World Council of Churches Denounces ’Israel’: We were Detained, Interrogated, Intimidated!

Local Editor

The apartheid "Israeli" entity masters ill treatment not against Palestinians but against all visitors to the Occupied territories.

After traveling to "Ben Gurion" Airport in Tel Aviv in the last week for a climate justice meeting, World Council of Churches [WCC] staff and partners were detained or deported in a manner that WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit terms both unprecedented and intolerable.

"The WCC protests the excessive, unreasonable and wholly unwarranted treatment by the "Israeli" authorities of these representatives of WCC member churches and staff traveling to engage in discussions on climate change and environmental stewardship, at the invitation of and hosted by WCC's member churches in the region," he said.

Members of the WCC's Working Group on Climate Change from as many as 13 countries reported they were held for hours of interrogation, including tough intimidation and detention in prison-like conditions for up to three days - a very difficult experience, Tveit said.

"We react in different ways emotionally to experiences like this. For all of them, I think it was totally unexpected and very disturbing, for most of them shocking, as they have never experienced anything like this before."

Although there have been small incidents in the past, there has been nothing approaching this level of intimidation, Tveit added.

Travelers were detained, interrogated and intimidated. Expressing his concern about the effect of such treatment on people, Tveit said he had no reason to believe there would be any problem for people traveling to this meeting, particularly since there have been other such meetings over many years, not only related to climate change but also to ecumenical relations, peacemaking and theological reflection.

In response, the WCC called on the "Israeli" government for an apology as well as to desist its aggressive behavior toward WCC member churches and staff in the future.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team