UK bishop calls Israel an ‘apartheid’ state

“There are 150,000 Druze in Israel, as well as millions of Jews and Arab Israelis. We live side by side and all suffer from Hezbollah’s terror.”

As Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant released the statement above, mourning the 'innocent [Druze] boys and girls killed in Majdal Shams,' British Anglican Bishop Rachel Treweek declared that, in her opinion, Israel is an 'apartheid state.'

“In the past, I have been wary of using the word apartheid to describe the situation in Palestine-Israel, but having seen even more starkly how life is now in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, I wish to stand alongside other individuals and groups, not least Christians, in boldly naming apartheid,” stated Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester, in her recent report.

Treweek also wrote she was “surprised” that a third Palestinian Intifada had not broken out.

For centuries, there were no female bishops in the British Anglican Church or any traditional church worldwide. In 2015, Treweek made history by becoming the first female local bishop and the first to sit in the London House of Lords, as a woman.

The news of Treweek's statements arrived hot on the heels of the June 23 decision of the U.S. Episcopal Church House of Bishops to reject the designation of the Israeli government as an apartheid regime. 

In October 2023, just before the Hamas invasion and massacre in southern Israel, the Anglican Church of South Africa declared the Jewish state an apartheid state. Treweek worked at the South African church in 1994, as the apartheid regime there was ending.

The fact that a modern-day British bishop has criticized the Jewish state is noteworthy, but its impact is limited. The UK bishops and archbishops form a group of 42, and a collective statement from them would carry more significance.

A smaller group of 26, called the Lords Spiritual, have seats in the unelected chamber of the British Parliament, the House of Lords. They also have a representative member in the House of Commons, since the state church is answerable to the government, allowing the opinions of the House of Bishops to potentially come before Parliament.

Most serious would be a statement by one or both of the archbishops. In covering this story, the Daily Telegraph went directly to Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to approve or disapprove. 

Welby said he does not agree with Treweek’s apartheid label but reportedly concurred with his colleague that Israel was guilty of 'illegal' and 'systematic discrimination' against Palestinian Arabs.

Archbishop Welby is keenly aware of the repercussions, upon the UK Jewish community, of strong statements against Israel. In 2019, Welby supported UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis in calling out the problem of antisemitism, which had become endemic in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn.

“Reading the Bishop’s article and much else these days, we feel like Jews of the Middle Ages, accused of poisoning wells and murdering Christian children to make unleavened bread for Passover,” the chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, Jonathan Turner KC, told the Telegraph.

Treweek’s statement followed a visit to Israel “and the Occupied Palestinian Territories” at the beginning of June.

Despite the death and destruction leveled on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, Treweek’s tour apparently consisted only of hearing anti-Israel messaging and Palestinian propaganda. 

No visits to the committed Christians who organize heart surgery in Israel for babies in Gaza were part of this particular agenda.

This type of tour is not new for British Anglicans. Some bishops and other church leaders have often been presented predominantly with the anti-Israel perspective during their visits to the Holy Land.

The UK Church is also strongly influenced by the charity Amnesty International, which leveled the apartheid charge at Israel in 2022. Social media influencer Hananya Naftali, responded at the time, from his personal experience living in Israel.

“When I visited the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, I saw Palestinian patients from Gaza receiving life-saving treatments from Israeli Jewish doctors, and I saw Palestinians from East Jerusalem working as doctors and nurses,” he wrote. 

“There is thriving business cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian businesses. This is not what apartheid looks like. Calling Israel an apartheid state is an insult to the suffering of black people and undermines the definition of apartheid.”

At the time, a Palestine News Network poll revealed that 93% of Jerusalem Arabs preferred living under the Israeli government than under the Palestinian Authority. They are well aware of the better possibilities provided in Israel compared to the neighboring Muslim countries. This is evidenced by many life stories, including the following:

George Karra, an Arab Christian from Jaffa, served for five years as a judge on the Israeli Supreme Court. 

In February 2022, Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi became the first female Arab Israeli ambassador.

In January 2022, Osila Abu Assad became the first Muslim Arab Israeli woman appointed a District Court judge in Israel. 

In 2019, Dr. Samer Haj Yehia became the first Arab Israeli to be appointed CEO of Bank Leumi, one of the largest banks in Israel. 

Prof. Salman Zarka, Israel’s coronavirus czar, is a member of the Israeli Arab Druze minority. 

Issawi Frej, a Muslim Arab-Israeli lawmaker who served as the minister of Regional Cooperation in the previous Israeli government. 

Muslim Arab Israeli Lucy Aharish is one of the most popular female Israeli news anchors and is married to the Jewish-Israeli actor Tsahi HaLevi. 

Lucy Ayoub, an Arab Christian, co-starred in season 4 of Fauda on Netflix, alongside Jewish actor Lior Raz. Ayoub was also chosen to co-host the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Tel Aviv.

The Church of England has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause, sometimes hurting the brothers and sisters of Jesus by default.

Around the time that Hitler’s grip on Germany was tightening and Kristallnacht – the turning point in November 1938 of increasing Jewish persecution – had brought a clear sign of what was to come, the Anglican Bishop Graham Brown of Jerusalem stated in a letter to the Times newspaper: “Zionism is not a fulfilment of prophecy. To the Christian it should be abundantly clear that in the New Testament, Israel after the flesh – the nation – is replaced by Israel after the spirit, the Church.”

In a letter signed by the Bishop of Jerusalem and other Anglican church leaders, it was denied that Palestine was capable of solving the European Jewish ‘problem’. It also stated that since large numbers of Jewish immigrants had arrived in 1935, “Palestine had had no peace.”

Ironically, the convocation of British bishops has itself recently been accused of racism. In a powerful BBC Panorama program in 2021, Dr. Elizabeth Henry exposed the discrimination she, and others, had felt, as Black people working within the various institutions of the church.

Dr. Henry left her workplace at Church House, London, after witnessing many years of inequality. She also believed that the former Archbishop of York, the Ugandan John Sentamu, had suffered racism “on a daily basis.”