\'Israeli regime pursues ethnic cleansing agenda\'

The holy city of Jerusalem (al-Quds) is flooded with Christian pilgrims from around the world in Easter time while Palestinian Christians have no access to the holy sites. For over a decade, the Israeli civil administration in the occupied Palestinian territories has denied free access to Palestinians wishing to visit Jerusalem (al-Quds) at its own discretion. Press TV has conducted an interview with Rev. Stephen Sizer, vicar at Christ Church, to share his opinion on this issue. The following is a rough transcript of the interview. Press TV: A very brief reaction to Ibrahim’s piece there. Sizer: Yes, it is very troubling. I was there just a few weeks ago and I was able to visit the holy sites in Jerusalem, going through those checkpoints you saw, just waving my British passport and I thought it is very upsetting that my brothers and sisters who live there in Beit Jala just a walking distance from Jerusalem are unable to do the same because they were Palestinians. It is a deep injustice. Press TV: Of course the reverent we saw in that film said it should be a place for all. Why aren’t we seeing that? Sizer: Well regressively Israel is following a strategy and an agenda to ethnically cleanse the territory that it wishes to colonize and that is essentially around Jerusalem. It wants to deny the Palestinians for rather self-determination, a separate state. And it wishes to hold on to Jerusalem and the surrounding villages. So therefore Palestinians quote as they were now on the wrong side of the separation barrier, the apartheid wall have no access to their holy sites other than through obtaining a permit. But less than one percent of the Christians are able to get a permit. They tend to be the elderly, the married and if you saw those young ladies, they are single, they are young and it is very difficult for them to get permits. Press TV: The initiative, Christ at the checkpoint, how is that trying to shed a light to what happens specially around Easter when so many people want to visit there for very spiritual and faith base reasons. Sizer: Well many do, the tragedy is that many Christians visit the holy land and the holy sites at Easter but they are oblivious to the presence of an indigenous church. They go with their cameras and their Bibles and have a wonderful spiritual experience and they are ignorant of the existence of an indigenous church that has been 2,000 years. And so this is the second conference we have held in Bethlehem, Christ at the checkpoint. We had Palestinian political leaders, religious leaders and international spokesman participating as well as 300 locals and about 300 internationals coming together at the checkpoint in Bethlehem to understand and listen to the police of a local Christian to be heard, to be understood and to be in solidarity with them and speaking and advocating for them in the West about injustices and about the hopes for reconciliation in the future but that can only be achieved through justice. Justice must come first. Press TV: What has been the reaction to this both on the ground and when those who were there take that message onto their home countries? Sizer: Several. It is heartening to see the empowerment that we saw among the Palestinian Christians. They feel encouraged and strengthened by our presence there. Back home we find many Christians in the West say well we did not know, we did not know this is happening. And so we can tell our testimony, tell our story and inform them. Because once you see the truth, you see those pictures is hard to un-see it. It is hard to turn your heart away from suffering when you see it. The third response sadly from the Zionist lobby is to target us, to demonize us and to try to silence the message that we are sharing. Press TV: But this message, one of faith, one of solidarity isn’t it a universal message? Sizer: It is a universal message but the religious message which the Israeli, the Zionist wish to perpetrate is a very racist agenda. It is the belief that they are the chosen people, the land was given by God to them and traditionally they have relied upon Western Christian particularly in United States to give them uncritical support believing in the Bible mandates this agenda. What we are seeking to do is show them that Jesus and Hebrew prophets actually undermine a racist theology, a theology of exclusion, of superiority. So there is a tension and there is a conflict if you like, going on within the Christian community, between those who are using the Bible to justify apartheid, ethnic cleansing and segregation and those on outside who are saying that this is not what Jesus came to administer or deliver. So yes there is a conflict going on in the church today. Press TV: And how is that going to be sorted Rev. because it seems to me when you have such diametrically opposed ideas, no one is going to give way. Sizer: It is very interesting. We produced a film recently called “With God on our side” but it was designed to warn about those who believe God is on their side. Because if we believe God is on my side against my enemy, then it justifies all manners of evil against my enemy. The question is not God is on my side but am I on His. And those who claim to be Christians have no right to that title unless they are following Jesus. How do we follow Jesus? We follow the teachings of Jesus and Jesus told us to love our enemies, pray for those prosecutors, to care for widows and orphans and so on. So if we are not practicing that, we do not have the right to claim to be Christians. So that conflict I believe will eventually be one as we take people back to the Scriptures, show them the way of Christ but it is a painful and a lonely road sometimes among those who do not want to hear.