Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center

Not only does Ateek deny Israel’s right to exist, he traffics in anti-Judaic imagery that has been taboo since the Holocaust...

In his 2001 Easter Message, Ateek wrote the ‘Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily’ and likened the occupation to the stone blocking Christ’s tomb. In a February 2001 sermon, Ateek compared Israeli officials to Herod (the baby killer). The implication is undeniable: Israel is a baby- and Christ-killing nation that stands in the way of humanity’s salvation.

Given the role this imagery has played in promoting violence against Jews, and its use in reference to the Jewish state is inexcusable.

Van Zile bases these accusations on fragments from Ateek's 2001 Easter message, such as, “in this season of Lent, it seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around Him...The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily,". Similarly, in a February 2001 sermon, Ateek likened the occupation to the “stone placed on the entrance of Jesus’ tomb.... This boulder has shut in the Palestinians within and built structures of domination to keep them in. We have a name for this boulder. It is called the occupation.”

Sabeel's comparisons of Palestinians to the crucified Jesus and Israel to his murderers is also rejected by the ADL as an "ugly and false deicide charge against all the Jewish people - a concept rejected by prominent historians and repudiated by the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian denominations."

The Judeo-Christian Alliance has also promoted Van Zile's paper, entitled "Sabeel's One State Agenda", claiming that Sabeel has failed to draw attention to the mistreatment of Christians by Muslim extremists in areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Van Zile also accused Ateek of breathing new life into what French historian Jules Isaac called the “teachings of contempt” and having directed their "vile energy" toward the Jewish State.

Sabeel disagrees with these characterizations of their beliefs and actions. They have published a statement affirming their belief that the ancient Jews were not responsible for the death of Jesus, and that neither Palestinians nor Israelis have a "vocation for suffering" that requires either people to be stateless.

Anti-Defamation League

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in a backgrounder article on Sabeel, accused the organization of "generating hostility towards Israel" citing "its use of theologically charged accusations" as belying "its professed passion for reconciliation." The ADL further submitted that, "Sabeel rejects Zionism on theological grounds. It has promoted the idea that Zionism is based on a false reading of the Bible and that it stands for injustice and in opposition to God."

Criticism of, and support for Old South Church

The Boston Globe's conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby criticized Boston's historic Old South Church, a congregation of the United Church of Christ, for hosting the Most Reverend Doctor Desmond Tutu as part of that church's Engaging Three Faiths spiritual dialog series, and Sabeel's Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel conference. Jacoby argued that "Sabeel and Ateek's denunciations of Israel have included imagery explicitly linking the modern Jewish state to the terrible charge that for centuries fueled so much anti-Jewish hatred and bloodshed" and that "In Ateek's metaphorical telling, in other words, Israel is guilty of trying to murder Jesus as an infant, of killing Jesus on the cross, and of seeking to prevent his resurrection."

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center, and Rabbi Howard A. Berman, founder of Jewish Spirit have expressed support for, and are participants in Old South Church's Engaging Three Faiths series.

During his presentation at Old South Church on October 28, 2007, Waskow raised concerns about Sabeel's use of crucifixion imagery in reference to Israel. Waskow said that in Latin America, Christian liberation theologians often "talk about the crucifixion of Jesus by the Roman Empire... and from their view point of course the resurrection of the Christ as teaching of what it means to transcend imperial power, in the Latin American context it's clear that the empire you're talking about is America and it makes sense."

Waskow said that Sabeel may think it's doing the same thing when it talks about the crucifixion of Jesus, but "when you are doing it in the context of a Jewish state, when you're doing it in the context of 2000 years of Jewish suffering from the Christian dogma of deicide that the Jews killed God and the violence that has been visited on the Jewish community by people upholding that theology, to hear that strikes a nerve that has 2000 years of pain behind it and that has to be heard."

Sabeel's Responses to Frequently Asked Questions

Sabeel has posted responses to questions about its policies and theology at http://fosna.org/faq.

In October, 2010, the Anti-Defamation League issued its list of "the top 10 anti-Israel groups in America" and included Friends of Sabeel–North America (FOSNA) and Jewish Voice for Peace among them.

Friends of Sabeel– North America posted a response to the Anti-Defamation League saying that Fosna did not consider its criticism of Israeli government policies "anti-Israeli" and that to the extent those policies are unjust and violate international law, they jeopardize Israel's future.

Connection to Protestant Church in the Netherlands

A Protestant church in the Netherlands supported organization, Kerk in Actie, employs a representative in Israel, who is working at Sabeel in Jerusalem, promoting the Kairos Palestine document and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.

The synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, in regards to the Gaza Flotilla supported by Sabeel, said, "We are not responsible for the political views that Sabeel or their employees promote, but we are engaged in a dialogue with them on this issue."