The rising tide of anti-Semitism across the globe is undeniable, whether it swells from the radical fringes of the Right or Left, or spreads through the various streams of Islam and Christianity. In 2016, as part of the fight against this trend, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which comprises over 30 governments, adopted a "working definition" of the phenomenon: Alongside recognition of classic anti-Semitism, the definition also recognized de-legitimization of the State of Israel as a new form of anti-Semitism. Among other things, the IHRA also included in its definition phenomena such as denying the right of the Jewish people to self-determination, comparing Israel's present-day policies to the Nazis, applying double moral standards toward Israel and more.
While countries such as Great Britain and Germany, and international bodies such as the European Union adopted the definition, several bodies still reject it. One of them is the World Council of Churches, an organization of around 350 non-Catholic churches across the globe, which also consists of church-based aid organizations that represent the bulk of foreign humanitarian aid operations in Israel. For years now the WCC has been criticized for its use of anti-Semitic motifs, and at a recent conference, the council said that it rejects the IHRA's definition.
The WCC operates the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, which recruits activists abroad, sends them to Israel for three months and trains them to lead anti-Israel campaigns. This activity is often buttressed by expressions of anti-Semitism on the part of senior WCC officials and program activists, which together with their dissemination of anti-Jewish theology, violates the IHRA's definition.
Senior WCC officials view Israel as solely responsible for the "difficulties facing Christians in the Holy Land," while turning a blind eye to the many hardships faced by Christians in the Palestinian Authority. They reject the link between Israel and the Jewish people and use religious terminology to combat Christian support for Israel. WCC General-Secretary Olav Fykse Tveit, from the Church of Norway, compared the fight against Apartheid in South Africa to the "crisis in Israel and Palestine." The WCC also promotes the "Kairos Palestine" document, which posits that the West is compensating the Jews for their suffering in Europe at the expense of the Palestinians. The roots of terror, according to the document, lie in the human injustice caused by the "evils of the occupation." In response to a hunger strike by Palestinian security prisoners in Israel, among them terrorist mastermind Marwan Barghouti, Tveit declared that "the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are political prisoners, and as Christians, we must remember that Jesus empathized with prisoners and called for their release."
Even disregarding the WCC's rejection of the IHRA's definition of anti-Semitism, the organization crossed the red line a long time ago. In essence, it is no different from many of the other extremist organizations focused on delegitimizing Israel under the guise of human rights causes. The WCC, however, isn't just any other organization; it is one of the most important bodies in the Christian world, its religious representatives work in Israel, and their claims against the Jewish state are accompanied by religious rhetoric.
The WCC reflects the tendency shared by many international aid groups to wrap their claims against Israel in anti-Semitic rhetoric, and by doing so contribute to exacerbating the phenomenon. A real change can only come when those who purport to promote human rights internalize the importance of the IHRA's definition – and adopt it.
