Worthy Christian News > Israel-Palestinian Conflict > World Council of Churches leader threatens Israel and supporters; says blood with be sought for brutalized Palestinians

World Council of Churches leader threatens Israel and supporters; says blood with be sought for brutalized Palestinians

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – In a scathing attack on Israel and its supporters, Rev. Frank Chikane, a leader of the World Council of Churches (WCC) told activists on a zoom call this month that “blood will be sought” from people who “support Israel to brutalize Palestinians,” Algemeiner reports. The list of participants to the February 6 call included highly influential activists such as Naim Ateek, founder of Sabeel, anti-Zionist authors Gary Burge and Don Wagner, Brian Grieves formerly a staffer with the Episcopal Church and Tom Getman, formerly of World Vision.

Speaking to around 300 activists on the zoom call, Chikane launched into an assault on Israel while discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the current situation on the ground there: “We need to begin to say to those who support Israel to brutalize Palestinians that the blood of the people of Palestine will be sought from them because they collaborate by allowing this system to continue,” he said.

A pastor from South Africa, Chikane likened the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the struggle of black South Africans against the Apartheid regime. The Palestinians, Chikane said, are “dealing with the same demons we dealt with in South Africa, except that in their case, the demons have invited many other demons to make their struggle much more difficult.”

“It’s almost as if the whole world is against the Palestinians, nobody cares. Every day people get killed,” Chikane said. “It’s our responsibility to make sure that the world understands the brutality of what’s happening in Palestine and stop it,” he said. “We must get to Europe. Especially to our Christian brothers and sisters, to say to them, ‘You know the sins of the past which were committed against the Jews must not be used as a way to and reason to allow more sins to be committed against the Palestinians,” he asserted.

In making his case, Chikane made no criticism of violent and corrupt Palestinian leaders that have incited and led terror attacks and wars against Israelis, nor of Arab states in which Palestinians have been languishing in refugee camps without resettlement, Algemeiner reports.

In a statement about Chikane’s attack, Beeson Divinity School theologian Gerald McDermott questioned why the Reverend did not denounce the violations of human rights by Palestinian leaders in Gaza.

Moreover, McDermott said: “If [Chikane] really cares about Palestinians, he would tell the world about Palestinians in Syria and most Arab countries where Palestinians are denied citizenship. Why does he not urge the UN to do something about the Palestinians being held in prisons controlled by Assad? Or about the 91% of Palestinians in Syria who live in absolute poverty?”