Wiesenthal Center Protests Episcopal Church’s Peace Award To Palestinian Minister Who Denies Israel’s Right To Exist

May 16, 2006

WIESENTHAL CENTER PROTESTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH’S PEACE AWARD TO PALESTINIAN MINISTER WHO DENIES ISRAEL’S RIGHT TO EXIST

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights NGO, expressed dismay at the decision by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship to bestow their highest honor, The John Nevin Sayre Award to the Reverend Canon Naim Ateek, the Director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. In the words of the Wiesenthal Center, Ateek has taken positions in the Mideast conflict, especially his denial of Israel’s right to exist, which have “repeatedly diminished, not enhanced, the cause of peace and justice in the Middle East.”

In a letter to the Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center and Yitzchok Adlerstein, the Center’s Director of Interfaith Affairs, wrote that Reverend Ateek has accepted the reality of Israel’s existence, but not its right to exist. They protested that Ateek has used the Sabeel Center to lead a global campaign to replace Israel and the territories of the Palestinian Authority with a single state. “A single state means the eradication of the Jewish State by an Arab majority and would deny one people alone on the face of the globe, the Jewish people, the right to pursue its own destiny on its land,” wrote Rabbis Cooper and Adlerstein.

Ateek has also justified the Second Intifada, during which suicide bombing has been used against Israeli citizens, as a legitimate weapon. He has also likened Israelis to “Christ-killers” with their Palestinian victims as Jesus, and other religious imagery that poisons attitudes towards Jews.

Rabbis Cooper and Adlerstein concluded that “...honoring Ateek rewards and emboldens the forces of extremism in the Middle East and is a supreme slap in the face of the Jewish people….We urge you to reconsider this unfortunate move, so our two faith-based communities here in the United States can continue to work together towards the goals of peace and reconciliation.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS and the Council of Europe.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.