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Location:
P21 Gallery, London
Date:
16 Jun 2022
Time:
18:30 - 20:00
Israel and its supporters are increasingly using interfaith alliances to divert attention from Israel’s colonial and apartheid practices. This seminar explored how interfaith dialogue, when driven by pro-Israel actors, is weaponised to obscure political realities, and how genuine interfaith cooperation must be grounded in justice, respect, and a rejection of occupation and oppression.
Key highlights
- The event, titled ‘Faithwashing: How Interfaith Groups Are Being Used to Normalize Israeli Apartheid’, was organised by the Palestinian Forum in Britain in cooperation with EuroPal Forum.
- Chair Batool Subeiti explained that Israel attempts to frame the conflict as a religious issue rather than a political one — turning victims into perpetrators and masking settler-colonialism as religious rights.
- Dr. Daud Abdullah, Director of MEMO, linked the emergence of ‘faithwashing’ to the rise of the BDS movement, describing how pro-Israel actors have used interfaith initiatives to counter growing international solidarity with Palestinians.
- Abdullah dismantled the myth of endemic Jewish-Muslim rivalry, citing historical coexistence during Muslim rule in Europe as proof of a shared heritage.
- Rifat Odeh Kassis, General Coordinator of Kairos Palestine, stressed that true interfaith cooperation must support justice, acknowledge Palestinian resistance, and reject efforts to criminalise it under the guise of religious harmony.
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