Onlangs is in Nederland een afdeling van Sabeel opgericht, een organisatie van Palestijnse Christenen en sympathisanten. Men is uiteraard voor vrede en gerechtigheid voor beide volken, maar: Israël moet geboycot, Palestijnse Christenen hebben zogenaamd alleen te lijden onder de bezetting, niet onder discriminatie door Hamas en de Palestijnse Autoriteit, nergens wordt met een woord gerept over Palestijns geweld, alle vluchtelingen moeten kunnen terugkeren naar Israël, enz. enz.
Sabeel is gebaseerd op de zogenaamde bevrijdingstheologie, en op 'replacement theology', de doctrine dat de kerk de plaats van de Joden als uitverkorenen heeft ingenomen. Vaak wordt daarbij gesuggereerd dat Joden daarmee ook hun recht op zelfbeschikking hebben verloren, en God de Joden straft vanwege het doden van Christus. Voor meer informatie over de replacement theology zie het artikel Christian Zionism.
Volgens een recent artikel van Sabeel is Israëls bestaansrecht gebaseerd op de Holocaust, en meent Israël dat het vanwege de Holocaust recht heeft op een staat op Arabisch land. Even wordt vergeten dat het Zionisme al in de 19e eeuw ontstond en de Volkenbond Palestina in 1922 als Joods Nationaal Thuis voor de Joden aanwees.
De Holocaust heeft de noodzaak van Joodse zelfbeschikking op tragische wijze duidelijk gemaakt, maar het Joodse recht op zelfbeschikking staat daar los van. De notie dat Israël was gesticht op Arabisch land ontkent de Joodse band met en aanwezigheid in Palestina door de eeuwen heen, en impliceert dat er een Palestijnse staat was die zomaar werd ingenomen door Europese kolonisten. Palestijnse nationale aspiraties ontstonden pas na 1948, als reactie op het Zionisme. Bovendien waren het de Arabieren die iedere vorm van deling afwezen en een oorlog tegen de Joodse gemeenschap in Palestina begonnen...
Ratna
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Genocide in Sheep's clothing: Fair Witness debunks Sabeel
http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2007/09/genocide-in-sheeps-clothing-fair.html
| RELIGION PRESS RELEASE SERVICES A Press Release Distribution Service from Religion News Service Tuesday, September 4, 2007 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 4, 2007
Contact: Sr. Ruth Lautt, O.P., Esq.
(212) 870-2320
New York, New York
September 4, 2007
Contact: Sr. Ruth Lautt, O.P., Esq.
(212) 870-2320
New York, New York
Fair Witness Deplores Statement By Rosemary Radford Ruether
Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East deplores a statement entitled "Beyond Holocaust and Nakba Denial: Toward Compassionate Co-humanity" by Professor Rosemary Radford Ruether which recently appeared on the Friends of Sabeel, North America website.
"Sabeel has a long history of denying the legitimacy of the Jewish state and employing supersessionist themes, classic anti-Semitic themes and the use of deicide language in its characterizations of Israel," according to Fr. James Loughran, S.A., Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute. "We therefore find any claim on the part of this organization to be seeking 'compassionate co-humanity' somewhat disingenuous from the outset."
The lack of a genuine search for "compassionate co-humanity" is evidenced at the beginning of Prof. Ruether's article where she attempts to explain Holocaust denial by alleging that the Jewish history with Nazi Germany has somehow been transformed into an Israeli sense of entitlement to a "state built on Arab land." "Prof. Ruether is a scholar. She should acknowledge that the modern state of Israel was not 'built on Arab land,'" says Rev. Dr. Bruce Chilton, the Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College. "After World War I what had previously been territory of the Ottoman Empire was divided into what are now 21 independent Arab countries and one Jewish state based upon both peoples' centuries' old ties to this land. The boundaries drawn have sometimes proven problematic, but it does not help to distort history further."
Curiously, Prof. Ruether uses a purported anecdote about some anonymous settlers in Gaza ten years ago to add credence to her premise that a Holocaust driven mentality shapes Israeli policy. This anecdote strikes Fair Witness as too conveniently supportive of Ruether's point to be credible, especially where she puts quotes around statements then attributed to "the settlers." Did they all cry out these alleged statements in unison? The statements, even if actually made by some Israelis, are irrelevant. Comments by random Israeli settlers express neither Israeli policy nor national perspective. Fair Witness is dismayed by Prof. Ruether's disingenuous attempt to suggest they do.
While Fair Witness disapproves of a tendency on the part of some to overuse the Holocaust as a rhetorical and political tool, this in no way renders Ruether's insidious use of this historical tragedy to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the Jewish state permissible. "The world did not need the Holocaust to justify the creation of a Jewish state. Jews, just like the Palestinians and all other peoples, have the right to constitute an autonomous and sovereign political community," says Sr. Ruth Lautt, Fair Witness National Director.
Ms. Ruether's article includes the sensationalist and baseless claim that Israeli leaders such as David Ben-Gurion planned the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948. While she provides no citation for this invidious accusation, it appears to be based upon a letter written by the former Prime Minister to his son. "Ben-Gurion's letter has recently been widely misquoted," says Dexter Van Zile, who has carefully researched the matter. "The actual Hebrew text (as reported by Efraim Karsh, Professor of Mediterranean Studies at the University of London, on pages 50-51 of Fabricating Israeli History) reads 'We do not wish, we do not need to expel Arabs and take their place … All our aspiration is built on the assumption that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs.'"
"How carefully did Prof. Ruether research her sources?" questions Van Zile. "You can't level an accusation as heinous as intentional ethnic cleansing based upon what appears to be nothing but shoddy scholarship."
Prof. Ruether also resorts to drawing the contrived parallel between the Palestinian "Nakba" and the Holocaust. "There would have been no Palestinian or Jewish refugees had the Arab nations accepted the U.N. partition (under resolution 181) of the British mandate," points out Rev. Dr. Roy W. Howard, pastor of Saint Mark Presbyterian Church (USA) in Rockville, Maryland. "Prof. Ruether leaves that piece of history out of her narrative. She also neglects to point out that the 'expanded state of Israel' resulted not from some (implied) Israeli landgrab -- but from a war that followed the combined Arab armies' attempt to destroy Israel.
Prof. Ruether's final point is that the respective suffering of the Jewish and Palestinian people holds the potential for building a mutual respect on which a peaceful solution could be constructed. "It is a shame that this hopeful aspiration, with which we concur, is merely tacked onto the flurry of distorted historical narrative by which Ruether delegitimizes Israel's standing and thereby undermines the very outcome she claims to seek," laments Rev. Dr. Peter Pettit, Director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College.
"Sabeel has a long history of denying the legitimacy of the Jewish state and employing supersessionist themes, classic anti-Semitic themes and the use of deicide language in its characterizations of Israel," according to Fr. James Loughran, S.A., Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute. "We therefore find any claim on the part of this organization to be seeking 'compassionate co-humanity' somewhat disingenuous from the outset."
The lack of a genuine search for "compassionate co-humanity" is evidenced at the beginning of Prof. Ruether's article where she attempts to explain Holocaust denial by alleging that the Jewish history with Nazi Germany has somehow been transformed into an Israeli sense of entitlement to a "state built on Arab land." "Prof. Ruether is a scholar. She should acknowledge that the modern state of Israel was not 'built on Arab land,'" says Rev. Dr. Bruce Chilton, the Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College. "After World War I what had previously been territory of the Ottoman Empire was divided into what are now 21 independent Arab countries and one Jewish state based upon both peoples' centuries' old ties to this land. The boundaries drawn have sometimes proven problematic, but it does not help to distort history further."
Curiously, Prof. Ruether uses a purported anecdote about some anonymous settlers in Gaza ten years ago to add credence to her premise that a Holocaust driven mentality shapes Israeli policy. This anecdote strikes Fair Witness as too conveniently supportive of Ruether's point to be credible, especially where she puts quotes around statements then attributed to "the settlers." Did they all cry out these alleged statements in unison? The statements, even if actually made by some Israelis, are irrelevant. Comments by random Israeli settlers express neither Israeli policy nor national perspective. Fair Witness is dismayed by Prof. Ruether's disingenuous attempt to suggest they do.
While Fair Witness disapproves of a tendency on the part of some to overuse the Holocaust as a rhetorical and political tool, this in no way renders Ruether's insidious use of this historical tragedy to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the Jewish state permissible. "The world did not need the Holocaust to justify the creation of a Jewish state. Jews, just like the Palestinians and all other peoples, have the right to constitute an autonomous and sovereign political community," says Sr. Ruth Lautt, Fair Witness National Director.
Ms. Ruether's article includes the sensationalist and baseless claim that Israeli leaders such as David Ben-Gurion planned the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948. While she provides no citation for this invidious accusation, it appears to be based upon a letter written by the former Prime Minister to his son. "Ben-Gurion's letter has recently been widely misquoted," says Dexter Van Zile, who has carefully researched the matter. "The actual Hebrew text (as reported by Efraim Karsh, Professor of Mediterranean Studies at the University of London, on pages 50-51 of Fabricating Israeli History) reads 'We do not wish, we do not need to expel Arabs and take their place … All our aspiration is built on the assumption that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs.'"
"How carefully did Prof. Ruether research her sources?" questions Van Zile. "You can't level an accusation as heinous as intentional ethnic cleansing based upon what appears to be nothing but shoddy scholarship."
Prof. Ruether also resorts to drawing the contrived parallel between the Palestinian "Nakba" and the Holocaust. "There would have been no Palestinian or Jewish refugees had the Arab nations accepted the U.N. partition (under resolution 181) of the British mandate," points out Rev. Dr. Roy W. Howard, pastor of Saint Mark Presbyterian Church (USA) in Rockville, Maryland. "Prof. Ruether leaves that piece of history out of her narrative. She also neglects to point out that the 'expanded state of Israel' resulted not from some (implied) Israeli landgrab -- but from a war that followed the combined Arab armies' attempt to destroy Israel.
Prof. Ruether's final point is that the respective suffering of the Jewish and Palestinian people holds the potential for building a mutual respect on which a peaceful solution could be constructed. "It is a shame that this hopeful aspiration, with which we concur, is merely tacked onto the flurry of distorted historical narrative by which Ruether delegitimizes Israel's standing and thereby undermines the very outcome she claims to seek," laments Rev. Dr. Peter Pettit, Director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College.
_______________________________
Sr. Ruth Lautt, OP, Esq.
National Director
Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East
475 Riverside Drive, Ste 1960
New York, NY 10115
(212) 870-2320
www.christianfairwitness.com
Sr. Ruth Lautt, OP, Esq.
National Director
Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East
475 Riverside Drive, Ste 1960
New York, NY 10115
(212) 870-2320
www.christianfairwitness.com
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