Methodist Church of Sweden and the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden.

Yet bizarrely, Diakonia’s Policy Officer Joakim Wohlfeil has openly admitted that Diakionia is is more a lobby group with a clear political agenda for the Middle East than a Christian aid organisation. Wohlfeil also claims:

"It is unreasonable to provide information about the Holocaust, in which Hitler murdered six million civilian Jews in a meticulously planned industrialised process, without at the same time providing information about 'al Naqba'."

Diakonia’s regional manager in Jerusalem Cristoffer Sjöholm recently addressed a Sabeel conference, boasting of his organisation’s work of convincing a Swedish company to close a factory built in the West Bank.

Diakonia has previously funded a Sabeel survey, met with the Sabeel to discuss 'present and future partnerships', and openly lists Sabeel as a partner in the Middle East. Naim Ateek himself has praised Diakonia’s work alongside Sabeel.

Diakonia also actively encourages a boycott of the train company Veolia, which has already been successful in Sweden. Now the Interfaith Group for Morally Responsible Investment in the UK is planning a similar move to boycott Veolia.

What is striking and disconcerting about the case of Diakonia in Sweden is that mainstream Christian institutions and the leading Swedish Christian charity have essentially allowed politically-driven anti-Zionist liberation theology to trump both Christianity’s call to 'love thy neighbour' and the core values of the Diakonia charity itself.

Yet at the same time, the status of Diakonia and of these church organisations in Sweden allows them to have a 'halo effect', as many will instinctively trust Diakonia due to its status and reputation. (...)"

Related:
- Swedish Christian NGO Diakonia totally obsessed with Israel

UK NGOs use Christmas to attack Israel

"In time for Christmas, several British NGOs have returned to past theological offensives against Israel by combining emphasis on Bethlehem, stories of Palestinian suffering, and false allegations of Israeli cruelty, NGO Monitor said in a report issued Tuesday.

Through Christmas cards, carols and charity fund-raising, War on Want, Amos Trust, Pax Christi and others condemn the West Bank security barrier and ignore the Palestinian terror campaign that necessitates it, according to the report.

As in previous years, when NGOs used London Underground station advertisements and greeting cards, these campaigns capitalize on holiday sentiment and Christian religious symbols to declare: "The wall must fall," and present a biased view of the conflict, NGO Monitor said. War on Want and Amos Trust are marketing Christmas cards depicting the security barrier and conflating Jesus with the Palestinians - a familiar theme among British NGOs.

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign is selling similar items to protest the "illegal structure" of the "apartheid wall," thereby also appealing to religious prejudices.

War on Want's cards feature "the three wise men trying to get to Bethlehem but being forced to dig underneath Israel's separation wall." A second card shows Mary and Joseph encountering a Bethlehem that is "effectively sealed off from the outside world by Israel's Separation Wall," and "Mary and Joseph being frisked on their way to find an inn for the night."

Similarly, Amos Trust advertises cards that portray Santa Claus walking along the security barrier with a bag of gifts, ringing a bell. The inside text ends, "As we celebrate the child born in Bethlehem - let us not forget God's children living in Bethlehem today." Additionally, as in previous years, Amos Trust offers the "Wall Nativity," which comes with a prayer guide and "complete with separation wall [and] depicts the current situation in Bethlehem." This project has been criticized for its anti-Semitic undertones.

On November 26, a fringe group calling itself Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods organized an event titled, "Bethlehem Now: Nine Alternative Lessons and Carols for Palestine," involving "traditional carols with untraditional lyrics, interspersed with poetry and prose readings, to highlight current reality in the Holy Land."

The event was held at a prominent Anglican church, St. James, Piccadilly, and proceeds supposedly went to Medical Aid for Palestinians and Open Bethlehem. While Medical Aid for Palestinians is funded to provide just that, medical aid, many of its activities focus on political campaigning, including accusations that the Israeli government is responsible for "harsh (and illegal) measures of collective punishment."

And Open Bethlehem, an NGO funded by Trocaire (the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland), blames the "Israeli-built wall" for "an unprecedented wave of emigration, particularly among the city's Christians," ignoring the targeting of Christians by Muslim extremists and Palestinian terror.

Lyrics for the "Twelve Days of Christmas" include: "Twelve assassinations, Eleven homes demolished, Ten wells obstructed, Nine sniper towers... and an uprooted olive tree." "Once in Royal David's City" was changed to "Once in royal David's city stood a big apartheid wall..."

Christian and Jewish community leaders strongly condemned the event.

"It was appalling to see a church allow one of its most endearing seasonal traditions to be hijacked by hatred," Israeli Ambassador Ron Proser said. (...)"

Source: article by Herb Keinon, The Jerusalem Post

- "Hijacked by Hatred": British NGOs Use Christmas for anti-Israel Attacks
- The untold Christmas story
- Belgium: Mary, Saint Joseph, the donkey, checkpoints and the "apartheid wall"

Beatification of Pius XII could be an impediment to Catholic-Jewish relations

Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he supports the beatification of Pope Pius XII, who died 50 years ago. This is a contentious issue. Pius XII remained silent while millions of Jews (including 1.5 million children) were being exterminated by the Nazis during WWII. The Church claims that he was being "prudent". After the war, when there was no need to be "prudent", he neither condemned antisemitism nor sanctioned members of the clergy (like Bishop Hudal), who played a major role in helping former Nazis to escape trial and find a safe haven overseas, mostly in Latin America. Faced with moral dilemmas, Pius XII sadly chose to remain silent.

Source: TJP

"(...) Pius XII was also credited with having tried to stop the October 16, 1943, deportation of more than 1,090 Roman Jews, negotiating a halt to further round-ups and opening Rome's churches, convents, monasteries and the Vatican itself to Jewish refugees.

"No doubt after October 16, generous, organized efforts to save Jews and others were made by all Catholic institutions in Rome," Italian Jewish historian Anna Foa said. "This could not have been done without specific orders by Pacelli."

A DPA German news agency report recently estimated that more than 7,000 Roman Jews owed their lives to this activity.

Rome Chief Rabbi Dr. Riccardo Di Segni disagreed, telling the Post that Pacelli failed to prevent the October 16 deportations from happening.

"The train to Auschwitz was not stopped," he said. "Seven hundred and fifty Roman Jews were gassed immediately on arrival. Another thousand were deported during the following nine months. In Bulgaria, where the Bulgarian government intervened forcefully, a similar train never left the station," therefore saving his own grandfather, he said.

Regarding Pius XII's possible beatification, Di Segni said, "On a human level, I can accept Pacelli's weaknesses, but beatification would make him an ideal for future generations. That, for me, would become an impediment to dialogue."

Rosen * said, "If the Catholic Church wishes a respectful relationship with the Jewish people, sensitivity toward Jewish sensibilities is appropriate," meaning "suspension of any action [toward sainthood for Pius] as long as survivors of the Shoah are still with us."

The International Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations, said Rosen, "has requested full access for independent scholars to the Vatican's archives as soon as possible, thus ensuring maximal credibility."

Eugene Fischer, former head of Catholic-Jewish relations at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaking at Gary Krupp's Rome conference, said he agreed with Rosen.

The prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives, Bishop Sergio Pagano, told the Post that five or six more years of work were need by the five archivists cataloguing, stamping and numbering documents from the 1939-58 Pius XII's papacy. (...)

"Regarding Pius XII's beatification, as a historian, I would think it prudent to wait a few years after the opening of the archives" Pagano said. "Allowing further research and waiting can only strengthen his case. Certainly nothing negative will be found. Probably scholars will be disappointed, because there will be nothing dramatically new - although perhaps some papers indicating Pius XII's 'wishes' - rather than direct orders - might emerge."

The pre-war, pre-Vatican II context of Pius's papacy may also influence evaluation of Vatican wartime actions.

Catholic historians such as Alberto Melloni and Jesuit scholar Giovanni Sale admit that before Vatican II (1962-1965), anti-Semitism was very common in Catholic circles. "It was part of the environment, and people were not conscious of doing evil," Pagano said.

Sale recently wrote that "the dominate mentality at that moment and in that part of the Italian Catholic world... was marked by a certain anti-Judaism... For many it was not easy to remove that mental habit and... see in the Jew an 'older brother' to love and above all, in that delicate moment, to help."

"Yet very often individual priests and nuns acted courageously, exposing themselves to risks beyond the general orders received," Pagano said. "Anti-Semitism was more prominent in higher echelons, not on the people level."

* Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee's chairman of the International Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations

- Pius XII (Yad Vashem)
- Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen: Pope Pius XII did not do enough to save Jews during WWII