The Israel News Site "Arutz 7" reported that US Jewish groups slammed a top Presbyterian Church official for Martin Luther King Day remarks that equated Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria with slavery and implied that American Jews have the influence to get the US government to end it.

“The continued occupation in Palestine/Israel is 21st-century slavery and should be abolished immediately,” Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, II, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA said in remarks released Monday.

“Given the history of Jewish humble beginnings and persecution, there should be no ambiguity as to the ethical, moral, and dehumanizing marginalization and enslavement of other human beings. The United States of America must be a major influencer of calling this injustice both immoral and intolerable,” said Nelson who is the senior-most ecumenical officer in the church.

“I would also hope that the Jewish community in the United States would influence the call to join the US government in ending the immoral enslavement. Dr. King continuously preached a Gospel of justice, so that all people could live in dignity.”

An array of Jewish groups condemned the remarks, noting that they appeared to invoke tropes about disproportionate Jewish influence just days after a gunman who had internalized similar anti-Semitic theories held a rabbi and three congregants hostage at a Texas synagogue.

“Rev. Nelson must retract the outrageous statement charging Israel with ‘enslavement’ & holding US Jews responsible for alleged Israeli crimes,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the Anti-Defamation League CEO, said Wednesday on Twitter. “This antisemitism endangers the Jewish people at a time when they’re feeling vulnerable after Colleyville attack.”

Also condemning the remarks were the American Jewish Committee, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Federations of North America, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and Americans for Peace Now.

The JCPA, the Jewish community’s public policy umbrella, routinely engages with the Presbyterian and other churches. In its statement it noted the church’s pro-Palestinian activism in recent years.

US Jewish groups slammed a top Presbyterian Church official for Martin Luther King Day remarks that equated Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria with slavery and implied that American Jews have the influence to get the US government to end it.

“The continued occupation in Palestine/Israel is 21st-century slavery and should be abolished immediately,” Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, II, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA said in remarks released Monday.

“Given the history of Jewish humble beginnings and persecution, there should be no ambiguity as to the ethical, moral, and dehumanizing marginalization and enslavement of other human beings. The United States of America must be a major influencer of calling this injustice both immoral and intolerable,” said Nelson who is the senior-most ecumenical officer in the church.

“I would also hope that the Jewish community in the United States would influence the call to join the US government in ending the immoral enslavement. Dr. King continuously preached a Gospel of justice, so that all people could live in dignity.”

An array of Jewish groups condemned the remarks, noting that they appeared to invoke tropes about disproportionate Jewish influence just days after a gunman who had internalized similar anti-Semitic theories held a rabbi and three congregants hostage at a Texas synagogue.

“Rev. Nelson must retract the outrageous statement charging Israel with ‘enslavement’ & holding US Jews responsible for alleged Israeli crimes,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the Anti-Defamation League CEO, said Wednesday on Twitter. “This antisemitism endangers the Jewish people at a time when they’re feeling vulnerable after Colleyville attack.”

Also condemning the remarks were the American Jewish Committee, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Federations of North America, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and Americans for Peace Now.

The JCPA, the Jewish community’s public policy umbrella, routinely engages with the Presbyterian and other churches. In its statement it noted the church’s pro-Palestinian activism in recent years.

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