Israel uses ‘false’ accusation to deport World Council of Churches member
GENEVA: The World Council of Churches (WCC) says Israel used “false” accusations this week for its reason to deport the WCC’s assistant general secretary Isabel Apawo Phiri, a former South African professor.
The WCC’s accusations came from Israel after what the churches group said was “an unprecedented move” against its leaders with the interrogation and deportation by Israel of Dr Phiri, a Malawian national.
The WCC said on Tuesday that Israeli authorities detained, interrogated and deported Phiri upon her arrival in Tel Aviv the preceding day.
The WCC “deeply regrets the Israeli antagonism against the WCC’s initiatives for peace with justice for both Palestinians and Israelis”, said the council’s general secretary, Reverend Olav Fykse Tveit, a Norwegian Lutheran.
Phiri resides in Geneva, Switzerland, where she has served as associate general secretary with responsibility for Public Witness and Diakonia at the offices of the WCC since August 2012.
Prior to that she was a professor of African theology, dean and head of the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics, and director of the Centre for Constructive Theology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg.
She was travelling to attend consultations with church leaders in Jerusalem on the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (Eappi), an activity supported by the WCC globally.
The WCC said the reason given for Phiri’s deportation was “Prevention of illegal immigration considerations”.
She was the only African member of a WCC staff delegation currently visiting Jerusalem, the WCC noted.
All four other members were allowed entry.
The WCC has instructed its legal representatives to lodge an appeal against this “patently unjust and discriminatory action against Phiri” immediately.
“The accusations made against the WCC and the Eappi programme in the interrogation of Dr Phiri and published in the media today are completely false,” said Tveit.
“I am very surprised and dismayed that the Israeli Ministry of Interior is apparently basing its decisions on incorrect and unreliable sources.”
This is not the first time an African working for the WCC has been apprehended, interrogated and deported after arriving in Israel to take part in consultations.
In May, a South African ecologist, Anna-Marie Müller from Stellenbosch, and a Swiss colleague were also deported after being accused of coming to work on the Eappi programme, although she had entered for a meeting not related to the group.
Eappi’s work involves accompanying Palestinians and Israelis, often at army checkpoints, and offering them solidarity with their presence.
It collaborates with Palestinian and Israeli civil society groups. Eappi members report on what happens while observing.
The WCC has sometimes criticised Israeli authorities for their treatment of Palestinians, for the expansion of its settlements and also has said that Israel’s policies on water do not allow for equal access for Palestinians and Israelis to water.
During the apartheid era in South Africa, the WCC was often vilified by the National Party rulers of the time while the churches grouping ran its Campaign to Combat Racism. Independent Foreign Service