Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 1998, Page 47

Canada Calling

Straight Talk From Anglican Bishop on "Evil and Oppression...in the Holy Land" Draws Criticism, Support

By John Dirlik

A storm of controversy erupted after it was reported that the Anglican Bishop of Ottawa in his Christmas eve sermon described Israeli treatment of Palestinians as "evil, wickedness, cruelty and oppression."

In his midnight service at Christ Church Cathedral, Bishop John Baycroft denounced what he described as the evil of anti-Semitism in Canada, as well as the evil of Israeli settlements and the restrictions of movement placed on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. He told the nearly 1,000 worshippers that pressure should be exerted on the United States to change its Middle East policy and asked his congregation to pray for all people in the Holy Land.

In an interview with the Washington Report, Bishop Baycroft said that his remarks on anti-Semitism were prompted by "atrocious anti-Semitic material" he recently received in the mail. His comments on the Palestinians, the bishop said, followed a month-long pilgrimage last November to the Holy Land where he witnessed not only the oppression of Palestinians but the precarious conditions affecting the Christian community.

"In my sermon I spoke of two great sorrows. The first was that the Christian Church throughout the centuries has not resisted anti-Semitism as much as it should have, and I asked my parishioners to look into their hearts and to stamp out any traces of that evil," Bishop Baycroft said. "The second sorrow I spoke of was the evil and oppression that was permitted to continue in the Holy Land." The bishop insisted he supported the right of Israel to exist, but that this did not mean automatic support for all of its policies. "I expect justice for Israel, but I also expect justice from Israel," he said.

Baycroft expressed disappointment that although an important part of his Christmas message was to ask his parishioners to eradicate any lingering traces of anti-Semitism, it was only his remarks on Israel's treatment of Palestinians that received attention, provoking a flurry of accusations from the Israeli Embassy, Jewish groups and in letters to the editor.

"I think it is bad language and I would expect that it would be more balanced," said Chen Ivri, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa. "From our point of view, I would not use a word like evil. The word evil is strange for me and unacceptable."

Robert Ritter of the Canada-Israel Committee also denounced the bishop's remarks. "I don't think the pulpit is the place to be making such sweeping political judgments and recommendations," he said. "What makes it even more serious and of greater concern is that he is not speaking with adequate information and fact."

Ritter suggested that the bishop's remarks on the suffering of Palestinians caused by collective punishments were unbalanced because they ignored Israel's situation as a country plagued by terrorism. "When you watch fragments of people's bodies being scraped off the sidewalks and walls, you tend to see things in a slightly different way," Ritter said. "I don't think this man is ill-intentioned, I think he is ill-informed."

One letter writer to the Ottawa Citizen who compared the bishop's remarks on Israel to the "anti-Jewish toxin" of medieval clergy, charged he would be directly responsible for any acts of anti-Semitism. "As this is written, there are no reports about physical molestation or verbal abuse against members of the Ottawa Jewish community. Should any of these occur, one will not have to go very far to locate the culprit."

Bishop Baycroft appeared undaunted by the criticism. "I don't have anything to apologize for," he said, adding that his comments on the Holy Land contained "not one word that isn't the truth." Asked if the criticism would cause him to use different language in a future Christmas sermon, the bishop replied, "There's nothing to suggest my words were not carefully chosen."

Much of the public reaction to Baycroft's remarks was positive. Three letters supporting the bishop for each one condemning him were published by the Citizen, which also ran an article by one columnist headlined "Israel must learn to take criticism."

The clergy at Christ Church Cathedral also rallied to his support, arguing that the bishop was not passing judgment on the state of Israel, but only on some of its practices. "The Church should talk about moral issues and about the treatment of people," said Rev. Peter Coffin, dean of the Cathedral. "If they happen to pass some indictment on the political system, that's unfortunate but that might be necessary."