Kairos II and the Jewish Establishment’s misplaced fury
JVL Introduction
The Reverend Dr. Munther Isaac, who at Christmas 2023 preached the Christ in the Rubble sermon) has written clearly and excoriatingly about the appalling reaction of the Jewish Establishment to the moderate decision of the Church of England to consider the Kairos II document. He notes that not all Jews concur with this view and it is pleasing that JVL’s welcome of the decision is noted here .
I have little to add to his criticism of the Board of Deputies and the Chief Rabbi who object, among other things to the used of language such as apartheid and genocide in the Kairos II document; language that the IHRA so called definition of antisemitism would deny to Palestinians to describe their own experience and history.
The Board of Deputies considers that the “controversial documents” contain “historical distortions” and “false allegations” and say that: “The document erases and distorts Jewish identity and Jewish historical experience, and risks real harm to Jews in the UK though its dissemination.” It does no such thing; it is this continuing attempt to consider all (“real”) Jews as linked, ideally with little or no criticism, to Israel’s barbarism towards the Palestine that contributes to making Jews less safe.
The document is about Palestinians, not Jews and the Jewish establishment is more concerned that the Synod has taken the document seriously than the experience of Palestinians forced to cope with Israel’s ongoing murder, ethnic cleansing, displacement, deprivation and torture.
This article was originally published by Al Jazeera on Fri 17 Jul 2026. Read the original here.
The Church of England has taken a long-overdue step on Palestine
By agreeing to hear Palestinian Christians, the Synod has begun to confront its history and responsibilities.
Loading article text…
It is no longer possible for people or organisations to ignore this appalling and disgusting behaviour. It is essential that we all condemn this brutal and sadistic Israeli occupation and continual bombing and killing of innocent civilians.
The Board of Deputies attempt to blind us with their usual performative outrage. So glad that Christian Palestinians find their voice and that they will be heard by the wider Christian community.
Thanks to Rev Dr Munther.
When he speaks it’s almost as if there is a direct link to Christ’s point of view. We so rarely hear the authentic voice of the persecuted and the demand that evil must stop – no ifs, no buts.
Anything to do with Palestine will cause outrage to those who do not want Palestine to have a voice.
No one but no one has superior rights over other human beings.
All these pro-israel groups are the ones enabling anti-semitism on the wider public by any means necessary. They happily want anti-Semitism to be greater and more value than the other historically injustices for other groups of people. Personally I don’t think they care about antisemitism. It is a byword to be used for political leverage.
You cannot beat the public into submission with ‘We’re the victims’ mantra, people are getting sick of hearing it.
I think we should all be on our guard, because when they don’t get their way some sort of incident normally follows.