In late October 2015, Lapido Media published an article about a master’s degree program in peace studies at Bethlehem Bible College that had some problems that were addressed in an article written by CAMERA researcher Dexter Van Zile and published at the Times of Israel blog. In particular, the article accused Israel of “shunning” the peace studies program offered by the school, which has a long history of agitating against Israel.

One bit of evidence that the article offered to prove that Israel had “shunned” the program was that a foreign student who went by the pseudonym “William” had not been given a visa to study at the school by the Israeli government, which controls entry and exit into the West Bank, where the school is located.

A close examination of the article, however, revealed that the student had not applied for a student visa. The article was, simply put, a hit job. Just in case there is any doubt, take a look at the URL (universal resource locator, or web address) for the article, which was likely based on the first title of the text as it was loaded into the site administrator for Lapido Media. It reads “israel-blindsides-first-peace-studies-programme-arab”.

“Blindsides”? Really? What exactly did Israel do to “blindside” the peace studies program? The article states that Israel did not return a phone call and did not issue a visa that was not even applied for. How is that “blindsiding” the program? If anyone did any blindsiding, it was Lapido Media, its correspondent Jayson Kasper and his pseudonymous source, “William.”

Nevertheless, in response to a second challenge (described below) Lapido Media laudably changed the headline and published a note at the bottom of the article. A screenshot of the new headline can be seen at the top of this entry and the note to the article can be seen here:

It is gratifying to see that Lapido Media has changed the headline. There is no real evidence that Israel has “shunned” the program. If Israel has done anything, it has largely ignored the peace studies program, which has gotten off to a shaky or “tentative” start as Lapido Media reports in the headline. (The program has yet to be accredited, for example.)

It is also good to see that Lapido Media is open to doing further coverage of the story, but there are a number of questions that need to be addressed.

The note at the bottom of the article states that changes to the article were made in response “to a complaint that we misrepresented the availability of student visas by the Israeli authority.” The problem is not that the article may have misrepresented the availability of student visas, but that students from overseas are able to attend classes in the West Bank without student visas. That’s what “William” has been able to do for at least two semesters.
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Earlier today, Snapshots drew attention to a section on the website of Bethlehem University, a Catholic-run school located in the West Bank that denied the legitimacy of Israel by describing Israeli cities as “Palestinian Occupied Territory.”

Fortunately, the offending passage has been removed by officials at the school.

CAMERA lauds the school for doing the right thing with such alacrity.

In the course of researching an apparent misstatement of fact from former Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun (see blog entry here), Snapshots came across an interesting webpage on the website of Bethlehem University, a Catholic-run school located in the West Bank. On the school’s website, there is an FAQ page for foreign students that refers to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Acre and Tiberius — all Israeli cities — as “Palestinian Occupied Territories.”

A screen shot of the section in question is at the top of this entry. The relevant section reads as follows: “You may enter Palestinian Occupied Territories (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Acco, Tiberia etc.)”

This is outrageous. A Vatican-founded and Catholic-run institution of higher learning is affirming the irredentist agenda of Hamas, declaring cities in Israel as Palestinian territory. Why is this school affirming a political agenda that has cost so many Palestinian and Israeli lives?

Mayor of Bethlehem Vera Baboun appears to have a difficult time adhering to the facts when she speaks about life in the West Bank. (Note, April 25, 2016: This article previously referred to Baboun as former Mayor of Bethlehem, but she is still the incumbent. Snapshots regrets the error.)

Speaking at the 2014 Christ at the Checkpoint Conference, Baboun, (pictured above), said the city where she served as mayor was “surrounded with a wall,” when in fact, the security barrier does not surround the city. It passes by the southern and eastern sections of the city, but it does not “surround” it. As mayor of Bethlehem when she made this statement, so she knew full well where the barrier is situated.

She knew the truth, but she told her audience something else.

Well, it looks like she has done it again, this time in Ireland.

Baboun, who lectures at the Vatican-founded Bethlehem University in the West Bank, recently appeared in Ireland and gave a talk at an event organized by the Irish chapter of Friends of Bethlehem University.

Her talk was covered in the Feb. 15, 2016 issue of the Irish Times. The article, reads in part, as follows:

“The situation is really difficult,” she said. Israeli visa restrictions mean international students cannot attend the university, cutting off one likely stream of revenue. Only three-month tourist visas were available to such students.

The complaint is that Israeli policy makes it impossible for international students to attend Bethlehem University.

This is not true.

How do we know?

The school where Baboun lectures has webpages devoted to serving the needs of international students.
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Last October, a British website, Lapido Media, published a dishonest little hit piece accusing Israel of “shunning” a Peace Studies Program at Bethlehem Bible College (BBC).

The main evidence used to prove that Israel was “shunning” this masters degree “peace studies” program at BBC was that a foreign student who was attending classes at the program could not get a visa to attend school in the West Bank. Here is what the article stated:

The Arab world’s first Master’s degree in Peace Studies – developed by a Bethlehem college – is getting the brush-off from a government whose commitment to peace is already being questioned from within the Jewish world.

Bethlehem Bible College (BBC) aims to train Muslim, Christian, and Jewish peacemakers to build bridges instead of walls.

But 24-year-old ‘William’, a Canadian, and one of five international students in the inaugural class, cannot obtain a student visa.

Instead he must come and go every three months as a tourist. Afraid of deportation, he shields his identity online and makes no mention of his studies to the authorities.

‘My fear is maybe they would become aware of what I’m doing and reject any subsequent tourist visas,’ William, using a pseudonym, told Lapido.

‘It has been a step of faith, but I figured I would just take the risk and do it.’

[NOTE: CAMERA is not revealing the identity of the student in question despite the fact that “William” is no longer shielding his identity online.]

The article makes clear that it is Israel’s fault that the student cannot get a visa. But a close reading of the article reveals, however, that the student in question never applied for the student. The article states: “William was advised by the BBC not even to try.”

In sum, Israel was condemned for not issuing a visa to someone who did not even apply for one and this condemnation was used to portray Israel as giving the peace program the “brush-off.”
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Munir Kakish, President of the Council of Evangelical Churches in the Holy Land (Photos: Dexter Van Zile)

The Christ at the Checkpoint Conference concluded today, March 10, 2016. The stated goal of the conference was to give Christians the information they needed to address religious extremism as it relates to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The conference, which is organized by Bethlehem Bible College, a non-denominational Christian institution of higher learning in the West Bank, got off to a rough start.

Invitees said some things that they shouldn’t have during the opening night of the conference, Monday, March 7, 2016.

For example, the Christian mayor of Beit Jala, where the conference was held, compared Israel to ISIS. That’s not a good way to establish the credibility of Palestinian Christian leaders in the West Bank.

Also, an official from the Palestinian Authority (who spoke in Arabic) used conference director Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac as a puppet to tell the audience that the Palestinians have embraced the principle of coexistence, a tough thing to believe in the midst of a five-month stabbing spree that has cost dozens of Israelis their lives.

That’s not all. A prominent Palestinian Evangelical leader said explicitly what many people believed all along: Palestinian Evangelical churches are dedicated to the cause of anti-Zionism.

Yes, that’s what he said.
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Nicola Khamis, the mayor of Bethlehem (pictured above), took full advantage of his shot at stardom two nights ago. Khamis gave one of the obligatory welcoming speeches on the opening night of the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference that is currently taking place in the Bethlehem suburb where he serves as mayor.

This guy makes Mayor Quimby from The Simpson’s look like an honest politician. During his speech in the ball room of the newly opened Orient Palace (which by the way, is a pretty nice hotel!), Khamis laid on thick and nasty, telling his listeners that the Israeli occupation is reducing Beit Jala, a town where BMWs and Mercedes line the streets, to “starvation.” Really.
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By now, most people have come to expect that officials from the Palestinian Authority will speak words of peace when addressing foreigners and words of hate when they speak to their own people. And most people realize that PA officials will level outrageous charges at Israel every chance they get. This is what the PA does. Governing through the use of misinformation and demonizing propaganda comes with the territory if you’re in charge of the Palestinian Authority.

But even the most hardened and cynical observer of the Palestinian Authority would be shocked at the speech given by a PA official at the opening session of the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference that began today, Monday, March 7, 2016. (This conference, organized by the Bethlehem Bible College, a non-denominational Evangelical school located in the West Bank, has taken place every even-numbered year since 2010.)

The speech was given by Hanna Amira, who serves as the chairman of the Higher Presidential Committee for Christian Affairs for the Palestinian Authority. During his speech, he stated “The Israeli government is giving the green light to the Army and to the settlers to continue the acts of killing and attacking the Palestinian people, in particular, the children and the young and the women.”
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The Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has done the right thing and deleted a page that promoted a dishonest and hateful Lenten Reflection edited by one of its missionaries who works for the YWCA of Palestine. Evidence of the deletion can be seen here. Also, screenshot of the now defunct page can be seen at the top of this entry.

Global Ministries has also deleted the link to the page promoting the document from its newsfeed.

The action came after CAMERA published an article highlighting the problems with the Lenten document (which was in turn covered by The Jerusalem Post).

In addition to highlighting the problems with the text, CAMERA also contacted all of the Conference Ministers in the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ alerting them to the problems with the Lenten Reflection.

The YWCA of Palestine was the first institution that stopped promoting the document. Global Ministries promoted the text for approximately another day after the YWCA stopped promoting it.

CAMERA commends Global Ministries for doing the right thing.

The YWCA Chapter located in Jerusalem, which bills itself as the YWCA of Palestine has, as of this writing, removed a hateful Lenten Reflection produced by an American missionary from the United Church of Christ.

CAMERA exposed and documented the hostility and falsehoods included in the reflection, edited by Rev. Loren McGrail in an article posted on Friday, February 19, 2016.

The Lenten Reflection was posted on the WYCA’s website here, but readers who click on the link will not find the document.

The Jerusalem Post covered the controversy with this article.

The image above shows how the URL in question is currently displayed.

CAMERA commends the YWCA in Jerusalem for doing the right thing.

Update 10:44 a.m.: The document in question is still available on the YWCA’s website, it’s just that the link to the document has been removed. The URL for the PDF still provides access to the document in question.