Ateek is the Anglican founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre in Jerusalem and a leading exponent of campaigns of boycott, divestment and sanctions aimed at Israel. He has called the establishment of Israel in 1948 “a relapse to the most primitive concepts of an exclusive, tribal God.” He has accused the Israeli government of crucifying Palestinians in the occupied territories, writing that “the Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily.” He has compared Israel to the Nazis and accused Israel of committing a Holocaust against Palestinians. He sent out a Christmas message that likened Israel to Herod and the occupation to the slaughter of the innocents.
When Canada’s former foreign affairs minister Jason Kenney went to Israel to accuse the Canadian ecumenical social justice coalition KAIROS of anti-Semitism in 2009 it was because KAIROS supports Sabeel. When the Canadian Jewish Congress suspended Christian-Jewish dialogue in 2005 it was because Anglican and United Church groups had participated in a Sabeel conference advocating sanctions against Israel.
“Sabeel has actually been very negative toward Israel,” Toronto Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl told The Catholic Register. “Its theology has not been a theology that has encouraged dialogue but a theology that has ignored Jewish history in the land of Israel. It’s a theology that paints Israelis as terrible oppressors. We’re all in this together. The Palestinians and the Israelis have each contributed to this. They have to get out of the blame-the-other mode and into how do we find ways to work together.”
Ateek isn’t backing down. Using a Christmas message to accuse Israel of a Herod-like slaughter was the right thing to do at the time, he said.
“When I said those words, at that time, at that very time, Israelis were doing some very bad, nasty things against the Palestinians. It was during the Christmas season and it came naturally, reading the Christmas story about what Herod did to the Bethlehem babies. Anyone would have made that comparison, anyone,” he told The Catholic Register on a recent stop in Toronto.
“We’re talking about the Israeli propaganda machine that is able to take anything you say and twist it around to their advantage.”
That image of Jews as clever, conniving conspirators able to twist words is just the sort of thing that brings up memories of old-time anti-Semitism for most in the Jewish community.
Ateek claims his Palestinian version of liberation theology comes out of a desire for peace — peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. He recognizes Israel’s right to exist and rejects violence.
“When we talk about our liberation we never talk about the destruction of the state of Israel,” he said. “We say we want to be liberated and we want Israel to continue to live, although historically speaking what the Zionists have done is wrong. But we want Israel to live securely as a state. It has to do justice and it needs to be active in the liberation of the Palestinians. If it doesn’t, then we have to seek liberation through non-violent ways. Sabeel stands for non-violence. That’s why we speak of BDS, boycott, divestment and sanctions, as a non-violent way to seek liberation.”
It’s a strategy that relies heavily on the internationalization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While the Sabeel centre exists in Israel, its presence in Friends of Sabeel organizations scattered throughout Western democracies is far greater. The Friends of Sabeel have supported and helped organize Israel Apartheid Week events on university campuses in Canada and the United States.
The Middle East can seem simple if you reduce it to white hats and black hats, evil oppressors and innocent victims, said Frydman-Kohl. People need to see the complexity of the situation and listen to all sides with an open heart, he said.
Fyrdman-Kohl is part of a team leading a tour of Muslims, Christians and Jews to Israel and Palestine in March. The In the Path of Abraham tour includes meals shared with Palestinian families, time spent on a kibbutz, talks with Jewish and Palestinian NGOs working for peace and visits to important pilgrimage sites for all three monotheistic faiths. Fr. Damian MacPherson, the archdiocese of Toronto’s interfaith and ecumenical affairs director, and Toronto Imam Abdul Hai Patel will also be tour leaders.
Canadians don’t have to be passive or overwhelmed by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, said Frydman-Kohl.
“Another way is through what I call citizen diplomacy. The Path of Abraham tour is one example,” he said. “That is to come to realization of how complex the situation is. There’s nobody and nothing that is completely correct.”
The idea of liberation, embedded in theology, based on Scripture, is very attractive, said Frydman-Kohl. But the rabbi warns it can lead us away from the Bible when it becomes an ideology.
“While the teachings of the Bible and of the rabbis and of the Church are inherently countercultural, and they speak about the poor and about the need to relieve stress with the poor, the danger is that we shouldn’t be wedded to capitalism, Marxism, any ism,” he said. “We have to try as much as we can to follow a religious tradition because it’s Christianity or Judaism that we want to follow.”
Ateek claims Palestinian liberation theology has nothing to do with ideology and is based solely on reading Scripture in the context of the Palestinian people and Palestinian land.
“What I needed was the Bible itself, because that’s part of our context. The Bible came out from there,” Ateek said. “I don’t need Marxist philosophy or Marxist ideology to help me deal with my own context. Today, in my own context, the abuse is an abuse of the biblical principles. The God of justice, the God of liberation — that’s what I needed and it was good enough for me.”
Ateek’s reading of the Bible denies that there ever was a Jewish state of Israel. When Mary in The Magnificat praises God who protects Israel and remembers His promises to Abraham and his sons forever, she is speaking to “the people of Canaan at that time” and for all oppressed people, Ateek said.
Though he’s willing to accept the modern state of Israel, he denies any biblical or historical basis for it.
“It seems to me that what you have underlying the issue has been the inability of each side to really accept the full national legitimacy and interests of the other party,” said Frydman-Kohl.