Church of Scotland urges Cameron to teach Netanyahu about discrimination

While Benjamin Netanyahu was being feted by his British counterpart inside Downing Street during talks on the crisis in Syria and Iran’s nuclear programme, hundreds of protesters were rallying outside in Whitehall. Most were pro-Palestinian and demanded Netanyahu’s arrest for war crimes in Gaza following a 107,000-signature petition which was ignored by the British government even though the number of signatures qualified it for a debate in the House of Commons.

Close by, outnumbered 7-1, were members of the pro-Israel lobby, including a small number of Christians who gave their vocal support and the impression that solidarity between Christians and Jews in the Zionist state is unconditional and solid. This is simply not true.

What these Christian Zionists either chose to ignore, or were not aware of, is Israel’s blatant discrimination and religious persecution of Palestinian and other Christians. It’s certainly not an impression that Netanyahu and his government promote, but while he regularly introduces “the threat to Christians in the Middle East” in his speeches, he ignores conveniently what is happening in his own backyard by diverting attention elsewhere, specifically calling out the persecution of Christians at the hands of the Iranian government and Islamic extremists.

By accusing neighbouring states of religious intolerance he neatly airbrushes the fact that Christians are persecuted regularly by Israel to such an extent that the religion’s original flock in Bethlehem (the “Living Stones”) is dwindling at an alarming rate. The Christians who remain there say that this persecution and the strangling of the local economy by Israel’s Apartheid Wall, which virtually surrounds the historic town which they believe is the birthplace of Jesus, is making their life well-nigh impossible. Moreover, it’s not just the Christians in Bethlehem who are being discriminated against; it is happening on many different levels in other parts of the “Holy Land”, from graffiti and arson attacks on churches by Jewish extremists through to state-driven persecution in the education system.

It has now emerged that brutal government funding cuts pose a “mortal threat” to the future of one of Israel’s most famous Christian schools, founded by a Scottish missionary more than 150 years ago. The Church of Scotland is so concerned about this that it has asked David Cameron to raise the funding crisis facing Christian schools in Israel with Netanyahu. The church regards this as religious discrimination.

The Rt Rev Dr Angus Morrison, Moderator of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly, says that those under “mortal threat” include the Church of Scotland-run Tabeetha School in Jaffa. Staff there have been on strike since last week in solidarity with the country’s 47 other Christian schools, in protest at budget cuts imposed by Israel’s ministry of education.

The Church of Scotland has owned and managed the multi-faith Tabeetha School since 1911. It is an open, ecumenical and interfaith school, which from the very beginning has provided the opportunity for Christian, Jewish and Muslim children to learn together in the same environment. These regularly include the children of staff working at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv.

“A key purpose of the school is to serve the Arab Christian community, whose children form the majority of its pupils,” Rt Rev Dr Morrison told Cameron. “An equally essential purpose is to encourage creative and constructive ways of living together, in contrast to what is too often the pattern in Israel outside the school gates.” The Church of Scotland, he explained, sees itself as pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian: pro Christian, Muslim and Jew. “We stand for justice and reconciliation between these troubled communities. In this perspective, discriminating against Christian schools in Israel and, indeed, the whole Arab-Israeli education sector, is not only wrong in principle. It is foolish and self-defeating.”

The Israeli government claims that it grants Christian schools 75 per cent of the per capita funding of state schools in Israel, even though ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools in the same category receive full funding. Over the past 10 years, the funding calculation has seen the number of teaching hours cut from 1,100 to 660. The funding proportion has remained at 75 per cent, but in real terms provision has been cut by almost half, said the Church.

This imposes a growing burden on Arab-Israeli citizens – Christian and Muslim – who must pay more and more in tuition fees to meet the schools’ financial shortfall. When the ministry proposes also to cap these tuition fees, the 47 schools are facing the very real threat of bankruptcy.

“As a friend of Israel,” added Dr Morrison in his letter to the prime minister, “the UK should be arguing against this and advocating change. We know that you have already met with Prime Minister Netanyahu; but I ask you to speak to him again on this subject.”

Israel and Britain are both parties to the 1960 UN Convention Against Discrimination in Education. In addition, under Israeli law, discrimination in educational funding is illegal.

Jafar Farah, the Director of Haifa’s Mossawa Center – The Advocacy Centre for Arab Citizens in Israel — told the Jerusalem Post recently that there is growing solidarity from communities within Arab society over the issue. “This is also a civil struggle that shows that education is becoming a high priority for the community,” he added. While the government in Tel Aviv likes to talk about how it protects the Christian community, this latest funding episode revealed that “it is not doing so.”

Will David Cameron be prepared to give the Israeli leader a history lesson on the 1960 UN Convention Against Discrimination in Education and how its terms are applied? Or will this be yet another example — there are many to choose from — where the state of Israel chooses not only to ignore a UN resolution or convention accepted by the rest of the world, but also to violate its terms in spirit and in deed?

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.