Methodists Host Capitol Hill Exhibit Portraying Israel's Founding as 'Catastrophe'
"Will the United Methodist lobbyists ever host an event that celebrates Israel's existence?" -- Mark Tooley, Executive Director UMAction
WASHINGTON, February 3 /
Christian Newswire/ -- The founding of the modern nation of Israel was a "catastrophe" according to a new exhibit opening today at the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill. The display, "60 Years of Dispossession" chronicles the "Nakba," the Palestinian word for catastrophe used to describe Israel's founding, an event which is reviled in the Arab world.
The photo exhibit trumps a mass deportation of Palestinians, massacres of civilians and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages. It will appear in the lobby of the United Methodist Building February 3-24. United Methodist Chief Lobbyist Jim Winkler will speak at a reception marking the opening of the display on Tuesday night. The historic United Methodist Building is owned by the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society and houses numerous liberal religious lobby groups.
IRD Director of UMAction Mark Tooley commented,
"Religious Left activists claim they support Israel's existence. But the 'Nakba' mythology portrays Israel's founding only as a catastrophe.
"The 'Nakba' myth also demands a full 'right of return' for all descendants of Palestinians who left what is now Israel in 1948, demographically eradicating Israel as a predominantly Jewish nation.
"Will the United Methodist lobbyists ever host an event that celebrates Israel's existence?"
The Institute on Religion and Democracy, founded in 1981, is an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches' social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, thereby contributing to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad.
