Israel Matzav

Israel blasts European Council's 'moral stain' on circumcision

Israel's foreign ministry has blasted a resolution against circumcision that was passed on Thursday by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe as a moral stain.

"Circumcision of male children is an ancient religious tradition of two important religions, Judaism and Islam, and it is also common among some Christian circles," the Foreign Ministry staid in a statement. "Any comparison of this tradition to the reprehensible and barbaric practice of female genital mutilation is either appalling ignorance, at best, or defamation and anti-religious hatred, at worst."

The Council's resolution called male ritual circumcision "a violation of the physical integrity of children" and called on  states to "initiate a public debate, including intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, aimed at reaching a large consensus on the rights of children to protection against violations of their physical integrity according to human rights standards
The  Foreign Ministry statement said that claims circumcision harms the health of young boys are false and run contrary to scientific evidence.

The resolution, the statement continued, is "an intolerable attack both on the respectable and ancient religious tradition that lies at the base of European culture, and on modern medical science and its findings. This resolution casts a moral stain on the Council of Europe, and fosters hate and racist trends in Europe. We call on the Council of Europe to act without delay in order to annul it."

The Council is a pan-European intergovernmental organization of 47 member states that is not affiliated with the European Union, and which cannot make binding laws.

Whenever the gentiles want to attack us, the first things they attack are circumcision, Torah study and ritual slaughter. Not necessarily in that order.

Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Labels: circumcision, European anti-Semitism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:45 PM