Hundreds of articles involving Swedish “Christian Aid” organisation Diakonia and the “desperate situation in Gaza”.
Fruit stall in “Desperate Gaza“
Hundreds of articles by Diakonia about the “Israeli assault on Gaza’s civilians” in Operation Cast Lead last year. According to Diakonia there was no reason for Israel’s actions whatsoever – 10,000 missiles from Gaza fired on Israeli civilians over a period of eight years never happened, Hamas has never sworn to erase the Jewish state, Hamas has not invaded Israel and kidnapped a Jewish Israeli teenager from inside Israel, Hamas does not broadcast systematic anti-Semitism from its mosques, schools, kindergartens, websites or theatres or via the written media, radio airwaves or on TV.
For more anti-Semitic vilification see the following clip:
Not one article by Diakonia about the systematic persecution of Christians in Gaza.
Not one article by Diakonia about the fact that Gaza is totally ethnically cleansed of every last Jew, including the dead – with the exception of young Gilad Schalit, who was kidnapped from Israel almost 4 years ago and is still held without any consideration for his most basic human rights.
Not one article by Diakonia about the systematic persecution of Christian Copts in Egypt.
Not one article by Diakonia about the systematic persecution, including murder, rape, extortion and public beatings, of Christians in the West Bank – the area made up the two Jewish provinces of Judea and Samaria that the local Palestinian Arabs want as a gift from the Jewish state for the creation of a second Palestinian Arab Muslim state alongside the first Palestinian Arab Muslim state of Jordan. Like Gaza, Jordan is already ethnically cleansed of Jews, and the proposed new Palestinian Arab state will also be ethnically cleansed of Jews. In Israel, meanwhile, 20 percent of the population consists of Muslim and Christian Arabs. Diakonia sees no disparity here, and no reason to engage.
In fact, Swedish “Christian” aid organisation Diakonia fails to see a problem in any of the above.
Time therefore to quote from Diakonia’s own website:
“The aim of our work is for all people to be allowed to live under dignified circumstances in a just and sustainable world.” Diakonia apparently considers it dignified for Jews to live in bomb shelters while 10,000 missiles rain down on their homes from neighbouring Islamist Gaza.
“Non-discrimination is the central principle, meaning that everybody should be in possession of their human rights.” The fact that a teenage Jew was kidnapped from Israel and has been held in an underground dungeon in total contravention of his basic human rights and indeed a whole raft of international laws is not of no consequence for Diakonia. Diakonia does not feel it is engaged in active discrimination by supporting Schalit’s captors while utterly ignoring the kidnap victim’s plight.
“Nationality, ethnicity, religion, language, sexual orientation or political opinion must not matter.” Tell that to the followers of the Catholic and other Christian denominations of Gaza and the PA-controlled West Bank. Diakonia seems to be the only ostensibly Christian organisation in the world to consistently and systematically ignore human rights abuses against Christians – if they are perpetrated by Muslim organisations and states.
“Every person’s spiritual and cultural needs must be met in order to create confidence in their own identity and development.” The long-suffering and increasingly discriminated and decimated Copts of Egypt might have a few opinions on that score.
Sweden’s Diakonia was jointly founded in 1966 by five organisations:
The Swedish Alliance Mission
The Baptist Union of Sweden
Evangeliska Frikyrkan/InterAct (information in Swedish only)
The Methodist Church in Sweden (information in Swedish only)
The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden
Diakonia is funded by Sweden – both by private individuals and by the Swedish state. That means taxed income.
There has been immense criticism of the virulent anti-Israel, borderline anti-Semitic, stance of Diakonia and many other “aid” organizations.
Now, not content with ignoring the plight of Christians throughout the Middle East, and not content with ignoring the plight of Jews in the world’s sole Jewish state, this ostensibly Christian organisation is now aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation that the rest of the free world recognizes as a terrorist organisation – Hamas. Diakonia is determined to break the law and breach the international security cordon around the enclave that the terrorists seized in Gaza, by sailing a ship to the Gaza Strip.
And what exactly is this Hamas that Swedish organisation Diakonia is so keen to aid? Watch the following clip and judge for yourself whether Hamas should be allowed to be in charge of Gaza, or whether it’s a clear case of the lunatics being left in charge of the asylum. Hamas believes that the recent eruption of the volcano in Iceland was the work of God against non-Muslims and all other “infidels”. This fits in perfectly with the many Islamist conspiracy theories rife in Palestinian Arab society, among the more striking the absolute conviction that Israel has developed chewing gum that targets only Arab women and makes them uncontrollably promiscuous, that the Jewish state has bred rats to drive Arabs (and only Arabs) out of their homes, that Israel has trained snakes to attack Arabs (and only Arabs) and devised traffic lights that obstruct cars driven by Muslims while giving priority to cars driven by Jews. No, seriously!
Diakonia is dedicated to guaranteeing “Every person’s spiritual and cultural needs … in order to create confidence in their own identity and development.” Swedish tax revenues are being spent, and Christian Swedes are donating their hard-earned income in these difficult economic times, to an organisation that actively aids and abets this type of world-view in Palestinian Arab society because Diakonia has decided that these are spiritual and cultural needs linked to a distinct ethnic/religious identity that furthers development.
Interesting.
Meantime, of course, Diakonia ignores very real human rights issues close by and further afield. After all, kidnapped youngster Gilad Schalit is right there in Gaza, the area that Diakonia wishes to “aid”, but Diakonia makes no attempt to make its aid conditional on young Schalit’s release.
Which explains everything you ever wanted to know about Diakonia.
For an interesting view from Africa on the sort of facts and perspective that always seem to escape Diakonia’s attention, read the following article by South African journalist Rhoda Kadalie.
Read also:
NGO Monitor: Diakonia: An analysis of activities in the Arab-Israeli conflict
NGO Monitor: Sweden’s clouded EU presidency