Israeli Chief Rabbi sends letter to Angus Buchan and SA Christians

[notice]Call for support from SA Christians as international campaigns against Israel mount[/notice]

The Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger, has sent a letter of solidarity to South African evangelist Angus Buchan and the Christian community in South Africa, following a recent meeting between Buchan and Jewish representatives in Greytown, Kwazulu Natal.

According to a report on the Newscrate website, Metzger says that after hearing of Buchan’s meeting he wrote the letter “to offer my support to all those involved in the strengthening and support of the State of Israel”.  He says the international community ignored recent atrocities in Israel in which terrorists murdered adults, children and babies. There are strong campaigns throughout the world aimed at demonizing and deligitimizing the country, Metzger says. He calls on supporters to tell the world that Israel is the strongest democracy in the Middle East offering equal rights to Jews, Christians and Muslims, and that it has the right to defend itself.

According to a report on Newscrate, Buchan recently met with three Jewish representatives at Shalom Ministries in Greytown to form ties between the Christian and Jewish communities and to unite in expressing support for Israel.

After the meeting, Buchan posted the following message on his Facebook page: “We need to be praying for the peace of Jerusalem now like never before  ! Psalm 122:6 , when we see what is taking place in the middle East, we see scripture being fulfilled. We can no longer be those who sit on the fence waiting to see which way the wind  blows, Jesus says : —     He who is not  for Me,  is against Me    Matt 12:30, Three  fine looking young men visited me today, they flew in from JHB , and Cape Town, they are South African Jews ,  all they were basically asking, is that we, pray for Israel, and that the ” International Community ”   would accept that the Jews have a legitimate right to live in the land that God gave to Abraham and His  descendants . Genesis 17: 8,  there is enough land for all, God Bless, angus &  Jill .”

South African university cuts ties with Israeli university

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Meanwhile, on March 23, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) became the first university in the world to sever ties with an Israeli institution, when it voted to terminate a collaborative agreement on water pollution studies with its 25-year research partner, the Ben Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev. The UJ decision followed pressure by a petition campaign launched by academics and students calling on the university to end its “apartheid era” association with BGU because of alleged BGU support of military action and abuses against Palestine.

The international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel campaign have hailed the UJ move as a landmark development, saying it sets a worldwide precedent.  More than 400 South African academics, including nine Vice-Chancellors and Deputy Vice-Chancellors, signed the UJ Petition. Well-known South Africans in the list of petition supporters are Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Professors Neville Alexander, Kader Asmal, Allan Boesak, Breyten Breytenbach, John Dugard, Antjie Krog, Barney Pityana and Sampie Terreblanche. South Africa’s popular cartoonist Jonathan “Zapiro” Shapiro,  Bishop Rubin Phillips, former Minister Ronnie Kasrils and social activist Zackie Achmat.

Further, over 100 internationals began to lend their support, including several prominent international scholars: Professors Judith Butler, Vijay Prashad, Michael Burawoy, Wendy Brown, Ernesto Laclau, and acclaimed British author, John Berger.

Jewish and Israeli groups have criticised the UJ decision. Uri Keidar, the leader of the BGU student association, said: “I find it difficult to believe that BGU, the home of 20,000 freethinking students of different religious and ethnic backgrounds, is under this brutal attack.”

Rivka Carmi, BGU president, said: “The only losers in this decision are the people of South Africa,” while a spokeswoman for South Africa’s Jewish Board of Deputies said such boycotts threatened freedom of speech.

Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, said it was a “misguided and shortsighted” move.

“In demonising and rejecting BGU solely because it is an Israeli academic institution, this highly political decision does nothing to promote Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation and understanding.

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“Moreover, it will deprive all South Africans of the new technologies being developed by BGU scientists to purify water.”

6 Comments

  1. The University of Johannesburg joins a long list of biased hypocrites against Israel.
    Israel has a God given right to exist and also like any other nation has the right to defend itself when attacked first.

  2. Please go to http://www.sazionism.co.za to read a Superb e mail to a major denomination on the incredible contribution that Israel is making to the welfare of the world.

  3. Well done UJ.

    ‘God given right’ or “Zionist given right?” . If someone throws a rock you launch missiles back?

    Zionism is an institution not a religion. Don’t confuse the 2

  4. Let’s have a look at this. Jo’burg University is a blown up Technikon that now has some ANC cadre running it. It is the same university that had problems with students publicly having intercourse in parks on the public campus. These are our moral giants. Ben Gurion University on the other hand has a history of adding to the world with inventions and scientific research. South Africa is a dry country and BGU is expert in this area. So we break off the relationship because of “political” reasons. That’s cutting off our noses to spite our face.
    So the ANC who would murder innocent farmers and children, now can dictate what is morally correct. That’s what the “Palestinians” are doing; firing rockets at civilian centres and murdering unarmed children and worshipers in cold blood. We can see what Hamas and the ANC have in common.
    The ANC are now running this country into a “banana republic” by deploying incompetent politically well placed ANC cadre into jobs which very few have any skills to do the job. They then enrich their political masters with dodgy deals and just plain dipping their hands into the till.
    Let’s also look at the supporters, Muslims and atheists. The good bishop Desmond Tutu saw it right to expel and my wife from the Anglican Church because she had been divorced so we know he lives by the rules. Now he accepts killing of civilians and criticises attacks on military targets. You should retire your moral standard completely “Good Bishop” because they are seriously screwed up. Maybe you should also support our police killing unarmed protestors. That happened the other day. It’s good time to get on with it. You can support that pillar of moral fortitude, General Field Marshal Cele VC, DFC etc. It is the same thing.
    Alan Boesak took the liberals money and lived it up and divorced his wife and married a white cookie before he spent time in jail for his efforts. Another moral pillar of society.
    As to all the other liberal supporters; why don’t you look at the facts? Since Israel’s creation they have had to defend themselves from their neighbours and they have continuously handed back land they took to their neighbours trying to establish peace in the region and what have they received in reply; continuous attacks on their civilian population, a stated position of destroying their nation as a matter of policy and world-wide condemnation. Only the blind cannot see this.
    So here we have it Muslims, incompetents, atheists, moral degenerates and liberal do-gooders who have never done anything good, agree splitting with BGU was a good thing, was a good thing while farmers, people who live in our dry country and normal people scratching out a living are made to suffer. Another ANC mess that we are in! But they have to be supported because they are a liberation movement. The only thing they are liberating at present is our tax money. But they are the moral high ground?
    Now we wait for Jesus’ second coming because Zuma has had the vision that he will rule till that happens and in case that vision is wrong, a vote for the ANC will get you into heaven and voting for the opposition will see you in hell. Same author. So maybe we must wait for the Prophet of the Union Building to have a vision about Israel?

  5. God bless all Israelis everywhere I pray for the peace of Jerusalem daily I love them as brothers in Christ

  6. PN Douglas-Henry

    I am a graduate of UJ. I used to be proud of UJ but no more. I am so ashamed of this university and its hypocritical stand. If I had known that they would do this I would never have studied there.