In a latest assertion issued by Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury expressed his unequivocal help for the advisory opinion issued by the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ), which requires Israel's quick and unconditional withdrawal from the “Occupied Palestinian Territories” and redress. paid the Palestinians for damages brought on by the “occupation”.
It’s price quoting his assertion in full:
“The Advisory Opinion of the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (July 19, 2024) makes it definitively clear that Israel's presence within the Occupied Palestinian Territories is prohibited and should finish as quickly as doable.
At a time when the world is marked by growing violations of worldwide legislation – and dedication to a rules-based system is being questioned – it’s crucial that governments all over the world reaffirm their unwavering dedication to all choices of the Worldwide Court docket of Justice, whatever the circumstances. Worldwide legislation protects our shared humanity and protects human dignity and flourishing. To withstand a world the place acts like torture, hostage-taking and indiscriminate violence have gotten the norm, we should apply the legislation with out worry or kindness always. Nevertheless, for too lengthy it has been utilized and enforced in a selective method that threatens our widespread peace and safety. Now’s the time to reverse this deeply damaging pattern.
“After visiting our Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters many occasions over the previous many years, it’s clear to me that the regime established by successive Israeli governments within the occupied Palestinian territories is a regime of systemic discrimination. By annexing Palestinian land for unlawful settlements, depriving Palestinians of entry to their very own pure assets, and establishing a system of army rule that denies them safety and justice, the State of Israel denies the Palestinian folks dignity, freedom, and hope. I’m significantly conscious of how this impacts Palestinian Christians and threatens their future and viability. It’s clear that ending the occupation is a authorized and ethical crucial.
“I pray that each one UN member states will reply positively to this advisory place by guaranteeing that their particular person and collective actions are in line with it – and pave the way in which for the conclusion of the Palestinian folks's elementary proper to self-determination.”
From a Christian perspective, there isn’t a doubt that the rule of legislation should be upheld (Romans 13:1-7) and that the place one group of individuals treats one other unjustly, it should be stopped – “Let righteousness roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24). One can agree with the archbishop on these two fundamental factors. But his assertion as an entire is deeply problematic for 4 causes.
First, we can’t merely say (because the archbishop's language of “unwavering dedication to all choices” suggests) that regardless of the courtroom stated should be taken as unquestionably appropriate. In any case, Jesus was crucified primarily based on the judgments handed in opposition to him by each Jewish and Roman authorized authorities, however as I'm positive the Archbishop would agree, that doesn't imply these judgments have been appropriate.
Second, the ICJ was not unanimous in its opinion. His personal vice chairman, Ugandan Christian Julia Sebutinde, submitted a stirring 36-page dissenting judgment during which she argues that the ICJ majority opinion lacked the required info and jurisdiction to rule on the matter, misapplied the related legislation, “circumvents and probably endangers” the legally binding settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority entered into by each events within the Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995, and if carried out, would have dire sensible penalties.
The Archbishop utterly did not even acknowledge, not to mention have interaction with, the arguments put ahead by Sebutinde and echoed by different commentators on the ICJ judgment.
Third, the archbishop merely assumes, reasonably than argues, that the lands in dispute between Israel and the Palestinians are occupied territories and due to this fact all Jewish settlement there’s unlawful. The Mandate for Palestine given to Britain by the League of Nations to create a homeland for the Jewish folks and the accepted authorized precept of “uti possidetis iuris” (“as you will have by legislation”), which states that newly created sovereign states ought to retain the identical borders because the earlier ones political entity previous to its independence, imply that the Jewish state created in 1948 has a authorized declare to your entire territory of the previous mandate (together with what’s now referred to as the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem, which have been illegally annexed). Jordan within the years 1950-1967). It follows that there isn’t a Israeli occupation and that Jewish settlement shouldn’t be unlawful.
It must also be famous that in response to the Oslo Accords, the overwhelming majority of Palestinians within the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem reside in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority, and that in response to these agreements, the everlasting standing of those areas and the territories presently administered by Israel is to be determined immediately, bilateral “closing standing” negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and appeals to exterior events (such because the ICJ) are expressly prohibited.
Fourth, the Archbishop ignores the sensible outcomes that might consequence from the implementation of the ICJ judgment.
It could have meant the compelled eviction of greater than 700,000 Jews and would have triggered administrative and financial chaos, significantly in Jerusalem, splitting the town in two. If this have been to occur instantly, as recommended by the ICJ, it’s nearly sure below the present circumstances that there could be an armed battle between the assorted Palestinian factions over management of the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem. Whoever wins, the consequence could be an impoverished, Iran-aligned authoritarian kleptocracy that violated human rights, oppressed girls and minority teams, and depended for its legitimacy on a willingness to proceed waging an Islamic holy conflict to destroy the remainder of Israel both by killing. , the expulsion or subjugation of its Jewish inhabitants.
Furthermore, as army consultants have acknowledged, Israel's skill to defend itself in such a conflict could be significantly compromised by a whole withdrawal from the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem, and this is able to be opposite to the precept laid down in UN Safety Council Decision 242 and confirmed by the Lambeth Convention of Anglican Bishops in in 1988 that Israel ought to be capable of reside “in peace inside safe and acknowledged borders with out threats or violence”. To place it bluntly, whereas the archbishop has repeatedly condemned the Jewish Holocaust in Europe throughout the twentieth century, what he’s calling for is the hazard of making the circumstances for one more such holocaust to happen this century.
So is there a greater means ahead? It most likely exists.
- The defeat of the present assault on Israel by Iran and its proxies, with the discharge of the remaining reside hostages of October 7 and the return of the our bodies of the useless.
- Work with Israeli political and judicial authorities and Israeli human rights teams to forestall and punish violations of Palestinian human rights and the creation of recent settlements unlawful below Jewish legislation.
- Working with Palestinian civil society teams to put the foundations for an eventual Palestinian state alongside Israel that’s economically affluent, democratically ruled by a reformed Palestinian Authority, respects the rule of legislation and human rights, and ceases to hunt the destruction of Israel. Palestinian youth particularly should now not be taught that Jews are an evil enemy to be fought in opposition to.
- Closing standing negotiations, if any, below the phrases of the Oslo Accords, which is able to end in an agreed closing decision of who will get what territory and below what circumstances.
It’s these sorts of developments that the archbishop ought to be calling for.
A closing level to notice is that one thing that the Archbishop can handle immediately because the Chief Bishop of the Anglican Communion and should touch upon is the rejection of Jewish Christians by Palestinian Anglicans. It is a drawback that Church of England author Giles Fraser highlighted very strongly in his latest essay “The Downside with the Church of Palestine”.
Fraser is a Church of England minister married to an Israeli Jewish spouse, and in his essay he explains why he attends the Levanda Avenue Pentecostal Church when he’s in Israel, reasonably than the Church of England. Fraser writes, “There are unhealthy eggs in each church. Nevertheless, there isn’t a doubt that Palestinian Christianity has a radical anti-Israel facet, to the extent that some elements of the Church have developed an aversion to the Jewish foundations of Christianity, together with the very presence of Hebrew scriptures inside. the Christian Bible.”
He then recollects his expertise of an Anglican Eucharist in a south Tel Aviv church led by a younger priest who “was clearly Jewish and Israeli, which could be very uncommon”:
“So I requested him over espresso after church about his conversion story and the way he got here to be confirmed as an Anglican. “Have been you ordained within the diocese of Jerusalem?” I requested him. “Oh no,” he replied. “They wouldn't clarify me; I’m initially a Jewish Israeli.” Now I used to be unable to substantiate his story. However I believed him. And if that is true, the Diocese of Jerusalem could be the one diocese on the planet that might discriminate in opposition to folks primarily based on their ethnicity. I stay shocked by his story.”
He continues: “I’ve no nice animosity in opposition to the Palestinian Church. And if I attempted to carry collectively a congregation in Gaza or the West Financial institution below the present circumstances, I’d inevitably need to be with my folks of their struggling and really feel nice anger in direction of those that have harmed them. However so long as this anger is misdirected at these Jews who need to reside with out assault in Israel, I’ll proceed to go to extraordinary Levandska Avenue. I pray for my Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ, however I can’t be a part of them.”
As Fraser notes, this division between Palestinian and Jewish Christians, and the Palestinian rejection of the Jewish roots of Christianity that typically accompanies them (together with the rejection of the Outdated Testomony and even the declare that Jesus was not Jewish however Palestinian), is surprising. It goes immediately in opposition to Paul's educating in Romans 11th of September and in his letters as an entire and as such is totally heretical. The Jewish folks can by no means be rejected by Christians as a result of they’re the olive tree into which all different Christians have been grafted, together with the Palestinians (Romans 11:13-24). Fraser's witness to this drawback shouldn’t be alone, others have seen the identical phenomenon, and it’s certainly one of them that the Archbishop has the facility and responsibility to deal with. He ought to do it.