Pro-Palestinian
activists, allied with anti-Jewish Protestant zealots, won a victory in
2004 when the church divested its $8 billion portfolio from companies
doing business with Israel. A few days ago the Presbyterians and three
other US Protestant denominations endorsed the Palestinian UN bid
for statehood.
At the Louisville’s symposium, Rev. Eugene March, professor emeritus of Old Testament at Presbyterian Seminary, said the Jewish right to the holy land is “invalid,” while Rev. Gary Burge, professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, said that “Jesus subverted the land politics of Judaism” and criticized “the territorial worldview of Judaism.” It is hard to imagine uglier slander.
The Presbyterian Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment just urged the General Assembly to fully embrace the so-called BDS movement and to divest from Caterpillar, Inc., Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola (a decision is expected in few months.) The Presbyterians own hundreds of thousands of shares of stock in these companies through their pension fund for retired workers and through foundations. The church accused these companies of selling helicopters, cellphones, night vision equipment and other items Israel uses to enforce its “occupation.”
False allegations
Some Jewish organizations have called the campaign “a recipe for Israel to disarm” and the Presbyterians’ actions “functionally anti-Semitic.” The church’s 2010 report, titled “Breaking Down the Walls” – characterized as “toxic”- legitimizes doubts about Israel’s right to exist and calls on the United States to withhold military aid to Israel.
According to the Camera watchdog group, the Mideastern Mission Network of the Church promoted anti-Jewish incitement even through Hezbollah-controlled television station al-Manar, including false allegations about Israel tunneling beneath the Temple Mount (which in the past have incited violence in Jerusalem.)
This week in Atlanta the Presbyterian Church hosted another symposium, “From Birmingham to Bethlehem”, likening Martin Luther King to the Palestinians. A main speaker was a Palestinian cleric, Father Naim Ateek, whose influence in contemporary Protestantism is immense, not least through his Sabeel Centre in Jerusalem. Ateek’s denunciations of Israel include imagery linking the Jewish State to the charge of deicide that for centuries fueled anti-Jewish bloodshed.
Writing in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Adam Gregerman observed that theologians like Ateek “perpetuate some of the most unsavory and vicious images of the Jews as malevolent, antisocial, hostile to non-Jews.” For example, Ateek wrote about “modern-day Herods” in Israel, referring to the king who the New Testament says slaughtered the babies of Bethlehem in an attempt to murder the newborn Jesus.
Indeed, many voices in the US are now suggesting that the Presbyterians have left behind the commitment “never again” to “participate in, contribute to, or … allow the persecution or the denigration of Jews” (from the 1987 Statement on the Relationship Between Christians and Jews.)
In the Middle Ages, the “mystery plays” that portrayed the Jews as the executioners of Jesus helped fuel burnings at stake and pogroms, until the Holocaust drove dark theology underground. The Presbyterian Church is now staging a XXI century mystery play, in which Israel is the Jew of the world.
Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism
| DATE | PLACE | EVENT |
| 250 C.E. | Canhage | Expulsion |
| 224 C.E. | Italy | Forced Conversion |
| 325 C.E. | Jerusalem | Expulsion |
| 351 C.E | Persia | Book Burning |
| 357 C.E. | Italy | Property Confiscation |
| 379 C.E. | Milan | Synagogue Burning |
| 415 C.E. | Alexandria | Expulsion |
| 418 C.E. | Minorca | Forced Conversion |
| 469 C.E. | Ipahan | Holocaust |
| 489 C.E. | Antioch | Synagogue Burning |
| 506 C.E. | Daphne | Synagogue Burning |
| 519 C.E. | Ravenna | Synagogue Burning |
| 554 C.E. | Diocese of Clement (France) | Expulsion |
| 561 C.E. | Diocese of Uzes (France) | Expulsion |
| 582 C.E | Merovingia | Forced Conversion |
| 612 C.E. | Visigoth Spain | Expulsion |
| 628 C.E. | Byzantium | Forced Conversion |
| 629 C.E. | Merovingia | Forced Conversion |
| 633 C.E. | Toledo | Forced Conversion |
| 638 C.E. | Toledo | Stake Burnings |
| 642 C.E. | Visigothic Empire | Expulsion |
| 653 C.E. | Toledo | Expulsion |
| 681 C.E. | Spain | Forced Conversion |
| 693 C.E. | Toledo | Jews Enslaved |
| 722 C.E. | Byzantium | Judaism Outlawed |
| 855 C.E. | Italy | Expulsion |
| 876 C.E. | Sens | Expulsion |
| 897 C.E. | Narbonne | Land Confiscation |
| 945 C.E. | Venice | Ban on Sea Travel |
| 1009 C.E. | Orleans | Massacre |
| 1012 C.E. | Rouen, Limoges & Rome | Massacre |
| 1012 C.E. | Mayence | Expulsion |
| 1021 C.E. | Rome | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1063 C.E. | Spain | Massacre |
| 1095 C.E. | Lorraine | Massacre |
| 1096 C.E. | Northern France & Germany | 1/3 of Jewish Population Massacred |
| 1096 C.E. | Hungary | Massacre |
| 1096 C.E. | Ralisbon | Massacre |
| 1099 C.E. | Jerusalem | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1100 C.E. | Kiev | Pogrom |
| 1140 C.E. | Germany | Massacres |
| 1146 C.E. | Rhine Valley | Massacre |
| 1147 C.E. | Wurzburg | Massacre |
| 1147 C.E. | Belitz (Germany) | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1147 C.E. | Carenton, Ramenu & Sully (France) | Massacres |
| 1171 C.E. | Blois | Stake Burnings |
| 1181 C.E. | France | Expulsion |
| 1181 C.E. | England | Property Confiscation |
| 1188 C.E. | London & York | Mob Attacks |
| 1190 C.E. | Norfolk | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1191 C.E. | Bray (France) | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1195 C.E. | France | Property Confiscation |
| 1209 C.E. | Beziers | Massacre |
| 1212 C.E. | Spain | Rioting and blood bath against the Jews of Toledo. |
| 1215 C.E. | Rome | Lateran Council of Rome decrees that Jews must wear the “badge of shame” in all Christian countries. Jews are denied all public sector employment, and are burdened with extra taxes. |
| 1215 C.E. | Toulouse (France) | Mass Arrests |
| 1218 C.E. | England | Jews Forced to Wear Badges |
| 1231 C.E. | Rome | Inquisition Established |
| 1236 C.E. | France | Forced Conversion/Massacre |
| 1239 C.E. | London | Massacre & Property Confiscation |
| 1240 C.E. | Austria | Property confiscation. Jews either imprisoned, converted, expelled, or burned. |
| 1240 C.E. | France | Talmud Confiscated |
| 1240 C.E. | England | Book Burning |
| 1240 C.E. | Spain | Forced Conversion |
| 1242 C.E. | Paris | Talmud Burned |
| 1244 C.E. | Oxford | Mob Attacks |
| 1255 C.E. | England | Blood libel in Lincoln results in the burning / torture of many Jews & public hangings. |
| 1261 C.E. | Canterbury | Mob Attacks |
| 1262 C.E. | London | Mob Attacks |
| 1264 C.E. | London | Mob Attacks |
| 1264 C.E. | Germany | Council of Vienna declares that all Jews must wear a “pointed dunce cap.” Thousands murdered. |
| 1267 C.E. | Vienna | Jews Forced to Wear Horned Hats |
| 1270 C.E. | Weissenberg, Magdeburg, Arnstadt, Coblenz, Singzig, and Erfurt | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1270 C.E. | England | The libel of the “counterfeit coins” - all Jewish men, women and children in England imprisoned. Hundreds are hung. |
| 1276 C.E. | Bavaria | Expulsion |
| 1278 C.E. | Genoa (Spain) | Mob Attacks |
| 1279 C.E. | Hungary & Poland | The Council of OffondeniesJewstheright to all civic positions. The Jews of Hungary & Poland are forced to wear the “red badge of shame.” |
| 1283 C.E. | Mayence & Bacharach | Mob Attacks |
| 1285 C.E. | Munich | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1290 C.E. | England | King Edward I issues an edict banishing all Jews from England. Many drowned. |
| 1291 C.E. | France | The Jewish refugees from England are promptly expelled from France. |
| 1292 C.E. | Italy | Forced conversions & expulsion of the Italian Jewish community. |
| 1298 C.E. | Germany | The libel of the “Desecrated Host” is perpetrated against the Jews of Germany. Approximately 150 Jewish communities undergo forced conversion. |
| 1298 C.E. | Franconia, Bavaria & Austria | Reindfel’s Decree is propagated against the Jews of Franconia and Bavarai. Riots against these Jewish communities, as well as those in Austria, result in the massacre of 100,000 Jews over a six-month period. |
| 1306 C.E. | France | Expulsion |
| 1308 C.E. | Strasbourg | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1320 C.E. | Toulouse & Perpigon | 120 Communities Massacred & Talmud Burned |
| 1321 C.E. | Teruel | Public Executions |
| 1328 C.E. | Estella | 5,000 Jews Slaughtered |
| 1348 C.E. | France & Spain | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1348 C.E. | Switzerland | Expulsion |
| 1349 C.E. | Worms, Strasbourg, Oppenheim, Mayence, Erfurt, Bavaria & Swabia | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1349 C.E. | Heilbronn (Germany) | Expulsion |
| 1349 C.E. | Hungary | Expulsion |
| 1354 C.E. | Castile (Spain) | 12,000 Jews Slaughtered |
| 1368 C.E. | Toledo | 8,000 Jews Slaughtered |
| 1370 C.E. | Majorca., Penignon & Barcelona | Mob Attack |
| 1377 C.E. | Huesca (Spain) | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1380 C.E. | Paris | Mob Attack |
| 1384 C.E. | Nordlingen | Mass Murder |
| 1388 C.E. | Strasbourg | Expulsion |
| 1389 C.E. | Prague | Mass Slaughter & Book Burning |
| 1391 C.E. | Castille, Toledo, Madrid, Seville, Cordova, Cuenca & Barcelona | Forced Conversions & Mass Murder |
| 1394 C.E. | Germany | Expulsion |
| 1394 C.E. | France | Expulsion |
| 1399 C.E. | Posen (Poland) | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1400 C.E. | Prague | Stake Burnings |
| 1407 C.E. | Cracow | Mob Attack |
| 1415 C.E. | Rome | Talmud Confiscated |
| 1422 C.E. | Austria | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1422 C.E. | Austria | Expulsion |
| 1424 C.E. | Fribourg & Zurich | Expulsion |
| 1426 C.E. | Cologne | Expulsion |
| 1431 C.E. | Southern Germany | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1432 C.E. | Savory | Expulsion |
| 1438 C.E. | Mainz | Expulsion |
| 1439 C.E. | Augsburg | Expulsion |
| 1449 C.E. | Toledo | Public Torture &. Burnings |
| 1456 C.E. | Bavaria | Expulsion |
| 1453 C.E. | Franconia | Expulsion |
| 1453 C.E. | Breslau | Expulsion |
| 1454 C.E. | Wurzburg | Expulsion |
| 1463 C.E. | Cracow | Mob Attack |
| 1473 C.E. | Andalusia | Mob Attack |
| 1480 C.E. | Venice | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1481 C.E. | Seville | Stake Burnings |
| 1484 C.E. | Cuidad Real, Guadalupe, Saragossa & Teruel | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1485 C.E. | Vincenza (Italy) | Expulsion |
| 1486 C.E. | Toledo | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1488 C.E. | Toledo | Stake Burnings |
| 1490 C.E. | Toledo | Public Executions |
| 1491 C.E. | Astorga | Public Torture & Execution |
| 1492 C.E. | Spain | Expulsion |
| 1495 C.E. | Lithuania | Expulsion |
| 1497 C.E. | Portugal | Expulsion |
| 1499 C.E. | Germany | Expulsion |
| 1506 C.E. | Lisbon | Mob Attack |
| 1510 C.E. | Berlin | Public Torture & Execution |
| 1514 C.E. | Strasbourg | Expulsion |
| 1519 C.E. | Regensburg | Expulsion |
| 1539 C.E. | Cracow & Portugal | Stake Burnings |
| 1540 C.E. | Naples | Expulsion |
| 1542 C.E. | Bohemia | Expulsion |
| 1550 C.E. | Genoa | Expulsion |
| 1551 C.E. | Bavaria | Expulsion |
| 1555 C.E. | Pesaro | Expulsion |
| 1556 C.E. | Sokhachev (Poland) | Public Torture & Execution |
| 1559 C.E. | Austria | Expulsion |
| 1561 C.E. | Prague | Expulsion |
| 1567 C.E. | Wurzburg | Expulsion |
| 1569 C.E. | Papal States | Expulsion |
| 1571 C.E. | Brandenburg | Expulsion |
| 1582 C.E. | Netherlands | Expulsion |
| 1593 C.E. | Brunswick | Expulsion |
| 1597 C.E. | Cremona, Pavia & Lodi | Expulsion |
| 1614 C.E. | Frankfort | Expulsion |
| 1615 C.E. | Worms | Expulsion |
| 1619 C.E. | Kiev | Expulsion |
| 1635 C.E. | Vilna | Mob Attack |
| 1637 C.E. | Cracow | Public Torture & Execution |
| 1647 C.E. | Lisbon | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1648 C.E. | Poland | 1/3 of Jewry Slaughtered |
| 1649 C.E. | Ukraine | Expulsion |
| 1649 C.E. | Hamburg | Expulsion |
| 1652 C.E. | Lisbon | Stake Burnings |
| 1654 C.E. | Little Russia | Expulsion |
| 1656 C.E. | Lithuania | Expulsion |
| 1660 C.E. | Seville | Jews Burned Alive |
| 1663 C.E | Cracow | Public Torture &. Execution |
| 1664 C.E. | Lemberg | Mob Attack |
| 1669 C.E. | Oran (North Africa) | Expulsion |
| 1670 C.E. | Vienna | Expulsion |
| 1671 C.E. | Minsk | Mob Attacks |
| 1681 C.E. | Vilna | Mob Attacks |
| 1682 C.E. | Cracow | Mob Attacks |
| 1687 C.E. | Posen | Mob Attacks |
| 1712 C.E. | Sandomir | Expulsion |
| 1727 C.E. | Russia | Expulsion |
| 1738 C.E. | Wurtemburg | Expulsion |
| 1740 C.E. | Liule Russia | Expulsion |
| 1744 C.E | Bohemia | Expulsion |
| 1744 C.E. | Livonia | Expulsion |
| 1745 C.E. | Moravia | Expulsion |
| 1753 C.E. | Kovad (Lithuania) | Expulsion |
| 1757 C.E. | Kamenetz | Talmud Burning |
| 1761 C.E. | Bordeaux | Expulsion |
| 1768 C.E. | Kiev | 3,000 Jews Slaughtered |
| 1772 C.E. | Russia | Expulsion |
| 1775 C.E. | Warsaw | Expulsion |
| 1789 C.E. | Alsace | Expulsion |
| 1801 C.E. | Bucharest | Mob Attack |
| 1804 C.E. | Russian Villages | Expulsion |
| 1808 C.E. | Russian Countryside | Expulsion |
| 1815 C.E. | Lubeck & Bremen | Expulsion |
| 1820 C.E. | Bremes | Expulsion |
| 1843 C.E. | Austria & Prussia | Expulsion |
| 1850 C.E. | New York City | 500 People, Led by Police, Attacked & Wrecked Jewish Synagogue |
| 1862 C.E. | Area under General Grant’s Jurisdiction in the United States | Expulsion |
| 1866 C.E | Galatz (Romania) | Expulsion |
| 1871 C.E. | Odena | Mob Attack |
| 1887 C.E. | Slovakia | Mob Attacks |
| 1897 C.E. | Kantakuzenka (Russia) | Mob Attacks |
| 1898 C.E. | Rennes (France) | Mob Attack |
| 1899 C.E. | Nicholayev | Mob Attack |
| 1900 C.E. | Konitz (Prussia) | Mob Attack |
| 1902 C.E. | Poland | Widespread Pogroms |
| 1904 C.E. | Manchuria, Kiev & Volhynia | Widespread Pogroms |
| 1905 C.E. | Zhitomir (Yolhynia) | Mob Attacks |
| 1919 C.E | Bavaria | Expulsion |
| 1915 C.E. | Georgia (U.S.A.) | Leo Frank Lynched |
| 1919 C.E. | Prague | Wide Spread Pogroms |
| 1920 C.E. | Munich & Breslau | Mob Attacks |
| 1922 C.E. | Boston, MA | Lawrence Lowell, President of Harvard, calls for Quota Restrictions on Jewish Admission |
| 1926 C.E. | Uzbekistan | Pogrom |
| 1928 C.E. | Hungary | Widespread Anti-Semitic Riots on University Campuses |
| 1929 C.E. | Lemberg (Poland) | Mob Attacks |
| 1930 C.E. | Berlin | Mob Attack |
| 1933 C.E. | Bucharest | Mob Attacks |
| 1938-45 C.E. | Europe | Holocaust |
