Document
At the founding Assembly of the WCC in Amsterdam in August 1948, just a few months after the State of Israel declared its independence, a report entitled “The Christian Approach to the Jews” was received and “commended to the churches for their serious consideration and appropriate action.” That report contains a declaration which has had considerable influence in the WCC constituency and in the wider Christian world:
We call upon all the churches we represent to denounce anti-semitism, no matter what its origin, as absolutely irreconcilable with the profession and practice of the Christian faith. Anti-semitism is sin against God and man.
This constitutes the most unequivocal level of condemnation that could conceivably be mustered in Christian circles. It has throughout subsequent history often been reiterated in statements and reactions by WCC leaders regarding specific antisemitic attacks and incidents – including for example in the message issued by then-WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit following the October 2018 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, in which he declared:
The WCC denounces all violence based on religion, ethnicity, race or any other dimension of a person’s identity or belonging, and this attack upon a Jewish community in a place of prayer and during a moment of celebration of their religious identity is an appalling violation of our shared humanity.
WCC has in recent years renewed and strengthened its relationships with key Jewish partners, especially the International Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations (IJCIC) – notably through a joint IJCIC-WCC conference in Paris in June 2019 on ‘The normalization of hatred: Challenges for Jews and Christians today’. The topic of this conference records a mutual recognition of the fact that populist movements around the world had given licence to and emboldened latent prejudices and hatreds against ‘the other’, greatly increasing the vulnerability of minorities of all kinds, including Jews. We continue a close exchange with IJCIC leadership on issues of common concern.
A frequent focus of accusations of antisemitism against the WCC is the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). While in my view these accusations were always largely unjust and incorrect, we have nevertheless given significant attention to increasing the exposure of participants in this programme to Jewish Israeli communities and to their experiences and perspectives, and to engaging in discussion with IJCIC and other Jewish partners about how to improve and enhance the work of EAPPI.
Nevertheless, points of major contention remain, particularly concerning the policies and practices of normalizing occupation and continuing military control of the Palestinian territories since 1967, to which the WCC remains resolutely opposed. Unfortunately in some quarters almost any criticism of the State of Israel in relation to the occupation and the treatment of Palestinians is assumed to be antisemitic. We do not accept that assumption.
A 2019 policy statement by the WCC executive committee – on “Ecumenical Accompaniment for a Just Peace in Palestine and Israel” – is germane:
We seek peace in the land of Christ’s birth, a peace that is founded on justice, rather than on violence, bloodshed and exclusion by one against the other, or the perpetual imposition of military occupation and control of an entire people.
Just as we affirm the right of the State of Israel to exist and Jewish people’s right to self-determination, so do we assert the equal right of Palestinian people to the realization of their rights to self-determination in a viable state on the territories occupied since 1967, and with Jerusalem as a shared city for two peoples and three faiths. Just as we categorically denounce antisemitism as sin against God and humanity, so do we reject discrimination, marginalization, collective punishment and violence against Palestinian people on the basis of ethnicity, race or religion also as sin against God and humanity.
We call for an approach to the situation in Israel and Palestine that does not reduce it to a competition of binary opposites, in which one must choose one side or the other, but that recognizes and affirms the common humanity and equal God-given dignity and rights of all people of the region.
As the World Council of Churches, we are bound to respond to the experiences and suffering of Palestinians, including our own Palestinian Christian constituency, according to the principle of equality of human rights for all.
Given current realities in the world, these issues – both the virulent resurgence of antisemitism and other hatreds against specific groups of people, and the continuing injustices and violations experienced by Palestinian people living under occupation – will undoubtedly be very present in discussions at the WCC 11th Assembly, as will many other crises and unprecedented challenges facing the churches and peoples of the world at this time in our history.
Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca
Acting General Secretary
World Council of Churches
