BDS IN THE PEWS
- Since the 2001 NGO Forum at the UN’s Durban Conference, boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) aimed at Israel have developed as a key issue in mainline Christian denominations in the United States, Europe, Canada, and elsewhere.
- A number of European governments, plus the United States and Canada provide funds for these church-based efforts to delegitimize Israel. These tax-payer funds are disbursed as grants to church-based humanitarian NGOs, which then transfer these funds to highly politicized pro-Palestinian NGOs, including Christian groups that promote BDS, the one-state solution and, in many cases, antisemitic supercessionist, or replacement, theologies within mainline churches worldwide.
- The most recent initiatives in 2012 include:
- In May, the United Methodist Church (U.S.)voted down an anti-Israel divestment resolution, but passed a resolution calling for selective boycotts of settlement products.
- In July and August, anti-Israel resolutions supporting divestment and/or boycotts are to be debated and voted upon at the national policy gatherings of the Presbyterian Church-USA and the United Church of Canada.
- The Episcopal Church (U.S.) in July will deliberate on a resolution that, according to an email action alert with the subject line “The Episcopalians Need Our Support Too!” circulated by Anna Baltzer of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, “is similar to the ground work that the Methodists and Presbyterians were laying several years ago as part of their long-term campaign” for divestment and boycotts.
- The Church of England at its General Synod in July will deliberate and vote on whether to recognize the World Council of Church’sEcumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), which supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and a Palestinian “right of return”.
‘BDS’ BRIEFLY DEFINED
- The BDS campaign has its origins in the NGO Forum of the UN’s 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban where some 1,500 NGOs united to adopt a political war plan against Israel.
- In July 2005, a number of Palestinian groups issued the Palestinian United Call for BDS against Israel. BDS seeks to totally isolate Israel viaboycotts of Israeli academic, cultural, consumer, and sports institutions, divestment from companies doing business with Israel, andsanctions in the areas of military, economic, and diplomatic cooperation agreements between Israel and other states.
- BDS strategists view the churches as a key target for promoting the BDS agenda: “religious institutions are seen in many communities as embodying important moral and ethical principles… Divestment campaigns that target companies such as Caterpillar have been initiated in a number of major Christian churches. Not only will successful divestment campaigns financially weaken the Occupation, but will raise both the public profile and legitimacy of the BDS campaign.”
Roberta E. Dzubow Said:
No. They were mostly Roman pagans who adopted whatever christian folklore was in style at the time of their execution.
The Jews of Rome had no reason to spiritually fall to the level of the new christians, which Judaism viewed then and now as simply a different form of paganism.
@ Roberta E. Dzubow:
Jesus was a fictional or composite character invented by Constantine. Some theorize by the Flavians but there is little doubt that the Christian Jesus and consequently Christianity itself is a Roman fiction.
@ Roberta E. Dzubow:
WHY the christianity deception?
The Roman Army was the most powerful on earth. No small group of men – Rabbis or not – could make the Romans do anything. The Romans crucified thousands as a way to intimidate and spread fear – thus assuring cooperation from the masses. The Christians that were “fed to the lions” were Jews. The followers of Jesus were Jews. Jesus was a Jew. Once the powerful Romans realized that they had crucified the leader of a growing movement, they needed to deflect attention away from their own guilt. They shifted the blame and spread stories of why they murdered Jesus. New Testament sections which vilify Jews expand upon Roman justifications for their barbarity. They claim that little old men in the Sanhedrin made the Roman Army do its bidding, and Jews and Jewish practices are terrible anyway.
@ Kathy:
Most of the NT is anti Jewish to wit:
“After this, Jesus went about in Galilee; he would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.” (John 7:1)
Fabricating the infamous self-incriminating public declaration attributed to the Jewish people, collectively and in perpetuity, in response to the dramatic assertion by Roman governor Pontius Pilate that Jesus was not guilty of any crime against the Roman Empire and that, accordingly, Rome’s hands would remain clean in the event of Jesus’ murder by Rome at the insistence of the Jewish people, to wit: “And all of the [Jewish] people said [in response to Pilate’s assertion of Jesus’ innocence], ‘His [Jesus’] blood shall be upon us and upon our descendants.'” (Matthew 27:25).
Paul — nascent Christianity’s seminal evangelist — further propagated the blood libel of Deicide in his epistle to the residents of Thessalonica, Macedonia (modern-day Thessaloniki, Greece), declaring: “For you, brothers, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the Prophets, and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles, so that they [the Gentiles] may be saved. In this way they [the Jews] always heap up their sins to the limit. The Wrath of God has come upon them [the Jews] at last.” (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16).
Jesus condemned to a hellish existence those who refuse to worship and obey him as a demigod (“‘The Father loves the Son, and has committed everything into his hand. He who believes in the Son has Eternal Life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see Life, but the Wrath of God rests upon him.'” — John 3:35-36);
Jesus declared to a gathering of Jews — who had described themselves as the Children of Abraham and regarded Jesus as a mere mortal — that they were really the Children of Satan (“‘You belong to your Father, the Devil, and you want to carry out your Father’s desire; He was a Murderer from the Beginning, not holding to the Truth; for, there is no Truth in Him; when He lies, He speaks his native language; for, He is a Liar and the Father of Lies. Yet because I tell the Truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of Sin? — if I am telling the Truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says; the reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.'” — John 8:44-47)
Jesus sought to abolish the Torah laws of Kashrut, by which God declared to the Jewish people those creatures which are spiritually clean and, consequently, permissible to eat, and those creatures which are spiritually unclean and, consequently, prohibited to eat (“He [Jesus] said to them [his disciples]: ‘Are you also lacking in understanding? Are you not aware that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and [then] goes out into the latrine?’ Thus, he [Jesus] declared all foods clean.” — Mark 7:18-19);
Jesus ordered (by means of a parable, known as the Parable of the Ten Minas, concerning the advent of the Kingdom of God) the murder of those Jews who did not accept his kingship and who, consequently, deserved punishment, not only for their own sins, but also for the sins of the entire World — retroactive to the dawn of Humanity (“‘But these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here, and slay them in my presence.'” — Luke 19:27; and: “‘And so upon you [Jews] will come all the righteous blood poured upon the Earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar.'” — Matthew 23:35)
The New Testament relates: “These twelve [apostles] Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: “The Kingdom of Heaven is near.”’” (Matthew 10:5-7); and: “He [Jesus] answered [to his apostles], ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’” (Matthew 15:24).
If you are a real Christian bible believer you must therefore hate the Jews even if you Love Israel?
What is your position on converting Jews to Christianity?
How much do you donate for missionary activities?
How much of your donations for Christian missionary activities is directed towards the Jews?
Just curious.
This so called Christian antisemitism is demonic. Nothing Christian about it. It’s like they read a different Bible.
There’s a marked separation going on in Christendom ….the N/T speaks of a great falling away before Messiah comes. I believe this is what we are seeing. It’s like they war-ship another god.
We’ve got them peddling their demonic deception even here in NZ. It’s evil! If you want to see behind the scenes google Dr Rev Sizer…pro BDS etc. Plus Paul Wilkerson’s “Christian Palestinianism” dvd revealing the deception and evil that’s being promoted.
The true Bible believing Zionist Christians are Israel’s true friends.
This information shows why Jews must have their own country. Most non Jewish nations and groups within these nations including the US , probably due to jealousy of Jews’ incredibly high mean IQ, and their corresponding success,will never treat Jews as human beings.I look at these Christian Neo Nazi groups as pathetic people who clearly feel inferior. Their religions would not exist if not for the Jewish people. These ignorant beasts would still be worshiping stone idols, had the Jews not introduced the concept of monotheism. They hate Jews but worship a Jew who lived 2000 years ago as the son of G-d.
This is an absolutely revolting display of blatant antisemitism. These churches should be promoting a BDS campaign against muslim nations where Christians are being persecuted and slaughtered. But no such calls will be forthcoming because their hatred of Jews trumps the well-being of their fellow Christians suffering under islamic rule.