Happy for EAPPI
barrier, and such hardships clearly do exist and should be understood. But to hear only those voices, and to compound these views further by meeting only Israelis on the political fringes, no effort is made to engage with ordinary Israelis or to appreciate their own aspirations for peace. Instead, they become inclined to a view that there can be no dialogue with Israel, except through boycott, divestment and sanctions.
For some years now, the EAPPI programme has been run by the Quakers, effectively outsourced by the umbrella body for the various Christian denominations, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. The Quakers themselves currently support a boycott of settlement goods, but when challenged in our discussions with them that such a policy simply supports rejectionists and extremists while actually worsening the economic position of thousands of Palestinians, the reaction was that something, even the wrong thing, has to be done to bring Israel to heel.
Of course the Church of England is, to coin a phrase, a broad church, and the fact that an individual member of Synod decides to introduce such a motion would not in itself suggest an institutional bias against Israel. Except that to get on the agenda for Synod, the motion had to attract 100 signatures, and in the event received more than 150. Many of the signatories will be equally uninformed about the true nature of EAPPI, accepting at face value that it is the gold standard in dispassionate and fair reporting from the Holy Land. That is the danger; that the Church of England will stumble into a policy, led by those with an agenda, that will cast Israel and its supporters (you and me) in an increasingly unsympathetic light.
But we do also have Christian friends of Israel and the Jewish people, who want to defeat these efforts and restore fairness and balance to the debate. There are many groups that promote engagement and reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis, and to give precedence to one that does the opposite is deeply misconceived.
Our challenge between now and the vote at Synod on July 10 is to galvanise our friends, strengthen their efforts and make sure that those who genuinely want peace and justice for Israelis and Palestinians have the last and the loudest word.
For information on how you can help, please visit www.bod.org.uk Jon Benjamin is the chief executive of the Board of Deputies