B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International is outraged by World Council of Churches General Secretary Rev. Samuel Kobia’s allegation that Israeli “occupation” is “a sin against God.”

This remark is part of a long campaign by the World Council of Churches (WCC) to use religious and moral trappings to espouse a strident and simplistic one-sided political agenda, once again showing a lack of understanding of the complex history in the Middle East, particularly Israelis’ struggle for acceptance and peace in the face of terrorism and rejection.

Numerous truly grave injustices and atrocities around the world have not been singled out by the WCC as “a sin against God.” Kobia’s invocation of anti-Semitism as a parallel “sin” shows disregard for how baseless hatred, too often rooted in religious incitement, led to the persecution and murder of millions of Jews throughout history.

Whatever one’s political views on the fate of contested territories, the presence of Jews in their historic, biblical homeland, accompanied by demonstrated readiness for painful compromises and a two-state solution, cannot similarly be described as “a sin against God.” The reckless use of such rhetoric by a religious figure harms Christian-Jewish relations, and is deplorable.

B’nai B’rith expresses hope that Kobia’s successor, to be elected in September and to take office in January, will adopt a more fair and responsible approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict.