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One-sided criticism of Israel hurts credibility of World Council of Churches

PRESS RELEASE March 30, 2005

Delegation of the European Coalition for Israel met with World Council of Churches in Geneva

WCC - World Council of Churches Geneva , March 22, 2005 – Following a recent statement by the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, where the Committee encourages its member churches to apply economic pressure on Israel, a delegation from the European Coalition for Israel met with leaders of the WCC to express their great disappointment and deep concern.

- “At a point in time when dramatic changes are taking place in the Middle East and both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are renewing their commitment to peace, the World Council of Churches chooses to put economic pressure only on the Israeli government. The Coalition wishes to express its disappointment, not only with the morally questionable content of the WCC statement, but also with the unfortunate timing of this one-sided message”, said executive director Rijk van Dam in a statement after the meeting, reflecting the concerns of the member organisations, as well as millions of Christians throughout Europe.

- “The policy statements coming out of the WCC seems to more reflect the values of the disreputed United Nations Human Rights Commission than true Biblical concern with the situation in the Middle East”, Van Dam stated. “Whereas the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recently acknowledged the one-sidedness of the UN Human Rights Commission and hopes to reform the institution to make it more balanced and credible, the WCC seems to continue its old policy of singling out the only democracy in the Middle East for criticism and punitive actions. As Christians from several of the member churches of the WCC we are hoping for similar reforms to sweep the WCC which would make it a more credible representative for Christian churches”, Van Dam stated.

- “At a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe and Israel is portrayed as the greatest threat to world peace it is important that we as Christians do not reinforce old stereotypes of the Jewish people and spread the distorted image of Israel as the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East and to world peace,” said ECI board member Harald Eckert from Germany.

- “It should be the mission of every Christian organisation which want to ‘do things that make for peace’ (Luke 19:42) to stop the spreading of anti-Israeli sentiments in the Christian world, and try to correct the distorted image of Israel in Europe. We simply cannot believe that the only democracy in the Middle East is to blame for the problems in the region but that each side in the conflict have shared responsibilities for living up to their obligations in the peace process. A Christian council which is less concerned with suicide bombers than with Israeli security measures is hardly promoting a sustainable peace in the region,” concluded Van Dam.

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