Writing in The Times of London, Bishop of Kensington Graham Tomlin is absolutely right to draw attention to the plight of Christians in the Middle East.
Tomlin, however, implies that “systematic persecution of Christians” is taking place in Israel while drawing on an outdated and inaccurate example to make his case:
The systematic persecution of Christians in the Middle East is a serious threat. The number of Christians in Middle Eastern countries has fallen from about 20 per cent to 4 per cent in recent years and regular bomb attacks on Christians in Egypt are becoming part of a deadly pattern. Even in Jerusalem, new regulations are threatening to tax the Christian churches out of existence, prompting the recent unprecedented closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as an act of protest. The buildings from ancient times will still stand, but if Christians are hounded out of the Middle East, driven to emigrate by radical Islam, or, in the case of many Palestinian Christians, by the lack of opportunities to thrive in Israel, this rich source of wisdom will disappear just like the ruins of Palmyra.
Having set up a scene of “systematic persecution of Christians in the Middle East,” Tomlin implies that Israeli regulations are part of this. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Firstly, these regulations referred to the Jerusalem Municipality’s plan to collect property tax on church-owned properties that are not used as houses of worship and to a bill that would authorize the expropriation of land sold by churches in return for compensation to the investors that purchased the properties.
Both the tax collection and the bill were suspended following the intervention of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and committees set up with the involvement of Christian representatives to find a mutual agreed solution to the issues.
So Tomlin’s claim of death by taxation is inaccurate. (You can see the latest developments on the land bill here.)
Moreover, the churches issued a statement including the following:
After the constructive intervention of the prime minister, the Churches look forward to engage with Minister [Tzachi] Hanegbi, and with all those who love Jerusalem to ensure that our holy city, where our Christian presence continues to face challenges, remains a place where the three monotheistic faiths may live and thrive together.
Does this sound like systematic persecution of Christians on the part of Israel?
Much of Tomlin’s opinion piece focuses on his friend David, a “Coptic Palestinian Christian, born in Jaffa and who lives in Jerusalem.” Indeed, from Tomlin’s description, David sounds like a wonderful human being.
That Tomlin’s friend David was born in Jaffa and lives in Jerusalem means that he is most likely an Israeli citizen with all of the rights and freedoms that this bestows on him, including freedom of religion.
If Tomlin wished to focus on systematic persecution, he would have been on firmer ground had he chosen the plight of Christians not within Israel but those under the Palestinian Authority or in Hamas-controlled Gaza where Islamic extremism represents a serious threat.
Or Iraq where the former spread of ISIS did so much to empty the country of its Christian population.
David may well be a shining example of why the world should do everything possible to preserve the welfare of Christians in the Middle East. Bishop Tomlin, however, does a serious disservice by implying that Israel is a systematic persecutor of Christians.
Image: CC BY-SA HonestReporting.com
