Does Independent Media, one of South Africa’s largest media organizations, care about publishing lies in its outlets? Maybe not if it can place enough layers between itself and the sources of those lies.
Take the story “Christians no longer welcome in Israel, says Palestinian group” on the IOL website. IOL’s source is the African News Agency (ANA) wire service. ANA makes it clear in its second paragraph that its source is an interview given by members of a visiting Palestinian Christian delegation to the Afro-Palestine Newswire Service. This news service is an initiative of the AfroPal Forum, which describes itself as “a civil society organisation based in Africa that advocates Palestinian rights and works to present accurate perspectives on the Palestinian question, which debunk the Israeli colonial narrative.”
The resulting agitprop interview is appallingly one-sided and replete with outright lies and deliberate distortions. Given the interview’s provenance, it’s disturbing that anything produced by the AfroPal Forum could find its way into the mainstream IOL News as “news.”
Neither does this “report” disclose the backgrounds of the two interviewees, Father Jamal Khader and Dr. Rifat Kasis. They have a significant history of anti-Israel activity within the church as leaders of what is called Palestinian Liberation Theology. Khader and Kasis are also co-authors of the Kairos Palestine Document, a theological text produced by Palestinian Christians in 2009. Former Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman described it as:
a prime example of an effort to undercut the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish State. It calls terror a form of legal resistance, it endorses boycotts and divestment against Israel, and it denies any connection between biblical covenants and the Jewish people.
For more on the theology behind the Kairos Document, see CAMERA‘s analysis.
Then there’s the myths raised by the interview.
MYTH 1. Israel is solely responsible for a decline in the number of Christians.
According to the article:
This has lead to a drastic decline in the Christian population there. The chief cause of the Christian exodus, according to Khader and Kasis, is Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
The story later states:
According to the delegation, the chief cause of the decline in the Christian population of Palestine is not due to so-called Islamic fundamentalism or the persecution of Christians by their Muslim neighbours.
These are misrepresentations used to distract from the realities of occupation. It is the occupation that has made life so difficult that many Christians have left Palestine.
Bethlehem was 85 percent Christian in 1947, the year before Israel became a state. Today, it is less than 20 percent. In Jerusalem, the Christian population in 1947 was 19 percent. Now it is just 2 percent.
“Misrepresentations?”
The real misrepresentation is the theologically and politically motivated agenda that holds Israel solely responsible for the situation of Christians in the Holy Land.
In 2011, the Associated Press reported:
The number of Christians in the West Bank is on the decline. While some leave for economic reasons, many speak of persecution by the Muslim majority, but always anonymously, fearing retribution.
Justus Reid Weiner has researched the plight of Christians in the Palestinian territories extensively. According to Weiner, Arab Christians rarely speak about their situation in public:
The human rights crimes against the Christian Arabs in the disputed territories are committed by Muslims. Yet many Palestinian Christian leaders accuse Israel of these crimes rather than the actual perpetrators. This motif has been adopted by a variety of Christian leaders in the Western world. Others who are aware of the human rights crimes choose to remain silent about them.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
MYTH 2. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre “resembles a military barracks.”
According to the article:
Khader, a Catholic pastor, described how during Easter, one of the holiest times of the year for Christians, the sacred Church of the Holy Sepulchre – a site central to Jesus’s death, crucifixion and resurrection – resembles a military barracks. Barriers are set up in the early hours of the morning to keep people out of the courtyard of the Church.
Israeli army officers are present around the gates of the Old City and passages that lead to the Holy Sepulchre, as well as inside the Church itself and on its roof.
These measures restrict freedom of movement for Palestinians, preventing Palestinian Christians from worshipping at the Church during this auspicious period. Even priests are not allowed to move freely.
What is described above is not an Israeli attempt to target Palestinian Christians and freedom of worship. We talked to an Israeli tour guide who leads tourists and groups to the Old City and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre several times each month, including Easter. He painted a picture of potentially dangerous overcrowding particularly during Christian holidays that make crowd control measures essential to avoid injuries or even fatalities.
In addition, fights have frequently broken out between different Christian denominations over prayer rights at the Church. It is Israeli security that maintains the peace and prevents violence. Indeed, Israel has the responsibility to maintain law and order in the Old City.
This is for the benefit of everyone and not designed to inconvenience or persecute Palestinian Christians.
As for the claim that Israeli army officers are present, this is certainly not what it sounds. Israeli border police are stationed throughout the Old City in order to keep everyone there safe and secure, an unfortunate necessity in light of Palestinian stabbing attacks in the recent past.
Palestinian Christians are not singled out for special treatment or discrimination based on their religion. All Palestinians living in the disputed territories are subject to security restrictions when entering Israel for obvious reasons. This does not, however, include Palestinian residents of eastern Jerusalem who have total freedom of movement within the city and the rest of Israel.
MYTH 3. Christian property is “earmarked for Israeli settlement expansion.”
Christian-owned land has also been confiscated to make way for illegal Israeli settlements.
For instance, in Beit Jala – a Christian-majority town just outside Bethlehem – the 133-year old Cremisan Monastery, as well as its neighbouring convent, winery and school, have all been earmarked for Israeli settlement expansion.
No these sites in Beit Jala have not “all been earmarked for Israeli settlement expansion.” While there are ongoing legal cases over the route of the Israeli security barrier, which is proposed to run through the town, this does not mean that the monastery and its neighboring structures are going to be taken over by Israeli settlements. There may well be a genuine grievance in Beit Jala but the article’s claims are hyperbolic and inaccurate.
And is Christian-owned land being confiscated to make way for Israeli settlements? If the land was privately owned by anyone, irrespective of their faith, it would be illegal under Israeli law to simply confiscate it and build a settlement. The state is only entitled under the law to build on state land that is not privately owned. The article’s claim simply doesn’t hold water.
* * *
Ultimately, this interview published is nothing more than propaganda disguised as “news,” no matter how many degrees of separation there are between the original authors and the IOL.
Please send your considered comments to IOL through its online feedback form.
Featured image: CC0 Max Pixel; Khader via YouTube/AP Archive; Kasis via YouTube/FortnightJournal; monastery CC BY Grant Barclay;
