Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism: Catholics, Jews and justice.

Buenos Aires--The 18th International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee met in Buenos Aires July 5-8, 2004. The gathering was co-chaired by Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and of its Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and Rabbi Israel Singer, an American who is President of the World Jewish Congress. A declaration following the meeting said it had been devoted to the subject of "tzedeq" and "tzedaqah"--justice and charity. "Given the global dimensions of poverty, injustice, and discrimination, "the statement said, "we have a clear religious obligation to show concern for the poor and those deprived of their political, social, and cultural rights."

The declaration also said that relations between Jews and Christians have undergone far-reaching change since the Second Vatican Council's document Noxtra aerate (1965). That declaration highlighted Christianity's Jewish roots and the rich spiritual patrimony shared by Jews and Christians. The Liaison Committee meetings were devoted to justice and charity in their theoretical aspects and practical applications, inspired by God's command to love one's neighbour as oneself.

We have renewed our commitment, the committee said, to be based upon an elevated understanding of their concept of tzedq. John Paul II defends and promotes human dignity as deriving from the biblical affirmation that every human being is created in the likeness and image of God. The sages of Israel developed a broad doctrine of justice and charity for all.

In his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis (1979) the Pope reminded Christians that a true relationship with God requires a strong commitment to service of one's neighbour. Given the global dimensions of poverty, injustice and discrimination, we have a clear religious obligation to show concern for the poor and those deprived of their political and other rights. In fidelity to our religious traditions, we see this common commitment to justice and charity as man's cooperation in the divine plan to bring about a better world.

Nostra aetate repudiated the deicide charge against Jews, reaffirmed the Jewish root of Christianity, and rejected anti-Semitism. The past forty years of our fraternal dialogue stand in stark contrast to almost two millenia of a teaching of contempt. We recognize the unbroken covenantal relationship between God and the Jewish people and the total rejection of anti-Semitism in all its forms, including anti-Zionism as a more recent manifestation of anti-Semitism, which John Paul II has described as a sin against God and humanity.

In the light of this common commitment, the Committee listed areas suitable for common action such as the environment, poverty, and peace (Origins, Sept. 9, 2004).

Criticism

The Liaison Committee's Report was not well received by the Rev. Dr. Michael Prior, the late professor of Bible and theology at St. Mary's College, Strawberry Hill, London, U.K., who called the report "A Disaster for Dialogue." This was the heading given to his criticism, printed in The Tablet for July 31, 2004. Underneath the title was the following statement: "The author, who died last week, warns that the Catholic-Jewish Liaison Commitee's decision to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism is a grave mistake."

The Committee's joint statement, Father Prior said, repeats many of the constant emphases of Jewish-Christian dialogue of recent years. But one searches in vain for an interfaith comment on the deteriorating conditions in the Holy Land, and the challenge to justice and charity caused by the situation in Israel. There is not a single mention of the Wall separating Jews and Palestinians, or the challenge to justice and charity caused by the situation in Israel.

Two particularly disturbing elements in the statement, he said, were the view that anti-Zionism is synonymous with anti-Semitism, and the commitment to the struggle against terrorism. By implication, "terrorism" excludes the multiple forms of state-sponsored outrages in the Middle East and any form of resistance to occupation or foreign domination.

Father Prior observed that equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism marks a first in Catholic thinking, and that this was quickly noticed by the Israel newspaper Haaretz (10 July). It quoted the director of the World Jewish Congress as saying that this marks "an historic moment: for the first time the Catholic Church recognizes in anti-Zionism an attack ... against the whole Jewish people." The Anti-Defamation League was quick to respond and put the joint statement on its website.

For Dr. Prior it was only a matter of time before the equation "anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism" would work its way into the religious dialogue, as one of the many fruits of a campaign to close down any criticism of Israel. Against the almost universal condemnation of Israel's behaviour in the Occupied Territories, the World Jewish Congress (WZC), meeting in Jerusalem in 2002, called upon its supporters everywhere to press the equation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism and racism. This tactic would make Zionism, unlike any other political ideology, such as nationalism or socialism or globalization, above reproach, and by extension also the State of Israel. The WZC encourages university students to monitor lectures of those suspected of criticism of Israel and report back to their masters. So a whole culture reminiscent of McCarthyism has re-entered American campuses. Many Catholics and not a few Jews will be dismayed, particularly those with a knowledge of the ideology of Zionism.

Religious Jews rejected Zionism

Prior points out that virtually the entire religious leadership of Jews in Eastern Europe in the 19th century considered Theodor Herzl and his creed, Zionism, to be anathema--a pseudo-messianic, satanic conspiracy against God. While pretending to protect Jewish life, it would remove the religious values which unify Jews, and pursue purely secular 19th-century notions of nationhood--the ultimate form of assimilation.

Religious Jews saw the Zionist enterprise as a repudiation of the most fundamental tenets of Judaism. The Jewish religious group Neturei Karta, founded in Jerusalem in 1938, continues to be distressed at the injustices done to Palestinians. True Jews, they maintain, are not allowed to dominate, harm, or demean another people. Zionism has changed being Jewish into a barren, secular, ethnic identity. Yet the Jewish leadership of today has been among the most enthusiastic supporters of the Zionist enterprise. Given the consequences for the people of Palestine, Prior writes, "I find their moral stance disturbing."

Why? Because there is a fundamental moral problem at the core of the Zionist project, which no special pleading can sidestep: the determination to establish a state for Jews at the expense of the indigenous Arabs. Herzl and the Zionist leaders were well aware of the ethnic-cleansing imperative in this project. Herzl wrote in 1891, "We shall endeavour to expel the poor population across the border unnoticed, procuring employment for it in the transit countries, but denying it any employment in our own country ... The process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."

There is also a large body of evidence in the Zionist archives and in the public domain, Prior writes, tracing the consistency of this line of thinking with the Jewish leadership in Palestine. The establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 involved the systematic expulsion of 80 per cent of the Arab population (aided by several massacres and rapes), the destruction of 418 of their villages to ensure that they would not return, and the confiscation of virtually all of their land. Israel's colonization policy since 1967 has added to Palestinian disaffection to this day. Critics of Zionism are disturbed at the human cost of its implementation.

The failure of the Catholic and Jewish leaders to include a thoughtful religious perspective on one of the great moral crises of our time, Prior concludes, calls the integrity of the actual Catholic-Jewish dialogue into question. How does the evasion of hard truths in any way benefit the noble ideal of inter-religious relations? One might have hoped that the combined wisdom reflected in the joint statement would transcend the liberation rhetoric of Prime Minister Sharon and President Bush.

Michael Prior was the author of Zionism and the State of Israel." A Moral Inquiry and, most recently, Speaking Truth about Zionism and Israel (Melisende, 2004).