Church of England leaders have shut down a Gaza memorial exhibition after it was found to be honouring Hamas terrorists among the dead.
The Bishop of Leeds pulled the event after local Jewish leaders gave him a dossier showing that a tribute tapestry on display carried the names of at least 25 terrorists from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The two groups led the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.
After the closure, Leeds Minster’s rector, Canon Paul Maybury, apologised in a statement, saying he condemns all violence, particularly the killing of civilians and the taking of hostages by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
But on Saturday night it emerged that Canon Maybury told Jewish protesters at the exhibition that ‘history is complex’ when asked to denounce the terrorists’ kidnapping and killing of civilians.
A 36-second video shows him making the insensitive remarks when asked specifically about the abduction of Ariel Bibas, four, and his nine-month-old brother Kfir, and their mother Shiri, 32.
The three, who were seized from a kibbutz in southern Israel on October 7, later died in Hamas captivity.
Pictures of the screaming mother clutching her two red-haired boys as she was dragged away by masked terrorists became some of the defining images of the attacks.
When Canon Maybury was pressed further, he said ‘no comment’ and walked away.
The Church of England has removed a memorial to those killed in Gaza after it was accused of paying tribute to jihadist fighters
The tapestry, called Stitch Their Names Together, listed the names of people who have died in the conflict with Israel and had been due to remain on display at Leeds Minster until Sunday
His remarks were condemned last night by Jewish leaders and relatives of October 7 victims.
The latest row comes days after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, was forced to withdraw an award she had presented to Muslim cleric Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi after it emerged he had praised Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
At least 90 panels bearing 16,800 names were displayed at the memorial, titled Stitch Their Names Together. The names were taken from the Hamas-run health ministry’s list of the dead in Gaza.
Researchers from the Leeds Jewish Representative Council (LJRC) identified at least 25 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists on the tapestry.
One of them, Hatem Suleiman Abu Sharia, 28, belonged to the Mujahideen Brigades, one of the smaller terrorist groups in Gaza that kidnapped the Bibas family and handed them to Hamas.
Abu Sharia, who was killed in May 2024, was a senior figure on the group’s military council. He was released from an Israeli prison just months before the October 7 attacks.
Others include Salah Shaaban Ismail, 50, who led Islamic Jihad’s sniper unit, was killed in May and has been hailed as a ‘martyr commander’ in the group’s online tributes.
Another is Hamdi Saeed Yousef Toulan, 39, a Hamas field commander killed in December 2024.
Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi (pictured, left) and his wife (centre, left) being presented with The Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation by Dame Sarah Mullally (centre, right)
Tributes calling him a ‘martyr’ and ‘a company commander in the Artillery Battalion of the Northern Brigade’ appeared on Hamas social media channels.
A photograph also showed Toulan in Hamas combat dress.
Other Hamas fighters named on the tapestry include Mohammed Sami Awad Ghurab, 20, and Salem Mohammed Salem Jouda, 43, who are described as ‘martyrs’ on social media, where photographs show them in military fatigues.
The Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Reverend Dr Toby Howarth, closed down the exhibition when the LJRC submitted its dossier to Leeds Minster.
On Saturday night, Itai Galmudy, from the anti-Semitism campaign group Stop The Hate, said: ‘Leeds Minster’s decision to host an exhibition honouring Hamas terrorists was an appalling betrayal of the Church’s own values. That a senior church leader then described Hamas’s murder of children as ‘complex’ is beyond belief.
‘There is nothing complex about the slaughter of innocent children. The Church should be a voice of moral clarity, not an apologist for terrorism.’
Leo Brosh, Yorkshire Manager of the Jewish Leadership Council, said: ‘While it is welcome that Leeds Minster has closed the exhibition, serious questions remain about how they failed to do the most basic due diligence on such a sensitive issue.
‘Without an appropriate response, this episode risks damaging the relationship between British Christians and British Jews at a time of growing antisemitism in the UK.’
Heidi Bachram, a British anti-Semitism campaigner whose husband lost family members during the October 7 attacks, said: ‘It was shocking to me that the church still put on this exhibition even when they were told there were terrorists on it.
‘Paul Maybury’s deeply insensitive response to the kidnapping of the Bibas children was inhuman. How can it be that terrorists get more empathy than the innocent children they murder?’
The Church of England did not comment on Canon Maybury’s ‘complex history’ remarks.
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