Groups ask Germany to cancel award to Palestinian
Benjamin Weinthal, JPost, Feb 21 2012
Christian and Jewish organizations called on the German issuers of the Media Control prize to disqualify the Palestinian Lutheran pastor who is set to receive it. Karlheinz Kögel, the founder of the prize, wrote in an email to the JPost on Friday:
A deep conflict has unfolded and we do not want to boost it. We have received hundreds of protest emails.
Bethlehem-based pastor Mitri Raheb is slated to receive the humanitarian prize on Thursday in Baden-Baden. Raheb supports the BDS movement, and has rejected the right of the Jewish people to live in Israel. According to B’nai B’rith, Raheb said at the 2010 Christ at the Checkpoint Conference:
Israel represents the Rome of the Bible, not the people of the land. I have the DNA of King Solomon and Jesus. Netanyahu comes from an eastern European tribe who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages.
B’nai B’rith’s Daniel Mariaschin told the JPost:
Mitri Raheb’s words and deeds are a real-time example of the demonization of Israel with the intention of delegitimizing Israel. This should be enough to disqualify him from receiving the prize and should in fact make him the subject of criticism, instead of the recipient of a prestigious award. We have appealed to organizing leader Karlheinz Kögel to withdraw any tribute to Raheb. And if the committee doesn’t withdraw the prize, we are urging former German president Roman Herzog to not participate in the event.
A spokeswoman for Herzog told the JPost last week that he will not issue a statement before the prize ceremony and plans to attend, adding that he will honor all recipients of the prize. The German Coordinating Council of Societies for Christian and Jewish Cooperation slammed Herzog’s decision to praise Raheb, writing in a letter last week:
Dr Raheb revives hostile stereotypes toward Jews and argues Jesus was Palestinian and not a Jew. He advocates that Palestine should replace Israel. His Palestinian liberation theology must be clearly designated as anti-Semitism. His statements recall the anti-Jewish tone of the Nazi period.
Deidre Berger of the AJC wrote Herzog and the Media-Control NGO a letter, demanding that both Herzog and the German group distance themselves from Raheb’s hostile statements toward Jews and Israel. She said last week:
Dr Raheb is known for his radical theology, which is racist and partially anti-Semitic. He denies one of the main pillars of Germany’s foreign policy, namely, the recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
Israeli diplomats in Berlin expressed displeasure with the award to Raheb. Reinhold Robbe, head of the German-Israeli Friendship Society, also objected last week to the decision to honor Raheb, saying:
He is not a promoter of peace.
Raheb responded to the accusations last week in an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau, saying:
Those are, of course, defamatory statements. These people toss terms around without being able to prove anything. They do not want to objectively discuss things. Most of the accusations are not coming from Jews, but rather from Christian Zionists. They do not want a Palestinian to receive a prize in Germany.
