Misinformation and Moral Stupidity from World Council of Churches

WCC General Secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit

The World Council of Churches has a long history of inciting hostility toward Israel. It has demonized Israel while remaining relatively silent about the misdeeds of its Arab and Muslim adversaries, even when these adversaries are responsible for murdering and oppressing Christians in the Middle East. For some background about the WCC’s antipathy toward the Jewish state (and tendency to appease totalitarian countries and political movements, go here).

For people who know the WCC’s feckless history when dealing with issues related to Israel, it’s hard to be surprised at the pronouncements that come out of the organization’s headquarters in Geneva.

But today, April 17, 2014, the WCC issued a statement that is a surprise.

The statement, signed by the WCC’s General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Olav Fyske Tveit, expresses “solidarity with the nearly 5000 Palestinian men, women and children languishing in Israeli prisons.” The statement says that this decision will disrupt “an already fragile peace process,” and that it has “deepened heartache for many families, relatives, friends and indeed, the entire Palestinian people.”

Predictably, Tveit offered no gesture indicating that he understood the suffering and heartache that some of these prisoners, especially those convicted of murder and terrorism, have caused to Israelis.

But that’s no surprise. While the people who organized the WCC did express some shock over the Holocaust in the 1940s, the organization has always been more bothered by Israeli efforts to defend Jewish lives than it has been by attempts to end them.

The statement also expresses disappointment that Israel cancelled a hoped-for release of prisoners who had been in jail since before the Oslo Agreement of 1993.

But that’s no surprise either. The organization has always had a soft-spot for “liberation” movements no matter how violent or totalitarian.

The surprise comes when the statement declares “Some prisoners have been in Israeli jails since 1948.”

With this statement, Tveit indirectly asserts that there are Palestinians who have been in Israeli jails for the past 66 years!

Now that’s a surprise!

But surprise, surprise it’s not true.

In December 2013, Haaretz reported that two Palestinians, “Karim Younis and Maher Younis, will begin their 31st year in prison next week, making them the longest-serving of all the Palestinians currently doing time for terrorism in Israeli jails.” Haaretz also reports that the two “were convicted of involvement in the murder of soldier Avraham Bromberg of Zichron Yaakov in 1980. In July 2012, a parole board recommended commuting their life sentences to 35 to 40 years.”

So there it is. In addition to lamenting that Israel did not release terrorists and murderers, the WCC’s General Secretary falsely stated that some Palestinians have been in Israeli jailes since the middle of the last century.

After today’s statement, no one is going to mistake the Reverend Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit as a responsible or knowledgeable religious leader. They will see him for what he is – a pro-Palestinian partisan who will sign off on whatever statement is handed to him.