The Synod’s vote
Reading about and digesting the Church of England’s decision to encourage its members to engage with a Palestinian Christian document known as Kairos II that accuses Israel of genocide and British Jews of being “complicit in the suffering of Gaza’s children; that has been strongly opposed by Jewish community leaders including the Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg (the senior Masorti rabbi) and the Board of Deputies, a number of thoughts come to mind.
The Jewish community through various multifaith projects such as the Board of Deputies interfaith network with a newly appointed multifaith officer and many progressive Judaism initiatives has put much energy, work and commitment into multifaith relationships. Now look at the result – sadly, an act of clear and blatant anti-Israel rhetoric and antisemitism.
I have always been suspicious of the effectiveness of these multifaith initiatives, which do not appear to work in practice. Where was the condemnation by the local Muslim community of the terror of October 7, 2023 committed by Hamas and of subsequent terrorist incidents against innocent Jews? Indeed, Kairos II itself appears to defend Hamas, justifying the October 7 attacks as being “born out of decades of injustice, oppression and displacement …”
The criticism of Israel by the delegates of the Synod and the Archbishop of Canterbury while she was in Israel is wholly unacceptable and extremely dangerous. What happened to the old Council of Christians and Jews which in its day seemed to work?
What they, she and others, including Labour politicians such as the outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as well as segments of our own Jewish community, do not seem to understand is that anti-Israel rhetoric only provokes and encourages the antisemitism that they say they oppose. The recognition of a Palestinian state by Sir Keir Starmer before all the hostages were released was an insult to the Jewish community and did not help.
As the Chief Rabbi has said, this is “a sad day for Jewish-Christian relations”. May I respectfully suggest that the community now pauses, takes a breather and uses less energy in its various multifaith and interfaith activities until such time as the Synod and Archbishop of Canterbury apologise profusely and unconditionally to the Chief Rabbi and to the Jewish community for the hurt and damage that their support for the falsehoods of Kairos II has caused. The document should be unconditionally withdrawn.
Jonathan Metliss
Chairman, Action Against Discrimination
London W1
Your recent article (Chief Rabbi condemns Church of England’s “shameful” Israel motion, JC July 17) failed to mention that the recent meeting of the Church of England Synod, which voted to hear an “incendiary” document from the Palestinian Christian group Kairos Palestine, was held in York.
York was the scene of a massacre of Jews in 1190. They were hiding in the city’s Clifford’s Tower from the local Christian population, who were angered by taxation to fund the crusades.
Only last month on a visit to York I observed a pro-Palestinian march where I felt certain chants were unacceptable.
I reported this to the local police stewarding the protesters but they were more interested in the behaviour of two lads who were a little intoxicated.
Llewellyn Gaba
Cardiff
The Anglican Synod’s recommendation of the Kairos II document makes the Archbishop of Canterbury’s position as a co-head of the Council of Christians and Jews untenable. She should resign.
Paul Shaw
Florida USA
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