World Council of Churches calls on Israel, and only Israel, to release murderers

From the World Council of Churches:

Observing Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on 17 April, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary expressed solidarity with some 5000 Palestinian men, women and children, languishing in Israeli jails.

Palestinian Prisoners’ Day arises in response to a call from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. In an open letter to the WCC’s member churches issued on Thursday, 17 April, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the WCC general secretary, said, “As people of faith, we are called to pray for, visit, and tend to the needs of all prisoners, no matter the reason for their detention. For Israel and Palestine, prisoners have taken on even greater significance than in the past.”

“We were disappointed when the government of Israel cancelled the scheduled release of prisoners who have been in Israeli jails even before the Oslo Agreement of 1993,” he said.

Tveit encouraged the WCC member churches to join in calling United Nations member states to insist Israel end arbitrary detentions and torture, and provide medical care to Palestinian detainees. In the letter UN member states were also urged to persuade Israel to abide by the 1955 standard rule of prisoners’ treatment, respect the 4th Geneva Convention and ratify other human right conventions.

In commemoration of the Palestinian Prisoners Day, Tveit invited the churches in the Holy Land to remember Palestinian prisoners through “prayers and acts of solidarity that restore to them their freedom with justice and dignity”.

Every single slander about how Israel treats prisoners is repeated here without any skepticism. And if you look at Tveit's actual letter, you learn even more outlandish things - like this:

Some prisoners have been in Israeli jails since 1948.

Wow, people in Israeli prison for nearly 66 years? How many? What are their names? I'm dying to know how they got that little nugget of information and how much effort they went through to verify that. Because Jesus emphasized how important truth is so it is inconceivable that the World Council of Churches would lie. It would mean that they are a bunch of hypocrites, and that would cause a huge scandal among Christians. So of course it is true. QED.

The WCC also repeats the absurd claim that 750,000 Palestinian Arabs have "faced detention in Israeli jails" since 1967.

The WCC is not merely talking about improving the conditions of Israeli prisons, which are already better than those of most countries. They want Israel to release the prisoners irrespective of their crimes. The WCC has not the slightest concern that some of the prisoners they want to see freed are convicted mass murderers.

Yet surely, the WCC must care about prisoners worldwide, right? I mean, they say "As people of faith, we are called to pray for, visit, and tend to the needs of all prisoners, no matter the reason for their detention," so undoubtedly they have similar press releases about the 2.2 million prisoners in the US, or the 1.5 million in China, or even the 60,000 in Turkey or Egypt or Cuba. Certainly they aren't singling out Israel's less than 5,000 security prisoners, are they?

Oh, yes, they are. Except for letters written on behalf of a couple of dozen Argentinian prisoners in 2000, the WCC has been silent about 99.95% of the prisoners "languishing" in jails worldwide. 

What can explain this obsession with Israel, to not only single it out but to lie so egregiously about it? What would make a world church body decide that only the Jewish state is guilty of these laughably inaccurate accusations? How could a church group - men and women of God -  write such egregious lies, distortions and blatant discrimination?

It is a real mystery.

(h/t Dexter Van Zile)