Archbishop of York Suffers from Foot in Mouth Disease

COMMENTARY

By David W. Virtue, DD

www.virtueonline.org

November 21, 2025

The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell—an archbishop who should have resigned over failed safeguarding issues—now feels it his duty to lecture Israel on "genocidal acts" while the nation fights for its survival against Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and Iran.

Cottrell, the second-most senior bishop in the Church of England, has become the first senior CofE prelate to deploy such inflammatory language since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October 2023. His timing is as remarkable as his judgment is questionable.

The archbishop recently visited Israel and made his way to the West Bank—more accurately known as Judea and Samaria—ostensibly to see for himself what is happening on the ground.

In an interview with the Church Times, he declared the situation in the occupied West Bank amounts to "apartheid" and "ethnic cleansing," while admitting "it gives me no joy whatsoever to use those words."

If it gave him no joy, then why use them? This is precisely like admitting the Church of England has catastrophic safeguarding failures but doing nothing substantive because the complainants supposedly don't understand what happened to them and are perhaps overstating the problem. The parallel is striking.

Here's what Cottrell conveniently overlooks: the reason for restricted movement in the West Bank is that terrorists have a documented habit of murdering settlers, soldiers, and anyone else they deem enemies of the yet-to-exist state of Palestine. Roadblocks exist to prevent attacks, not to respond to them after bodies are counted.

The Israelis learned this lesson the hard way on October 7, 2023, when hundreds of Hamas terrorists crossed from Gaza into Israel by land, air, and sea to slaughter 1,200 Israelis and abduct more than 150 hostages. Israel is still reeling from that trauma. It is entirely rational—indeed, morally imperative—for Israel to prevent a repeat of Gaza on the West Bank.

During the Gaza war, Israeli forces conducted multiple ground incursions into several Palestinian cities and refugee camps in the West Bank, including Jenin and Tulkarm. These operations had clear justification: preventing terrorist attacks. The Israeli incursions led to clashes with Palestinian militants. Regrettably, at least 806 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the conflict began, including 143 children. The United Nations recorded more than 800 Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians between October 2023 and May 2024. Israel arrested an estimated 10,000 West Bank Palestinians between October 7, 2023, and August 2024.

And the archbishop wonders why he was repeatedly stopped by security forces and asked to move on? The naiveté is breathtaking.

What Cottrell fails to acknowledge is that tensions and violence between Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank were escalating long before the 2023 war began. This is not a new phenomenon sparked by Israeli aggression—it is a chronic condition rooted in decades of conflict and genuine security threats.

Israel has committed "genocidal acts," Cottrell claims—a softer formulation than outright genocide, but damning nonetheless. Archbishops and bishops have mastered the art of parsing language to avoid appearing too committed to any stated position, lest they be accused of dogmatism or fundamentalism. After all, moral clarity is apparently the hobgoblin of small minds.

The Archbishop of York described the situation in Gaza as "a deliberate and unacceptable denial of human dignity."

Predictably, he received immediate pushback.

Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the UK's Chief Rabbi, described the archbishop's comments as an "irresponsible approach," adding that "reaching for the incendiary and morally inverted accusation of 'genocidal acts' will serve only to foster yet more enmity and division."

The Board of Deputies of British Jews also expressed concern about the archbishop's comments and indicated it would contact his office seeking clarification.

Cottrell's remarks followed a four-day pilgrimage to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, during which armed Israeli soldiers, police, and local security forces repeatedly required him to leave areas he was visiting.

"It was for me, who hadn't experienced anything like this before, a bit real," he said in a speech about his visit. Apparently, it never occurred to the archbishop that these security personnel might have been concerned for his safety—that they might know something about the danger he was blithely walking into that he, in his comfortable English naiveté, did not.

"What we experienced that afternoon, frightening and intimidating though it was, however, is just a tiny, tiny example of what Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank are experiencing every day," he said. "They are being forced out of their homes and off their land."

Cottrell added: "It is truly horrific. It is a deliberate and unacceptable denial of human dignity and human rights."

"If you are a Palestinian living in the West Bank…you live in a deeply discriminatory political regime that intentionally and clearly prioritises the political, legal and social rights of Israeli settlers over Palestinians living in the same territory."

What about the fact that Israel withdrew entirely from Gaza in 2005, dismantling settlements and relocating thousands of its own citizens, creating the possibility of a prosperous, peaceful Palestinian state? The Palestinians and Hamas chose tunnels, rockets, and perpetual war instead. That inconvenient truth receives no mention from Cottrell.

And what about the dignity and human rights of the 1,200 women, children, and unarmed civilians slaughtered, burned, beheaded, and abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023? Why has Cottrell remained conspicuously silent about them? Do their lives not merit the archbishop's moral outrage?

"What else can you call that but something like apartheid," Cottrell asks rhetorically.

The archbishop made clear that "it is the Israeli Government that is to blame, and not Judaism or the Jewish people and this distinction is really important – these are political decisions, political matters, and we have to choose different paths."

And what path would that be? Compromise with those who openly call for Israel's destruction? Capitulation to terrorists? Allowing Palestinians who harbor pathological hatred of Israel to establish a state on its border in permanent hostility? Cottrell offers no serious answers, only pious platitudes.

Cottrell's remarks represent a dangerous escalation in rhetoric, demanding accountability while ignoring context.

He declared: "For too long, the international community has been complicit in the neglect of international law and the protection of basic human rights in the region. If we tolerate this here then where will we tolerate it next?

"So, where international law has been broken and rights denied, those responsible must be held accountable, even after the war's end. Despite some sort of ceasefire in Gaza, it is still a very long way from the peace that is needed, one that can only be made when there is justice for all people in Israel and Palestine."

Does Cottrell seriously believe Hamas wants peace? What fictional universe is he inhabiting? Hamas could end the war today by laying down their arms and releasing the remaining hostages. But martyrdom and the promise of paradise hold greater appeal than coexistence with Jews.

Hamas has zero interest in ending the war or pursuing "justice for all." They cannot even maintain peace with rival Palestinian factions. The moment a ceasefire was declared, they turned on other groups competing for power. The ceasefire has merely given Hamas time to rearm, with reports indicating that Iran has already funneled $1 billion to assist Hamas in rebuilding its military capabilities. Apparently, Cottrell missed that memo.

In the final analysis, who deserves credibility? Israel, a democratic nation fighting for its existence against enemies sworn to its annihilation? Or Cottrell and the chorus of nations that would celebrate Israel's destruction in favor of a single Palestinian state?

The answer should be obvious to anyone committed to moral clarity rather than fashionable condemnation.

END