Chief rabbi throws tantrum as Anglicans vote to “hear” document acknowledging genocide

Ephraim Mirvis, the UK’s Israel-fanatic chief rabbi and genocide-denier, has launched an attack on the Church of England. The Anglicans have offended Mirvis and his fellow Israel lobbyists.

The offence? Daring even to “hear” a document about Israel’s Gaza genocide and its colonialism.

‘Kairos II‘, officially titled, A Moment of Truth: ​Faith in a Time of Genocide, is authored by Palestinian Christians and examines their lived experience.

This powerful new document declares the reality in Palestine as genocide and ethnic cleansing, challenges Western silence, and introduces a theology of resistance linking faith with justice. It exposes internal crises and reshapes the role of Christians in the struggle for liberation.

The document, a sequel to the original 2009 Kairos report, is also clear that Israel is a colonial project — colonialism “built on genocide”.

Ephraim Mirvis and his tantrum

The Anglican church has a sorry history of collusion in that genocidal, colonial project — at least at its upper levels.

Its hounding, on behalf of the Israel lobby, of Anglican clergy who dare to speak out about genocide and apartheid is a scandal.

The shameful collusion of disgraced former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, with Mirvis against Jeremy Corbyn in 2019, helped condemn millions to misery under the Boris Johnson government. It also condemned at least 137,000 to death.

Welby’s successor Sarah Mullaly has already scrambled to accommodate the Israel lobby’s hissy fit over the naming of its genocide. An original motion committed the church to “endorsing” Kairos II. The motion was amended simply to recommend Anglicans at all levels to “read” it. But even that is too far for Mirvis.

The Israel lobby demands complete compliance. Any deviation triggers demands for retraction, or else retribution without credit for past collaboration. And Mirvis is outraged that the C of E ignored his call for bishops to reject the Kairos report outright.

So now he is condemning the “shameful” vote even to “engage” with the Kairos report. In an Orwellian statement, he claims the report is full of lies and a “barrier” to to “understanding”, but is clearly most upset that it challenges “the very existence” of the murderous, ethno-supremacist colony.

He said:

This is a document full of falsehood, which openly rejects dialogue, uses extreme rhetoric to challenge the very existence of Israel and objects to existing peace agreements in the region.

Though it poses as a route to understanding, Kairos II in fact functions as an egregious barrier to it, reducing one of the world’s most complex conflicts to a single, warped narrative, which can only harm the cause of peace.

The Board of Deputies jumps in

The ‘Board of Deputies’, which says it exists to further Israel’s interests, of course joined in, and made it clear that Israel is at the centre of its own ‘outrage’.

Senior Masorti rabbi, Jonathan Wittenberg, also made the same “particular” point while spouting other Israeli talking points.

He said:

In particular, the Church of England’s response does not explicitly condemn the definition by Kairos II of Israel as a colonialist entity, or Kairos II’s failure to acknowledge the unbroken historical connection between the Jewish People and the Land of Israel. Nor does it condemn Kairos II’s failure to acknowledge the necessity for a Jewish homeland.

Mullaly still tried to placate the lobby, stating that the church doesn’t necessarily agree with everything in the report because it reads it. But of course, it wasn’t enough. The lobby requires complete endorsement of Israel’s right to expel millions of indigenous Palestinians for its colonial land-grab.

‘Racist’ rabbi

Ephraim Mirvis is lauded and rewarded by the establishment, but is a deeply problematic figure. His political attacks on Corbyn in 2019 and his enabling of the racist right by amplifying the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam were just the beginning.

Mirvis denies that Israel is committing genocide. He also endorses further land-theft — euphemised as ‘settlement’. And he participates in Israel’s annual racist march, where ‘settlers’ chant “Death to Arabs” and other genocidal slogans. His links to the white-supremacist ‘settler’ right in Israel have led Jewish anti-Zionist activist, Tony Greenstein, to conclude, unequivocally, that Mirvis is a racist.

His outburst against the Anglicans for daring even to read about the suffering of the Palestinians under Israel’s colonisation and genocide does nothing to dispel that. And it does much to exemplify the sense of entitlement of an Israel lobby all too used to getting its own way.

As for the Church of England and its bishops, the overwhelming vote in favour of “reading” Palestinians’ experience doesn’t remove the stain of past collusion or the shame of not endorsing the report because of lobby pressure. It’s a tiny step in the right direction, but it’s time for the C of E and all churches to live up to their founder.

They must loudly condemn Israel’s genocide and UK government collaboration, and to strengthen the global humanitarian, anti-genocide movement.

Featured image via Hannah Mckay/ EPA