By: Aryeh Savir
Israel vigorously denied claims by the Head of the Sebastia Diocese of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, Archbishop Atallah Hanna, that it had attempted to poison him and accused him of spreading a “blood-libel” against the Jewish state.
Speaking to the official Jordanian TV channel from a hospital in Amman in which he was being treated late last month, Hanna alleged that “what happened could be an assassination attempt, or an attempt to keep me sick throughout life.”
“I cannot be certain that Israel is behind this incident, but indications show that it is behind it,” he alleged.
Several anti-Israel organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Mideast Monitor, picked up on his claims and spread it as news.
Responding to the serious charges, Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat on Sunday rejected the “unfounded remarks” made by Hanna which are “completely without foundation and are a continuation of a despicable defamation campaign against Israel.”
“The accusations that stem from these remarks are redolent of blood-libel,” he said, referring to the age-old history of Christians blaming Jews of various wrongdoings in an attempt to harm them physically or otherwise.
Haiat said that “we expect a clergyman to adhere to the truth and that clergymen around the world denounce these outrageous false proclamations and refrain from distributing this libel.”
One social media user quipped that she was “fairly certain that if Israel had reason to poison someone, they’d get it right the first time.”
Hanna is a vocal anti-Israel activist who has displayed support for terrorists and is involved with Christian anti-Israel organizations.
In 2000, he accused Israel of practicing “ethnic cleansing against the Arabs, Muslim and Christian.”
In 2001, he sent a message to the United Nations Human Rights Commission calling for “immediate and rapid intervention” by the UN “to save the Palestinian people from the terrible massacres being carried out by the occupation forces.”
He has since been embroiled in several incidents surrounding his anti-Israel, and often anti-Semitic, activities.
(TPS)