 Dear ,
Our new video about stopping anti-Israel hatred
We have produced a short but punchy new video exposing and calling for an end to anti-Israel hatred:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob26PJfq1XE&feature=youtu.be
Please watch it and share it as widely as possible with your friends and family and on Twitter and Facebook.
Registration for We Believe in Israel Conference opens next week
Watch out for next week’s email – we will be launching the delegate registration website for the We Believe in Israel Conference, which is happening in London on 22 March 2015.
We hope you will be one of the 1500 delegates to attend the UK’s largest pro-Israel conference – make sure you register as soon as you get the email next week in order to secure your place.
Briefing on the clashes with Hezbollah
Here is the latest BICOM briefing on the clashes on Israel’s Golan border: http://www.bicom.org.uk/analysis-article/24185/
- The recent violence across the Israeli-Syrian ceasefire lines has been triggered by Hezbollah and Iran establishing infrastructure to attack Israel from the Syrian Golan.
- Hezbollah and Iran would like to extend their front against Israel into Syria, and to deter Israel from military action in Syria.
- Israel is keen to prevent any party using the Syrian Golan as a base to attack Israel, but also keen to avoid an escalation that could trigger a major conflict with Hezbollah.
- Since both sides would rather avoid a full blown confrontation, this may be avoided for now, but future clashes are likely, and could escalate out of control.
Please sign our petition calling on the Co-op to end their boycott
If you haven’t already signed it, please join the 1700 people who have already signed our new national petition calling on the Co-op Group to drop their boycott of a number of Israeli companies:http://www.webelieveinisrael.org.uk/petition/call-co-op-group-end-boycott-certain-israeli-companies/
We need to get thousands of signatures for this to have an impact on the Co-op’s Board members – please sign it and forward it to your friends and family to ask them to sign it too.
Letter writing campaign: Churches Together Lentern Readings
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland have produced a series of readings for the run-up to Easter (http://www.ctbi.org.uk/688 ) which draw attention to the plight of Christians in the Middle East - on a country by country basis.
Whilst Christians in Syria and Iraq face crucifixion, beheadings and massacre, abductions and forced conversions, by the likes of Islamic State, some of the harshest words in the readings are directed against Israel (the villain of two of the six readings).
Many Christians have informed us they are embarrassed by these readings - both because of their unrestrained negativity towards Israel and their failure to focus on Islamist extremism as a cause of oppression of Christians in the region. So far as the Jewish community is concerned, the readings certainly do not reflect compassion and love, or even basic fairness.
We are therefore calling people who are concerned about this - both Jewish and Christian - to write a short and polite email to CTBI setting out their concerns. Emails can be addressed to Rev Bob Fyffe, General Secretary of CTBI at bob.fyffe@ctbi.org.uk.
Here are some points to consider highlighting:
- The reading about Israel nowhere refers to it as a democratic state, omits the fact that Israel allows freedom of worship for all, or that it is one of few countries in the region where its Christian community is growing (annual growth rate of 1.2%, Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 2012).
- Instead Israel's treatment of Christians is presented in the following terms: inequalities, discrimination, vandalism, desecration and deprivation. Whilst there are issues of discrimination against minorities in Israeli society, it must be highlighted that the Arab Christian community in Israel out performs all faiths in key educational markers, such as high school students who earn their diploma (64%, compared to 59% for Jewish Israelis and 48% for Muslim Israelis), and are very well represented in universities and the medical profession.
- In contrast, the readings on Syria, Egypt and the Palestinian Territories, do not focus on Islamist radicalism, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas or IS (the Islamic State). Brave Christians from the West Bank are speaking out about persecution at the hands of the PA and Islamic extremists - but their story is ignored by the CBTI readings, and they are therefore left tragically to stand alone.
- In Egypt the burning of over 80 churches and the murder of scores of Christians by car bombs, sectarian rioting and assassination is passed over in one sentence.
- Israel is criticised for its security barrier, checkpoints and other restrictions. Nowhere is the justification put that these are unfortunately required to preserve life, Jewish and Arab, from violent attacks - such as the recent synagogue murders in Jerusalem and mass stabbings on a Tel Aviv bus.
- Israel's law of return, enabling Jews to emigrate to Israel, is viewed in a negative light – with no reference to Jews fleeing persecution. It is suggested that "olim" without family in Israel have no connection to the land.
- The concern is not just about preparing Christians for Easter by a hostile and insensitive reading about Israel and the Jewish community. Christians should also be concerned about the crass politicisation of their own Bible. The final reading describes Mary, the mother of Jesus, as "a young Palestinian Jewish girl". The New Testament never describes the land as Palestine or its people as Palestinian. The land was designated Palestine by the Roman rulers a century later.
Network for Mental Health Professionals
Are you a mental health practitioner or service provider or an academic or teacher in the mental health field? Please contact Steven Jaffe, consultant to the Board of Deputies, if you would be interested in strengthening contact between the mental health profession in the UK and Israel, through lectures, visits and other activities. Steven can be contacted at steven.jaffe@bod.org.uk.
Best wishes,
Luke Akehurst
Director, We Believe in Israel |
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