An interesting article on the support of fundamentalist Christian Zionists for Israeli settlements.  As has been documented on this blog before, no group in the USA, where most of these creatures are based, is more anti-Semitic and at the same time more pro-Zionist than the Christian Fundamentalists  (see American Jews Reject Zionism’s anti-Semitic Christian Friends).

This should not surprise anyone.  Historically Zionism was the offshoot of  messianic and evangelical Christianity – people like Lords Shaftesbury, Disraeli, Palmerstone as well as Napoleon and Ernest Laharanne, Napoleon III’s Secretary and of course Arthur James Balfour.  The most vigorous opponents of Zionism were Jews, who saw Zionism as another (Jewish) version of anti-Semitism.  When Herzl, founder of Political Zionism, wanted to hold the First Zionist Congress, he wanted to hold it in Munich, but the local Jewish community and a petition of Jewish rabbis forced him to hold it in Basel, Switzerland.  Likewise the only member of the Lloyd George Cabinet to vote against the Balfour Declaration was its only Jewish member, Sir Edwin Montagu (though Lord Curzon was none too happy about it either).  People like George Elliot in Daniel Deronda romanticised it in a crude pastiche of cardboard characters of Jews.

If you wanted to get rid of the Jews in your society, what better place than to send them to than a  colony adjacent to the Suez Canal, the route to the Jewel in the Crown of the British Empire, India.

This was what was done in South Africa, where under the influence of ideologues such as Edward  Gibbon Wakefield 
 

Today the most devoted supporter of Zionism are the Christian Dispensationists who believe in the ‘return’ of the Jews to Palestine in order that they might then be subject to an almighty conflagration in order that the Elect might wing their way to heaven with the joys of Rapture.

Cross-post from Corporate Watch

Sign for Christian Friends of Israeli Communities in the illegal Israeli settlement Ma’ale Efrayim.

Charity’ and Ethnic Cleansing: Christian Friends of Israeli Communities

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Tom Anderson and Therezia Cooper

Corporate Watch has previously reported on the role that Zionist charities play in the support of illegal settlements and a recent research trip provided more evidence of this practice. On 21st January 2013 Corporate Watch researchers photographed a sign stating that Christian Friends of Israeli Communities (CFOIC) had donated a playground in Ma’ale Efrayim, an illegal settlement with a population of around 1400 in the occupied Jordan Valley.

Signs of expansion of the fields by the illegal settlement Maskiot in the Jordan Valley, 2013

Christian Friends of Israeli Communities is an ideologically Zionist charity which supports the settlements for religious reasons. Set up in 1995 in response to the Oslo Accords, it exclusively supports settler projects and actively encourages tourism to the settlements in the West Bank. Reading through the list of projects the charity is currently fundraising for, it becomes obvious that a lot of them are chosen for strategic reasons. For instance, there are a growing number of projects instigated in the Jordan Valley which is an area under threat of ethnic cleansing by the Israeli military. Whilst their projects in the valley might sound harmless enough – they include petting zoos, gyms and youth clubs – the aims are not. In the pitch for donations to the Argaman youth centre the charity states that “Argaman, like many of the Jordan Valley communities, is vital in securing Israel’s eastern border”. To encourage their potential donors to give generously to an exercise room in the settlement of Na’ama CFOIC writes “In Israel, physical fitness is a way of life, just as serving in the army and protecting the land is. Naama is seeking assistance to furnish an exercise room to help their young adults to stay physically fit and be ready for military service”. There are also appeals for donations to pay for security services to the settlements. The charity does not recognise the West Bank, which it refers to as “Judea and Samaria”.

Armed settlers from the illegal settlement of Maskiot setting up a tent on Palestinian land.

There are at least thirteen different projects currently being planned by CFOIC in the Jordan Valley. CFOIC is also fundraising for other settlements next to particularly threatened Palestinian communities including Kfar Adumim, the expansion of which is forcibly displacing the Jahalin Bedouin of Khan Al Ahmar, and Susiya settlement, which is threatening the existence of the Palestinian village of the same name in the South Hebron Hills.

Christian Friends of Israeli Communities donated olive field by Maskiot settlement in 2010.

Charities which support settlements have a very real impact on Palestinian communities on the ground. The first time Corporate Watch came across CFOIC was on a visit to the settlement of Maskiot in 2010. Maskiot was the first new settlement to be approved by the Israeli Government in the Jordan Valley for a decade, and most of the settlers moving in were ideological settlers who used to live in the Gush Katif settlement in Gaza. CFOIC had donated a field of olive trees to the settlement. Since 2010 the Bedouin communities in Al Maleh, next to Maskiot, have suffered constant harassment by the Maskiot settlers and faced numerous home demolitions and threats by the Israeli Occupation Forces as Israel are tightening their grip on the land.

Armed settlers from the illegal settlement of Maskiot setting up a tent on Palestinian land.

Visiting the area again in January this year, it was clear that Maskiot had expanded since our last visit, with the entry gate moved forward significantly and evidence of more fields being planted.

Corporate Watch will publish another article with more news about Christian Friends of Israeli Communities next week.