Christian groups need to be wary of Israel’s intentions

Gibson Nyikadzino

Zimpapers Politics Hub

PROGRESSIVE governments the world over are increasingly expressing their disdain for what they term the “Israeli war crimes in Gaza”.

The latest position has been taken by Colombia, Malaysia and South Africa, who, in a joint statement, say they would prevent any ships carrying weapons to Israel from docking at their ports.

Currently, 146 out of 193 United Nations member states, including Zimbabwe, recognise Palestine as a sovereign nation.

Similarly, of the 27 European Union member states, Sweden, Cyprus, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Spain, Ireland and Norway have recognised Palestine as a state.

That is 40 percent of the bloc’s members.

At the same time, university students, sports and media personalities, as well as church leaders, including the Roman Catholic’s Pope Francis — who criticised Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in late January, calling the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave “very serious and shameful” — all recognise Palestine.

All this indicates the systematic diplomatic pressure being exerted by the world against Israeli efforts to remove the Palestinians from their territory.

Israel has long propagated a narrative of endless victimisation to justify its crimes and evade accountability.

As the world continues to turn its back on Israel, Tel Aviv is now making frantic efforts to co-opt religious leaders and denominations.

It is targeting Christian communities with its misinformation.

The biggest strategy that Israel is using is broadcasting its lies repeatedly for them to gain currency and become “believable”.

Zimbabwe needs to be wary, too, for such lies can be used against it by its adversaries.

It should be remembered that it is Israel that first said Hamas fighters burnt babies alive on October 7, 2023.

This, however, turned out to be a lie.

Also, the Israeli Air Force killed its own soldiers as it carried out a “sword of Damocles” operation, which became known as the Hannibal Directive.

The directive authorised the use of military force against Israeli military personnel and civilians to prevent them from being taken into captivity in the Gaza Strip.

At first, Israel denied ordering the operation.

However, it later admitted having authorised it.

This use of lies is the same tactic that Israel is using to infiltrate religious groups and communities to perpetuate a divide-and-rule scenario.

The lies come in various forms, including the use of “religious research”, “connections to Eden” and “rabbinical Christian doctrines”.

The major reason that many Christians want to be associated with Israel is that they believe Israelis are a “chosen people of God”.

This can be categorised as a disinformation campaign to get sympathy from established Christian groups that Israel wants to court.

It is difficult to imagine Israel working together with Christians, as the past decade has been marked by an increase in anti-Christian incidents through Israeli settler movements that have harassed the clergy and vandalised religious property.

Israelis are repeatedly targeting churches in East Jerusalem’s Old City by spitting on them during Christian religious ceremonies.

This means, in some quarters of the Israeli society, there is hatred of Christians.

At government level, the hatred of Christians seems to be institutionalised and legalised.

Israel’s former war cabinet minister, once in charge of crime and policing, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in 2023 said “it is not a crime for Israeli Jews to spit on Christians because it is an old Jewish tradition”.

It is important to acknowledge that a Jewish-Christian association by any measure is a dangerous formation that has many broad effects, which have the potential to have social, economic and political dimensions.

Ordinary people should look at Israel with a critical eye.

It has historically been established that the Israeli government is daring in its covert operations, and any connotation that links local Christian groups to Israel, bearing the acrimonious Jewish perceptions of Christians (in Palestine or elsewhere), risks placing the name of Zimbabwe into disrepute.

It is the Israeli agenda to whitewash its Gaza atrocities from the pages of history.

Yet its atrocities in Gaza were broadcast in real-time and cannot be cleansed.

The quarter of society that can be captured to take the side of the “chosen people of God”, in Israel’s view, is the Christian community.

Targeting Christian communities in Africa is part of a wider global Zionist movement strategy to engage churches to support Israel, given traction by Western influence, despite sovereign governments turning their back on these forces.

Such initiatives only serve to advance the interests of Israel, and not those of African Christian groups.

Doing so acts against the interests of any African country, including Zimbabwe.

The true Christian position is against what Israel is doing in Palestine and the Gaza Strip.

For Christian groups in Africa, the positions that their governments espouse about Israel should be important to ascertain how they interact with Israeli elements.

This same Zionist establishment blocked the independence of African countries to protect colonial and apartheid interests in Zimbabwe and South Africa, respectively.

Zionism has, not in its lifetime, respected international law.