“A peculiar and remarkable obscenity” – that is the verdict of the Archbishop of Canterbury on the need for increased police patrols in Jewish neighbourhoods during the commemorations of the liberation of Auschwitz, after the Paris terrorist attacks.
Speaking at the launch of a parliamentary report on anti-Semitism at Lambeth Palace on Monday, Archbishop Welby said that the report was both shocking and timely, as it lifted the lid on the reality of rising anti-Semitism”.
The MPs and peers from the All Party Parliamentary Group into Antisemitism could have had no idea that their report would be so “appropriate in the midst of such a difficult time”, Archbishop Welby said. “It goes to the heart of the belief that all humanity has been made in the image of God. The blasphemy of anti-Semitism is it seeks to . . . destroy that divine gift.”
The report found that there was a 221-per-cent increase in hate crimes directed at Jews during the war between Israel and Gaza last summer, when compared with the same period in 2013.
Source: Church Times