The (Other) Biased BBC, & Iran's Barbarity Towards Religious Minorities

While our old mate the vicar of Virginia Water and his equally anti-Israel Christian assoiciates gather at the Bethlehem Bible College (BBC) to plan the next "Christ at the Checkpoint Conference", scheduled for 2016 (see my penultimate post) there's a timely reminder by Tricia Miller in the Jerusalem Post of that BBC's bias against Israel.

Inter alia, we are told:

'According to its website, Bethlehem Bible College (BBC) is a Christian college founded for the purpose of training leaders to serve local Arab churches and communities.

BBC affirms the National Association of Evangelicals’ Statement of Faith and believes the Bible to be the authoritative word of God.

But there is another side to BBC not evident on their website. The school has a deeply entrenched anti-Israel position, demonstrated through statements and publications of leaders associated with the school, and the biennial “Christ at the Checkpoint” conferences it sponsors. Most recently, its media center produced a video that employs numerous errors and false accusations in a blatant attempt to demonize Israel.

The video, Bethlehem Voices on Gaza ... purports to “interview people on the streets of Bethlehem regarding the war in Gaza.”

All of the interviewees are unidentified, except for Rev. Alex Awad, dean of students and full-time instructor at BBC, charter member of the BBC board of directors, and senior pastor of the East Jerusalem Baptist Church ....

One of the false accusations made [in the video]against Israel employs oft-repeated Hamas propaganda that says Israel targeted civilians in Gaza....

The allegation that Israel targets civilians is closely related to another recurrent piece of Hamas propaganda – that Israel is committing “genocide” against the Palestinians in Gaza. The man who made this statement declared he was sure Israel was not “touching Hamas or the fighters over there.” ....

[O]ne of the interviewees made an outrageous statement when he said, “As you know, we have been under occupation for 65 years.” [I]t is important to note that Gaza is not “under occupation.” There have not been any Jews in Gaza, much less any IDF forces, since Israel withdrew unilaterally in 2005.

Furthermore, the West Bank is not  “under occupation” either, and certainly has not been for “65 years.” Prior to Israel gaining this territory after the 1967 war, Jordan occupied it illegally. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan after it won a defensive war against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, all of whom attacked with the goal of destroying the Jewish state.

Following the 1967 war, the UN passed Resolution 242, which identifies the West Bank as administered territory, whose ownership is disputed. The final status of this territory is supposed to be determined in some future peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. But until then, the West Bank is disputed, not occupied territory....'

For Tricia Miller's entire piece see here

Meanwhile, while our old mate the vicar happily continues to denounce Israel and Zionism on Iran's Press TV, and to spruik Iran's cause on social media, and while anti-Israel nutjobs like those in the picture condemn the Jewish State but turn a blind eye to Iran's crimes against humanity, Iran's terrible persecution of Christians and other religious minorities is the focus of a new UN report, as reported by Benjamin Weinthal:.

'While persecution of religious minorities is nothing new in the Islamic Republic, the 28-page catalog of horrors compiled by Ahmed Shaheed, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Right in the Islamic Republic of Iran, undermines the claim that President Hassan Rouhani has ushered in a new era of tolerance.

“At least 49 Protestant Christians are currently detained, many for involvement in informal house churches,” the report states. “In April 2014, security forces reportedly raided an Easter service in a private home in southern Tehran and detained six individuals.”

“The state of freedom of religion and belief in Iran is not improving, It is deteriorating,” Dwight Bashir, deputy director of policy and research at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

The UN report chronicles the closure of churches and the arrests of “their pastors for holding services in Persian or for allegedly ministering to Iranians from Muslim backgrounds.” Tehran has also cracked down on Christian community websites, including blocking their reception and Christian converts have been expelled from Iranian universities.

Shaheed’s report documents the lack of due process afforded religious and ethnic minorities across the spectrum in Iran, ranging from Jews to Baha’is to Sunni Arabs to Armenians and Kurds....

Rouhani lacks the power and possibly the will to bring meaningful human rights reform to Iran, said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-Israeli Middle East analyst. The religious leaders who carry more clout than he see the attraction to Christianity as a “threat and could undermine the revolution which is based on the promotion of Islamic values,” he said....'

See more here

Incidentally, for a most illuminating interview with hard-headed Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon regarding Hamas, Abbas, Iran, and much more, see here