by Julian Mann, Anglican Ink
During his speech to the Church of England’s General Synod last Tuesday, the Archbishop of Jerusalem, Dr Hosam Naoum, did not mention Hamas once or its savage massacre of Jews in southern Israel on October 7th 2023.
His comment that food distribution systems for Palestinians in Gaza were like The Hunger Games, a reference to the dystopian novels and films in which children are forced to fight to the death to avoid starvation, was widely reported in the UK media. Also widely reported was his call for ‘no ethnic cleansing that is presently being discussed by the Israeli and US governments’.
His speech earned a protracted standing ovation from the mainly English middle-class members of the C of E’s legislative body gathered in the York University Central Hall.
The Church Times reported his comments at a Synod fringe event last Monday organised by Christian Aid in which he apparently did mention Hamas: ‘Dr Naoum condemned violence “from whichever side it comes, whether from Hamas or Israel”. Hamas did not represent all Palestinians, he emphasised. “Extremism on both sides is like fire,” he said, and paraphrased Ezekiel: “the fire consumed both the green and the dry”.’
But why does he seem to believe that Hamas and Israel are morally equivalent? Why did no one at the fringe event challenge him on that?