On This Day

Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.

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6 July

interfaithDESPICABLE INTERFAITH PILGRIMAGE TO PALESTINE
This day in 2008 was the first day of a Scottish Interfaith pilgrimage to Palestine supported by the British and Israeli Governments. Soon after the large Presbyterian Church in the USA voted to end its investments in any US corporation that supports Israel’s occupation, an article in the US Zionist ADL website explained: the rationale: “Jewish participants expressed the hope that the mission would lead to concrete steps by the leadership of the Protestant churches to cancel their divestment campaign against Israel”.

 

رحلة الحج المشتركة الى فلسطين بين مجموعات حوار الأديان هو عمل حقير

6 يوليو

في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2008 كان اليوم الأول للحج إلى فلسطين من قبل مجموعة أسكتلنديه تضم مختلف الأديان بدعم من الحكومتين البريطانية والإسرائيلية. بعد فترة وجيزة من تصويت كنيسة البريسبتيريان الكبيرة في الولايات المتحدة لإنهاء استثماراتها في أي شركة أمريكية تدعم الاحتلال الإسرائيلي ، أوضح مقال في موقع ADL الصهيوني الأمريكي: منطقيا: "أعرب المشاركون اليهود عن أملهم في أن تؤدي الزياره إلى خطوات ملموسة بقيادة الكنائس البروتستانتية لإلغاء حملة سحب الاستثمارات من إسرائيل ”.

The sorry record of interfaith pilgrimages to Palestine
One example was a 2008 Scottish interfaith ‘pilgrimage’ to Israel, supported by the British and Israeli Governments. There was outright dishonesty, denial, refusal to face up to basic realities, irritation at truth-tellers, and scoffing at Palestinians proposing a solution based on peace and co-existence.

Martin Hill, of the Salvation Army, reported that Palestinian Dr Mustafa Barghouti’s "thesis was of Israel’s expansionist intentions"(11), a ‘thesis’ he was careful not to endorse. As of the end of July 2008, Israel had just announced its latest illegal settlement expansion in the Jordan Valley. But Martin Hill’s characterisation of Israel’s constant expansion as a ‘thesis’ of Dr Barghouti, rather than an unremitting reality for Palestinians, helps in the task of the ‘pilgrimage’, which is to showcase apartheid Israel and delegitimize Palestinian resistance. The Church of Scotland Minister in Jerusalem, Colin Anderson, struck much the same note of delegitimizing Palestinian experience in writing of his personal upset "when the Palestinian regaled us with very much the victim litany".

Pramila Kaur, Chief Executive of the Scottish Inter-Faith Council, went even further after meeting with Dr Barghouti, and wrote that certain Palestinian people had upset the pilgrims,"some of us expressed concern about their use of language such as 'ethnic cleansing' and it was felt this was not conducive to bridging the gap."

Organisers state that, "a group has been formed which could provide a forum for action and education" and that back in Scotland, "participants will visit a wide range of organisations to talk about the pilgrimage". One participant, an activist in the Zionist Maccabi youth group saw his model of "interfaith work...working in the holy land" and said he would be coming back to apply the same 'peace-creating' methods of interfaith work in Britain. It is time to worry when Zionists wish to import the Israeli model to Britain.

Two of the Muslim participants, Naeem Raza and Mazhar Khan concluded that "the light at the end of the tunnel was provided by the likes of...One Voice". The Chair of the Glasgow branch of One Voice also took part in the ‘pilgrimage’.
One Voice is "endorsed by mainstream Israeli political figures from parties including the Likud and Shas", dedicated violators of Palestinian human rights.

 Reasons to be skeptical of interfaith initiatives on Israel/Palestine
One source of distortion and confusion that has beset the issue of Israel and Palestine is how it is often cast as a “religious struggle.” Certainly, religious and theological issues play a key role, but seeing the situation as a religious conflict distracts from the primary issue of human rights and from understanding the Palestinian cause as an anti-colonial struggle.

This distortion has had profound implications for the movement for Palestinian liberation, as those who seek to defend Israel’s actions use arguments based on this premise. With respect to Islam, citing “Palestinian nationalism” as a factor in “rejecting Israel’s right to exist” is often code for “Muslims want to destroy Israel out of implacable hatred for the Jewish people.” Islamophobia is thus used by those who want to preserve Jewish hegemony in Palestine, and in the current global political climate, that message finds many sympathisers in the West.

With respect to Jewish-Christian relations, criticism of Israeli treatment of Palestinians often is equated with anti-Semitism. It then follows that the most constructive way to address those concerns is through Christian-Jewish “interfaith dialogue,” an activity that is closely linked to the long-term Christian program to reconcile with Jews for millennia of church persecution. In this way, Christians are permitted to consider the urgent issue of Palestinian human rights only within the severely restrictive context of Christian penitence for persecution of the Jews. This method has been used increasingly to silence criticism of Israeli policies by Christians.