THE Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, has expressed her “deep disturbance” at the binary nature of the debate on anti-Semitism, which, she says, can be condemned at the same time as opposing the actions of the current Israeli government.
In a blog on her diocesan website, the Bishop, who has travelled regularly to the Holy Land and also recently spoke out against the rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the UK, expresses her dismay “at our inability to hold different things together in tension at the same time”.
She asks: “Why can we not condemn the actions of this government of Israel regarding Palestine, and at the same time condemn anti-Semitism in the UK? The two things are entirely different and should not be conflated or cancel each other out. Jews in the UK are not responsible for the actions and decisions of a foreign government and we need to be extremely careful not to create false dichotomies.”
Earlier this year, she told the Church Times that the British Government was “complicit in the occupation” of the West Bank, and said that sanctions were needed to send a “strong message” to the Israeli government (News, 2 February). She made those remarks after returning from a joint visit to Palestine and Israel with the Bishops of Chelmsford and Norwich, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani and the Rt Revd Graham Usher.
In her new article, Bishop Treweek writes: “Whilst a spotlight is rightly shone on the heinous anti-Semitism which insidiously prevails in this country, I am deeply perturbed that people are seemingly discouraged from also shining a spotlight of scrutiny on the heinous actions of the Israeli government meted out on the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, not least for fear of being accused of fanning anti-Semitism into flame. This is not a zero-sum space, and it is not incompatible to shine a spotlight on both of these issues at the same time.
“Until recently, the spotlights on the atrocities of the government of Israel in Gaza and the West Bank seemed to have been switched off, or at best were merely flickering, not only because of the focus on the war with Iran but also because of the appalling anti-Jewish behaviour in our communities in the UK.”