CAMERA calls out Evangelical publishers for anti-Israel propaganda
It is books like these that lay the groundwork for anti-Israel activism growing in more mainline Protestant churches.
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Two major Christian publishing houses were called out by advocates for having produced and published anti-Israel propaganda and conspiracy theories.The two publishing houses, InterVarsity Press in the US and the similarly named Inter-Varsity Press in the UK, were sent an open letter by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) on September 25.“IVP publishing houses have been retailing anti-Israel propaganda for some time,” CAMERA’s Shillman Research Fellow Dexter Van Zile said in a statement.“This is immensely problematic because of their influence in the Evangelical world.”The two publishers have a history of promoting texts filed with factual historical and cultural errors about Israel. This, the statement said, was evident by the 2016 campaign to pressure the publishers to drop Rv. Dr. Stephen Sizer from its catalogues following numerous controversies over his appearance at anti-Israel conferences.Sizer had propagated numerous conspiracy theories in the past, such as Israeli involvement in the September 11 terrorist attacks.But while the publishers did drop him, they did not do the same to other problematic authors.“Sizer’s hostility toward Israel was so manifest that the two houses had to distance their brand from him,” Van Zile said.“But subsequent books published by writers such as Rev. Garth Hewitt, Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon and Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac all promote false and hostile narratives — such as, that there is something inherently wrong with Jewish sovereignty, that Christian support for Israel is a betrayal of the Christian faith, and that the conflict in the Holy Land is Israel’s fault.”He added that “IVP must do better. We’ve written the letter to remind IVP editors that they wield great influence over the opinions of their readers and that they must therefore wield this authority in a responsible manner. We also want to alert IVP readers that sometimes publishers fail to do just that.”
It is books like these that, Van Zile explained, lay the groundwork for anti-Israel activism growing in more mainline Protestant churches. “Leaders who engage in dishonest anti-Israel activism in the name of ‘peace’ set the stage for divisive fights within the churches they purport to serve,” Van Zile warns.“You can’t promote dishonest propaganda about Israel and then be taken seriously when professing the truths of the Christian faith.”
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