Thursday, March 03, 2022
Elder of ZiyonHe took a selfie there with the Reverend Johnny Shahwan, director of Beit Al Liqa, and stood with the tourists for another photo.
After Glick posted his photo on social media, all hell broke loose.
The PLO Churches Committee issued a statement of condemnation, deploring Al Aiqa for doing something so amazingly awful as allowing a Jewish person who lives in a settlement to step foot in a Christian place:
Higher Presidential Committee for Churches Affairs in Palestine condemns and deplores the reception of the head of the Beit Al-Liqa Association in Beit Jala, Johnny Shahwan, of the Zionist extremist Yehuda Glick, the leader of the extremist organization “Haliba.”This reception comes at a time when the Palestinian people are facing the violations of the occupation and its settlers for Christian and Islamic places of worship in Jerusalem.The Committee affirms that, in cooperation with all the security services and legal authorities in the State of Palestine, it will take the necessary measures towards the institution.
Sending that they were in trouble, Bait al-Liqa issued a statement denying knowing who Glick was and this Christian institution insisted that they would never let a Zionist knowingly enter their hallowed location:
We were surprised today with the news circulating social media about a visit to an extremist settlement called Yehuda Glick to Bait al-Liqa, and we would like to clarify the following:The Bait al-Liqa Foundation in the Hospitality House hosted a group of German guests, and part of their visit program was that Pastor Johnny Shehwan, Chairman of the Foundation, spoke about the activities of the Bait al-Liqa Foundation in serving the local Palestinian community. And at the end of Pastor Johnny's speech, suddenly, an unknown person entered, and we were only made aware today Wednesday through social media, that this person was the Zionist extremist "Yehuda Glick." At the end of the meeting, the leader of the German group asked for a group photo, this stranger came and stood next to Pastor Johnny and a brother with a "selfie" photo, the meeting ended and everyone left.The institution confirms its lack of knowledge beforehand with the presence of this Zionist extremist, and was in no case part of the meeting program. Apparently this guy exploited his entrance to the meeting house for his suspicious goals, which we absolutely refuse.And on top of that, we emphasize the following:First: We strongly condemn all the actions and attitudes of the criminal settlers, especially the actions associated with this extremist, which we confirm that we do not know and have nothing to do with him neither far nor near.Secondly: We emphasize our commitment as a Palestinian national Christian institution to all standards of civil society and its opposing normalization.Third: We invite all members of the Palestinian community to their political, social and religious institutions, to kindly visit us at the House of Representatives Foundation, and listen to us before taking any stand.Fourth: We held a large number of lectures and seminars against the Zionist thinking at the meeting house, and we hosted a book and scholars who released a book against Zionism and Zionist Christian thought.
In short, "We hate Israel! Please don't punish us!"
But the authorities decided that they need to investigate how such an awful thing could happen where a Jews with his tzitzit hanging out could possibly infiltrate this proud Palestinian space. Bait al-Liqa is being closed for a week, apparently by the Bethlehem Governate, to help this "investigation."
This is a marvelous trolling opportunity. Jews should show up at all events where Palestinian officials greet foreigners, take selfies, and then the entire Palestinian economy would be shut down as everyone scrambles to outdo the next in declaring how much they hate "settlers" and punishing the poor groups who allowed the Jew to enter.
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