"Officials at a London council that refused to host a charity event in aid of Palestinian children did not tell the organisers the decision was based on fears their criticism of Israel could breach antisemitism guidelines, internal emails have revealed.
The exchanges among officials at Tower Hamlets council also reveal they thought the event should be turned down, in part because of the row over antisemitism in the Labour party."
The State of Israel, and certainly the Jewish people, are seen by many evangelical Christians as God's Chosen People. It cements further the closeness of Christians with the Jewish people. It therefore, behoves both Jews and Christians to follow the example of the Good Samaritan in the story that Jesus told as part of His teaching on how we are to get on with one another. Jesus told the story against His own Jewish religious leaders, put them in a very poor light and put on a pedestal the wonderful example of a member of their 600 year old enemy. Jesus' teaching in the story was all about loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us, blessing those who curse us and praying for our persecutors. In today's climate of the new antisemitism, this story must be seen as anti-Semitic. And, I as the person who has written this is, most definitely, anti-Semitic. I have been told as much by the now Independent, former Labour MP, Ian Austin in an e-mail from him.
It could be seen as being disloyal to one's country and our Western ways of dealing with other countries that are not part of the West. Israel is part of the West and, therefore, criticism of its violence, coercion, crushing and marginalising of Gazans must be seen as hatred of one's own side. Criticism of one's own side could well be seen as treachery. It is certainly called anti-Semitism in today's climate, in order to maintain solidarity with unfortunate Western ways of working.
Jesus' non violence towards the hated occupiers of His time might also be seen as disloyalty towards His compatriots' ways of force and hatred towards them. Jews/Christians as God's Chosen People means that when they resort to obvious un-Christ like practices, they must be called out or, you yourself risk the charge of collusion or agreement with what is wrong. But then you must also accept, with good grace, the label of anti-Semite.
MELANIE PHILLIPS' EXAMPLES OF ANTI-SEMITISM:
(the Moral Maze, BBC Radio 4, 24 July 2019)
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