NCLCI Calls on Christians To Stand with Israel and Jews During Gaza War
May 14, 2021 – For Immediate Release – Boston, Massachusetts
The National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel calls on Christians to express their support for Israel during its conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and to counter the misinformation used to justify attacks against Israel civilians in the Holy Land and against diaspora Jews elsewhere in the world.
The organization also praises Israeli Jews and Arabs who have struggled to put an end to intercommunal violence in mixed cities in Israel that has erupted as a result of Hamas incitement.
“Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have proven once again just how adept they are at promoting libels against the Jewish state,” declared Tricia Miller, Ph.D., NCLCI President. “By portraying a dispute in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah between private landowners and tenants who haven’t paid rent in years as land theft on the part of Jews, Palestinian propagandists laid the ground work for another round of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip and street-fighting between in Israel.”
“Christians need to know that the violence and chaos currently manifesting itself in the Holy Land is the fault of Palestinian extremists,” said NCLCI board of directors’ member Jim Fletcher. “Now is not the time for ‘bothism.’ Arab and Muslim extremists have been inciting hostility toward Israel and Jews for a long time and this incitement has reached a crescendo in the past few weeks with Arabs attacking Orthodox Jews in the streets of Jerusalem, videotaping these attacks and then posting the footage on the internet.”
NCLCI calls on Christians to pray that Israeli Jews and Arabs heed the advice from their communal leaders to put an end to the intercommunal violence in mixed cities in Jerusalem.
“Thank God for leaders in Israel who have called for calm in cities such as Lod, Haifa and Nazareth,” said Pastor Anthony Triplett, NCLCI Treasurer. “We need to offer up intercessory prayers on their behalf. Continued violence between Israeli Arabs and Jews can only lead to disaster in Israel.”
“Christian peacemaking organizations in the United States have used the Sheikh Jarrah land-theft libel to portray Israel as if it somehow invited Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket attacks against its citizens,” reports Dexter Van Zile, NCLCI Secretary. “The Sheikh Jarrah libel has gotten people killed. Christian peacemaking organizations should not be retailing this story. They should be debunking it instead.”
“It’s time for everyone to speak the truth and pray for the peace of Jerusalem and lament the suffering on both sides of the conflict,” said JoAnn Magnuson, NCLCI Vice President and longest-serving board member. “Peacemakers need to speak the truth and pray. NCLCI was established to inform the prayers of Christians during times such as this.”
