To not stand with Israel is to reject Christian faith - former archbishop

A former Archbishop of Canterbury urged the Christian community to align themselves with Israel, asserting that failure to do so would be a departure from their faith.

“Israel is under threat on a level that seems equal to anything they have experienced after 1948. Christian people must stand with Israel at this time. To do otherwise would be a rejection of our faith and democracy,” Lord Carey of Clifton, George Carey, said last week during the European Coalition for Israel’s Emergency Summit on Global Antisemitism in Geneva. 

The former archbishop said that while “we are not to be totally surprised” by the October 7 Hamas massacre and the subsequent rise in antisemitism worldwide – “we have witnessed the eve of antisemitism again and again before and since the Holocaust – he noted that “Israel is under threat on a level that seems equal to anything it has met since 1948.

“I am not optimistic,” Carey said in his video address. 

Israel’s Emergency Summit on Global Antisemitism in Geneva

ECI is the only non-Jewish, pro-Israel group accredited to the European Union in Brussels. The organization is also active in the United Nations in Geneva and New York.

Diplomats and faith leaders from across Europe attended the emergency summit, which was held on January 24 at the UN headquarters in Geneva. The World Jewish Congress co-hosted the summit, which concluded with a Holocaust Memorial in Paroisse de l’Oratoire in the old city of Geneva.

Bishop Teemu Laajasalo from the Diocese of Helsinki of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the German Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Nikola Gillhoff spoke at the evening event.

Carey was archbishop from 1991 to 2002, known for his evangelical beliefs. The Archbishop of Canterbury is responsible for areas of England south of the former counties of Cheshire and Yorkshire.