Leeds Minster has removed a memorial to Palestinians killed in Gaza after a local Jewish group said the memorial bore the names of a number of Hamas fighters.
The incident comes just days after the Archbishop of Canterbury revoked an award to an Islamic cleric who previously praised Osama bin Laden.
The memorial, called “Stitch Their Names Together”, took the form of a tapestry that listed the names of those killed in Israel-Gaza conflict - all sewn by hand.
However, the Leeds Jewish Representative Council (JRC) took issue with the display and provided the Minster with evidence that at least 18 of the names on the tapestry belonged to known terrorists. Similarly the Jewish Leadership Council in London said that at least 12 of the names almost certainly belonged to members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant groups.
Simon Myerson KC, chairman of the Leeds JRC, complained in The Telegraph that the Jewish community was not consulted about the project and suggested it was an insult to display the names during the “ten days of awe”, the period that runs from Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) to Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement).
Mary Evers, who founded the Stich Their Names Together project said that the memorial was a “recognition” of the “humanity” of the “tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children” that have died.
Evers described criticism of the project as a “smear” and “bad faith” attempt to silence those concerned that a “terrible crime is taking place”.
Last week the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, withdrew The Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation from Islamic cleric Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi.
After receiving the award it emerged that in 2007 the cleric had praised Osama bin Laden, the man behind the September 11th terrorist attacks, as a “Sword of God”.
