The Archbishop of York has joined a growing chorus of experts and activists who claim that Israeli actions in Gaza have a genocidal dimension. The Chief Rabbi has strongly criticised his words on what is a contentious issue within Christianity.
Various UN bodies and figures, as well as human rights organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have also suggested that Israel is committing genocide.
Israel has denounced such claims as false and as “blood libel”, while Israel’s key ally, the US, has also denied that genocide is taking place.
Speaking to The Church Times, Archbishop Stephen Cottrell said that Israel had committed “genocidal acts” in Gaza and that the country was responsible for instituting a form of “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing”.
Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi denounced Cottrell’s “irresponsible” comments, telling The Telegraph, “reaching for the incendiary and morally inverted accusation of ‘genocidal acts’ will serve only to foster yet more enmity and division”.
Meanwhile, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said that it would be in touch with Cottrell’s office to clarify his comments, which, they said, “concerned” them.
It is not just Israel’s conducting of its current war that concerns Cottrell however, but its ongoing treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank. It is, he said, a “deeply discriminatory political regime that intentionally and clearly prioritises the political, legal and social rights of Israeli settlers over Palestinians living in the same territory”.
Similar comments were made last year by Justin Welby, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, who said that Palestinians, Christian and Muslim alike, lived under “systematic discrimination”.
The issue of support, or not, for Israel is one of considerable debate within Christianity. The divide is, at least in part, a theological one between Supersessionism (the view that the Christian church has taken over from Israel as God’s chosen people) and Dispensationalism (the view that Israel/the Jewish people are still of central importance to God’s plans).
Anglican priest Michael Coren said that church leaders preoccupied with Israeli actions towards the Palestinians were ignoring severe anti-Christian persecution by Muslim nations.
Writing for The Telegraph, Coren argued, “For one thing, it’s a lot easier to criticise the wrongdoings of the Jewish state than the sins of countless Muslim ones, where active persecution of Christians is rife. There’s a fear of alienating the Muslim community, and a desire for ecumenism with a large and growing minority faith."
Martin Davie has similarly argued that Israel has been unfairly blamed by the Church for its actions, while Hamas is never held to account. Indeed Hamas’ refusal to come to an accommodation with Israel was cited by Davie as one of the primary causes of the continued devastation of Gaza.
He called recent statements by Church of England leaders "unhelpful".
"What is quite astonishing is that the onus for achieving a lasting peace rests wholly with Israel. The only people whose attitudes must change are the Israelis," he said.
He added, “The major roadblock on the way to peace is the fact that the Palestinian leadership and the Iranians and their proxies do not currently want a two-state solution any more than they have wanted it at the times when it has been offered from 1937 onwards."
