The lies of BDS exposed yet again

Kwara Kekana, national spokesperson for the BDS movement in South Africa, recently published an article regarding the plight of Christians in Israel and the alleged limitations placed on their freedom to observe their Easter holiday celebrations.

Yet again, a spokesperson for the BDS movement is guilty of deliberately lying and completely misrepresenting the facts to advance this organization’s racist agenda.

By way of example, Kekana’s article claims that Jerusalem’s Christian population dwindled “from approximately 30,000 in 1944 to less than 11,000”. In her attempt to deceive her readers, Kekana’s article conveniently omits the relevant factors behind this dramatic change.

The facts are as follows:

• In 1944, the number of Christians living in Jerusalem totaled 29,400.
• During the period 1948 to 1967, the Old City of Jerusalem, home to Jerusalem’s Christian population, was under Jordanian rule. During this period, the number of Christians living in Jerusalem dwindled to 12,646.
• In 1967 immediately following the Six Day War, Israel declared the city of Jerusalem unified and guaranteed free access to holy sites for all religions.
• By 2012, the number of Christians living in Jerusalem had increased to 14,000.
• Since coming under Israeli rule, the freedom for all religions to worship at their holy sites in Jerusalem has been rigorously upheld.

Now let’s consider some other relevant facts regarding the history of the freedom to worship at Jerusalem’s holy sites while these were administered by Jordan:

• In the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Jordan undertook to allow “free access to the holy sites and cultural institutions and [to enable the] use of the [Jewish] cemeteries on the Mount of Olives.”
• Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit the Temple Mount.
• Jews from all countries and non-Jewish Israelis were barred from entering Jordan and therefore could not travel to the area.
• Tourists entering East Jerusalem had to present baptismal certificates or other [imagine what] proof they were not Jewish.
• The special committee to coordinate visits to holy places was never formed and Israelis, regardless of their religion, were barred from entering the Old City of Jerusalem and other holy sites.
• The Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem and its 35 ancient synagogues were systematically destroyed.
• The gravestones from the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives were used to build latrines for Jordanian army barracks.
• The Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem was ethnically cleansed of its entire Jewish population as were the Jewish communities in all the territories occupied illegally by the invading Arab armies.

Is Kwara Kekana suggesting we reinstate these discriminatory practices reminiscent of the darkest days of Apartheid as practiced in South Africa? I believe she is.

Kekana is simply articulating the fundamental goal of BDS – to delegitimize the right of Jews to statehood in their historical homeland and to create the public opinion necessary to justify yet another holocaust of the Jewish people.

Kwara Kekana hypocritical and factually flawed article conveniently ignores the wave of genocidal attacks conducted in the name of jihad against Christians in so many different parts of the world.

• The recent bombing in a park in Lahore, Pakistan killed 67 and wounded more than 300 Christians.
• Last week, a Christian convert in Bangladesh was stabbed to death by Islamic radicals.
• Two weeks ago in the Ivory Coast, al-Qaeda gunmen launched an attack on a hotel murdering 18 Christians while praying.
• Only three weeks ago in Yemen, militant Muslims stormed a Catholic retirement home and murdered sixteen people, including four nuns and the elderly residents.
• Less than a month ago in Nigeria, radical Islamic mercenaries swept through a number of Christian villages slaughtering more than 300 Christians including pregnant women and children.
• Christian minorities in Syria, Iraq, Gaza and other Middle East countries have dramatically diminished over the past years.
• Jewish communities throughout the Arab world have dwindled to less than a handful.

The list of examples of Islamic genocide, ethnic cleansing and intolerance of anything Jewish or Christian is never ending.

Despite the facts and the figures, Kwara Kekana concludes that “had Jesus been present in his homeland today his mission would no doubt have included the downtrodden Palestinians”.

I beg to differ.

The realities suggest that had Jesus been present, the focus of his mission would be directed towards preaching for tolerance and re-educating the racially incited Islamic masses to abandon their rhetoric and genocidal jihad.

Allow me to end off by sincerely wishing my Christian friends a happy Easter.