Lutheran bishop in Jerusalem accuses Israel of genocide

The Lutheran Bishop of Jerusalem, Dr. Sani Ibrahim Azar, has accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, sparking sharp criticism.

“What does the Reformation look like after two years of genocide? What does the Reformation mean when we look at a world, a country so broken? asked a Palestinian pastor during a Reformation Day service at the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday.

According to the text of the sermon posted on Facebook, the bishop of what is officially called the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land did not mention the trigger for the Gaza war, the massacre carried out by the Palestinian militant organization Hamas and other extremists in Israel on October 7, 2023. The attack left 1,200 dead, with more than 250 other people kidnapped in the Gaza Strip.

A delegation from Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament, which attended the ceremony as part of a visit to Israel, expressed horror at Azar’s choice of words.

“We expressly distance ourselves – especially as a German delegation – from the one-sided nature of what was said during the ceremony,” a statement from the state parliament in Düsseldorf, the state capital, said on Saturday.

According to health authorities controlled by Hamas, more than 68,500 people have been killed in the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip, launched in response to the attacks of October 7, 2023. A fragile ceasefire there came into force only three weeks ago.