Jerusalem: Police Complaint Charges ‘World Council of Churches’ with International Espionage

February 2, 2020

4 min read

The Judicial Forum for Zionist and Democratic Israel and the DMU Project, an organization that monitors the WCC’s actions in Israel, recently filed a complaint with the Jerusalem Police against the World Council of Churches (WCC) alleging that it has engaged in several illegal activities including injuring IDF soldiers and is acting against the State of Israel.
The World Council of Churches is an international organization with over 500 million members and an advocate for the racist Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement. According to the complaint, the WCC has been running an illegal program in Israel. The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) has brought some 1,800 volunteers to Judea and Samaria since 2002. The stated purpose is to “witness life under occupation, engage with local Palestinians and Israelis pursuing a just peace, to change the international community’s involvement in the conflict, urging them to act against injustice in the region.”
The complaint filed with the police claims that the organization has acted harm the State of Israel on the international level and even spy on it. According to the complaint, the program participants are being told to lie about the purpose of their arrival in Israel. The organization is not approved by the Israeli government and the activists are breaking the rules of entry into Israel, impersonating tourists or pilgrims and hiding the real reason for their arrival in Israel.
Another section points to espionage against the State of Israel. For years, EAPPI activists have been documenting IDF training, reporting on the number of military assets in place and soldiers in training, documenting security activities such as checkpoints, arrests and more, and have publicly released the information.
The organization’s activists frequently take part in public disturbances inside closed military zones and even caused or aided to physically harm IDF soldiers and police officers and violate public order. To fulfill their goals, activists are joined by various anarchists such as the Ta’ayush organization and participate in activities intended to provoke Israeli security forces for the purposes of recording the reactions of IDF soldiers.
According to the complaint, the activists are obliged to publish blogs and reports against Israel, using false images and lies. In many cases, the reports are subsequently used against Israel in the UN, the EU, and more.
Similar letters of complaint against the WCC were also sent to Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett, Minister of Internal Security and Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan, Minister of the Interior Arieh Deri, Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz and the head of the NSC.

Attorney Yotam Eyal of the Legal Forum noted that ‘this is a very serious allegation”
“For many years, there has been a worldwide organization of foreigners in Israel whose sole purpose is to harm the State of Israel and, according to the data, has even succeeded in doing so. The State of Israel has a legal duty to protect itself and its citizens from those who seek to harm them. We call on law enforcement agencies to use all the tools at their disposal to stop this activity. The legal forum will continue to help the State of Israel defend itself and bring its offenders to justice. ”
According to a recent report by watchdog group NGO Monitor, the WCC represents itself as a humanitarian organization but is in actuality an anti-Israel political group.
“By singling out Israel, EAPPI embodies anti-Semitism, as defined in the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s working definition,” the report states. “Despite marketing itself as a human rights and protection program, EAPPI places significant emphasis on political advocacy before, during, and after the trip. When volunteers return to their home countries and churches, they engage in anti-Israel advocacy, such as BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns and comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany.”
A senior source told TPS News that EAPPI activists have been involved in the direct support of terrorism. EAPPI activists visited the family of Palestinian terrorist Omar al-Abed, who murdered the 70-year-old Yosef Salomon, his daughter Haya, and his son Elad at their home in Neve Tsuf in July 2017. The visit took place just a few days after the attack, and the activists gave the terrorist’s family financial support.
DMU told TPS that EAPPI activists were also been documented visiting terrorists’ homes in Hebron as well, where they lent support to the Palestinians’ actions against the “occupation.”
Amit Barak from the DMU project noted that the organization operates directly against the IDF.
“The organization’s operatives work and carry out ‘supervision’ (in their words) on the activities of IDF soldiers, police and security guards throughout Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. In addition, the ‘supervisors’ also observe the expansion of the Western Wall and the entrance to the plaza. In the past, they have also documented security activities by using detailed maps.”
“Given the negative developments in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, we fear that continuing their illegal activities in Israel which includes gathering information on specific personal details IDF soldiers, this could jeopardize IDF soldiers in the future when they visit abroad.”
“Members of the World Church Council and the EAPPI have also been caught making blatantly anti-Semitic statements,” Barak said. “Their activities harm Jewish-Christian relations in Israel and abroad. We call on the law authorities, relevant ministers and the security system to wake up and act to enforce the laws of the State of Israel, and eradicate the phenomenon.”

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