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Church of Sweden Calls for Investigation of Israel's Human Rights Record

Earlier this month the Church of Sweden formally moved to investigate Israel's violations of Palestinian human rights. The General Synod, the Church's formal decision making body, commissioned its Central Board, working through ecumenical and international bodies, to "raise the issue of scrutinising the implementation of international law in Israel and Palestine, also from the perspective of the United Nations convention on apartheid and the definitions of apartheid in the Rome Statute." The story was covered

in depth in the Middle East Monitor and Haaretz.

Reactions from within the Church ranged from outright opposition, to equivocal acceptance, to passionate endorsement. In the first group, bishops joined with voices from the organized Jewish community in Sweden in effectively accusing the Church of antisemitism in "singling out" Israel for its human rights violations. A second group of senior Church leaders expressed discomfort with the motion, but stopped short of opposing it, attempting to walk the increasingly narrow path of responding to pressure from the grassroots to take a stand against inequality and tyranny while attempting to protect relationships with the Jewish community. The Church's Archbishop, for example, stated in a public letter that “an image of the decision is now being spread that is not entirely correct, and which can easily lead to misunderstandings and overinterpretations...the use of the word ‘apartheid’ that provokes anger and sadness. I myself would not have used the word in this context. But I am also aware that Israeli and other human rights organizations such as B’Tselem, Yesh Din and Human Rights Watch have used the term in their reports.”

A third group expressed unqualified support. Responding directly to the charge of anti-Israel bias, Rev Dr Anna Karin Hammar, Ecumenical Coordinator of Kairos Palestine-Sweden offered a three-point rebuttal to the charge of anti-Israel bias. The Palestinian people, she wrote, are "one of the few people still affected by settler colonialism and surely the only people deemed by experts on international law to experience a regime of apartheid." Six international church workers from Sweden provided a passionate defense of the church motion on the basis of previous church statements, international law, and fundamental Christian principles. They took particular issue with the charge of anti-Jewish bias expressed by several bishops, and what they characterized as those leaders' disregard of international law in their failure to recognize the suffering of the Palestinians at the hands of the State of Israel.

Only Palestine Portal brings you these stories of church struggle, unfolding on every continent and increasing in frequency and urgency as the reality of the Palestinian plight becomes inescapably clear and the voice of the global church grows in strength.

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu was without peer among church leaders throughout the world in his advocacy for the Palestinian cause. His voice rang out in protest against Israeli apartheid decades before the issue rose to prominence among the churches of the world.

Archbishop Tutu stood out in particular -- and before his time -- in challenging the equating of criticism of Israel with antisemitism. He took aim with devastating accuracy at the efforts of Jewish advocacy organizations, often assisted by church leaders, to thwart divestment efforts on the part of mainline Protestant denominations by leveling the charge of intentional or latent antisemitism. In 2012 a resolution to divest from companies profiting from the oppression of Palestinians was brought before the General Conference of the United Methodist Church. Twelve hundred American rabbis released a letter beseeching Methodists to reject the resolution. Archbishop Tutu had this to say in a letter addressed directly to the rabbis' appeal:

In 2015 the Archbishop directed these words to the German churches meeting at their biennial assembly: "BDS is not antisemitism. Do business with Jews, organize with them, love them. But don’t support – militarily, economically or politically – the machinery of an apartheid state." He continued: “Beware of anti-Semitism, and all other forms of racism, but beware also of being cowed into silence by those who seek to stifle criticism of the oppressive politics of Israel by labeling you anti-Semitic."

Archbishop Tutu's commitment to the struggle for justice in Palestine was inseparable from his dedication to the struggle of his own people.Throughout his tireless work for racial equality in his own country he exemplified Martin Luther King's principle that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

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