Embrace the Middle East

Activities

• Embrace the Middle East “supports projects in Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria.”
• Embrace the Middle East has provided grants to Caritas Jerusalem, East Jerusalem YMCA, Kairos Britain, JAI Olive Tree Project, Near East Council of Churches, Palestinian Bible Society, and others. (See table below for funding amounts.)

Political Advocacy

• While Embrace the Middle East runs schools and organizes educational programming and other community development initiatives, it promotes an entirely biased and distorted view of the conflict based solely on the Palestinian narrative of victimization and Israeli aggression.
• Endorsed the Kairos Palestine document, which promotes BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions); denies the Jewish historical connections to Israel in theological terms; and rationalizes, justifies, and trivializes terrorism, calling it “legal resistance.”
• Embrace the Middle East has provided funding to Society of St Yves.
  • According to Arabic language media, in 2011, Raed Halabi, Society of St. Yves’ “head of the advocacy department,” was convicted and sentenced to 26-months in prison for “organizational activity in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” (PFLP) – a designated terrorist organization in the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. Electronic Intifada reported that in 2004, Halabi was sentenced to two-years in prison.  In May 2017, Society of St. Yves reported that “the Israeli authorities arrested St. Yves’ advocacy and field officer, Mr. Raed Halabi.”
• In July 2025, Embrace the Middle East was a signatory on a statement that called on States to “pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition.”
• In February 2025, Embrace the Middle East was a signatory on a statement calling on “governments producing F-35 fighter jets to immediately halt all arms transfers to Israel, including the F-35 jets.”
• In November 2024, Embrace the Middle East launched a campaign titled “Advent Not Arms.” According to the campaign, “This Advent season, Embrace the Middle East has launched a campaign urging the UK Government to suspend arms sales to Israel amid escalating violence and a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.”
• In September 2024, Embrace the Middle East was a signatory on a statement to the UK Business and Trade Secretary calling for an “review of trade relations with Israel, to ensure full compliance with the UK’s international legal obligations and uphold respect for human rights.”
• In September 2024, Embrace the Middle East was a signatory on a statement “urg[ing] the UK Government to immediately suspend all UK arms exports to Israel, which risk fuelling violations of international law and atrocity crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
• In September 2024, following the UK government’s decision to suspend some arms licenses to Israel, Embrace the Middle East was a signatory on a statement claiming, “Given that recognition, and the clear and compelling evidence that the Israeli military is violating IHL, it is insufficient that the Government has failed to end ALL arms transfers to Israel.”
• In April 2024, Embrace the Middle East signed an open letter to Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron calling on the UK to “immediately halt arms licences and exports to the Government of Israel.”
• In March 2024, Embrace the Middle East was a signatory on a statement “urg[ing] the UK, US and other world powers to halt additional arms sales to Israel, and make clear that Israel, the UK, the US and all countries must abide by Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” According to the statement, “The United States and other nations’ further militarization of the conflict makes no one safer and instead prolongs suffering and causes more death and destruction. We call on the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and France to join the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Japan to halt additional military support and arms to Israel and not be complicit in the ongoing military campaign that is having such devastating effects on civilians in Gaza.”
• In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, Embrace the Middle East published a statement calling for the “Acknowledgement of the failure of the international community to effectively engage with any meaningful peace process, and a commitment to work ceaselessly from now on to address the root causes of the violence which must include an end to the occupation.”
• In June 2023, Embrace the Middle East joined a campaign pledging to fight the UK’s anti-BDS bill. According to Embrace the Middle East, “If passed into law, this Bill would have the perverse, and possibly unintended, effect of bringing to an end the UK’s decades-long compliance with international law prohibiting the acquisition of territory by conquest…The Bill explicitly prohibits UK public bodies from scrutinising Israel, now or at any point in the future, in respect of any violations of human rights carried out by Israel in the territories that it controls. This gives Israel unprecedented impunity.”
• In October 2021, Embrace the Middle East was a signatory on a statement condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the statement, “The risk of operations ending for some of those organisations, is an attack on human rights and will leave Palestinian children and others unable to access adequate and essential services… [the UK Government] must now take urgent practical steps to reiterate its public support to Palestinian human rights defenders and humanitarian and development organisations.”
• In April 2021, Embrace the Middle East signed a joint statement welcoming the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch of a formal investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the “State of Palestine.” The statement condemned the UK’s opposition to the ICC investigation, stating that “The investigation is the first genuine hope that alleged perpetrators of the most serious crimes will be held to account for their actions…”
• In May 2018, during the violence on the Gaza border, Embrace the Middle East condemned the “lethal and indiscriminate use by the Israeli military of live fire…Yesterday’s events mark a new low in a long and profoundly dispiriting cycle of violence and contempt for human life that is becoming the shameful hallmark of Israel’s treatment of the people of Gaza, supported implicitly by some in the international community.” Embrace the Middle East ignored the violent nature of the protests, which included Molotov cocktails, arson, and attempts to breach the border fence with Israel.
• In March 2018, Programmes and Partnerships Manager for Israel & Palestine Stephen Tunstall accused Israel of turning Gaza into an “open air prison.”
• On June 27, 2017, Embrace the Middle East held its “2017 Annual Lecture” featuring a “thought-provoking lecture that explores Britain’s historical and current relationship with Palestine…2017 marks some significant and momentous anniversaries: 100 years since the Balfour Declaration, which committed Britain to support a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine; 70 years since the ill-fated UN Partition Plan for Palestine; 50 years since the Six Day War and the start of Israel’s occupation; and ten years since the start of Israel’s blockade of Gaza.”
• On June 8, 2017, Tunstall wrote that “Until the Israeli occupation of Palestine ends, there will be no peace and the people of Gaza, in particular, will continue to suffer and die needlessly as a result of poverty and violence,” placing sole blame for the conflict on Israel and omitting Hamas terror against Israeli civilians, Palestinian rejectionism, as well as legitimate Israeli national security concerns.
• In June 2017, Embrace the Middle East sponsored a Methodist Conference Fringe event titled “Justice delayed, justice denied; Israel and Palestine in 2017” to “reflect on significant anniversaries in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this year, including 100 years since the Balfour declaration, 50 years of Israel’s military occupation of Palestine and 10 years of the blockade on Gaza, and what actions the Church can boldly take to help bring about a just peace for all in the Holy Land.”
• In January 2017, Embrace the Middle East released its “Lent study guide: Moving to the margins,” which called for people to write to their MPs and Prime Minister asking “to ensure all the materials necessary for rebuilding homes and businesses in Gaza are delivered without delay. Essential reconstruction items like wood, cement, and water pumps are prevented by Israel from entering Gaza and innocent people are suffering the consequences.” Embrace the Middle East ignores the necessity behind the construction of the blockade and its role in stopping Hamas’ smuggling of weapons and rockets used to target Israeli citizens.
  • Embrace the Middle East provides on its website a sample letter to MPs calling for the UK government to “use its influence with Israel as the occupying power under international law to improve both the healthcare infrastructure in Gaza and patients’ access to healthcare…Israel’s blockade of Gaza which began in 2007 prevents essential supplies from entering and many patients requiring medical treatment from leaving.”
• Supports the “World Week of Peace in Palestine Israel,” organized by the World Council of Churches, which calls for “advocacy and action in support of an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine.” The WCC plays a key role in mobilizing churches worldwide to support the international boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
• On May 22, 2016, Jeremy Moodey, then CEO of Embrace the Middle East, spoke at Oxford’s “Palestine Unlocked” festival on “The Twice Promised Land: Britain’s Role in Creating 100 Years of  Conflict in Palestine.”
  • Moody has called Zionism “an incoherent and racist theology.”
  • Moody posted a July 9, 2015 tweet endorsing BDS, stating: “Ten years of #BDS against Israel’s occupation of #Palestine. Major achievements for a movement that is now mainstream.”
  • Moody sent an October 2013 letter to The Methodist Observer “explaining why Embrace the Middle East is encouraging Christians to consider BDS as a non-violent tool to end the occupation.”
  • Posted an August 17, 2015 tweet alleging, “The reality of Israeli settler- colonialism in #Palestine: bulldozers demolish ancient olive trees nr Bethlehem today.”
• Embrace the Middle East published an “Advent Services Resource Pack,” which links “the familiar Christmas story to the stories of those living in the lands of the Bible TODAY,” in an attempt to exploit religious symbols and narratives to demonize Israel.
• Publishes lesson plans for teachers to use in schools. One, on the theme of “Walls,” attempts to explain “the difficulties some Palestinian children have in getting to school” due to the security barrier. The lesson plan promotes the Palestinian narrative of victimization and Israeli aggression, while ignoring that the security barrier was constructed in response to a prolonged and brutal suicide bombing campaign by Palestinians groups against Israeli civilians.
• Co-signed an August 2015 campaign, calling on world leaders “to press the Israeli government to lift the blockade on Gaza,” while altogether omitting that the blockade was implemented in an effort to stop Palestinian terrorists from smuggling of weapons and rockets into Gaza that would later be used to target Israeli civilians.
  • Co-signatories include a number of other highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict: Broederlijk Delen, Christian Aid, CCFD, Diakonia, French Platform of NGOs for Palestine, Heinrich Boll Foundation Palestine, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Medico International, Norwegian Church Aid, Norwegian People’s Aid, Oxfam, Pax Christi, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, Trocaire, Lutheran World Federation, and World Vision.

Staff

• Katharine Von Schubert, a trustee, previously worked at Oxfam as a “Policy Officer for Israel & Palestinian Territories,” where she “Developed policy, advocacy and communications strategies for Oxfam’s work in the Palestinian Territories and Israel including research and writing of Oxfam International briefing papers.”
• Revd Munther Isaac, the regional advisor to the board of trustees, serves as the Director of the Christ at the Checkpoint conferences.
  • In February 2024, in a sermon in the UK, Isaac claimed, “Gaza is the moral compass of the world. We either side with the logic or power and ruthlessness, with the lords of war, and with those who justify and rationalize the killing of children. Or you side with the victims of oppression and injustice, and those who are besieged and dehumanized by the forces of Empire and colonization. It is really a simple choice: you either support a genocide, turn a blind eye or justify a genocide, or you cry out: No! Not in our name…This is not a conflict; Israel is not exercising its right for self-defense. Rather; Israel is the colonizer; Israel is a settler colonial entity. We live under apartheid. What is happening in Gaza in a genocide and ethnic cleansing. Continuing to repeat the Empire narrative only serves to empower the aggressors.”