Church of England removes Gaza memorial tapestry after Jewish community charges terrorists’ names displayed

The Church of England said yesterday it took down a tapestry listing 16,800 names of people killed in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza after the Jewish community provided evidence it listed terrorists, British media reports.

The “Stitch Their Names Together” memorial, which opened on September 11, was meant to be on display at Leeds Minster until Sunday, but was taken down early after the Leeds Jewish Representative Council shared evidence that the tapestry listed the names of at least 18 terrorists, according to the BBC.

Leeds JRC chairman Simon Myerson KC tells The Telegraph: “At no stage was the Jewish community consulted about the plan to potentially display the names of terrorists in a church in Leeds.”

He decries the fact that the display was put up during the holiest period of the Hebrew calendar year.

“We need a church investigation into how such an event can be put on without any apparent diocesan oversight or proper due diligence,” he says.

Stitch Their Names project founder Mary Evers says the criticism was an attempt to “smear and delegitimize the love and empathy of hundreds of stitchers and thousands of followers for their fellow human beings.”

“Just this week, an attempt to sideline the rap artist Macklemore for speaking out for Palestinian lives has drawn him far more attention and support than his critics bargained for. The world sees through these bad-faith attempts to silence those who speak out for humanity,” she says.

She says the names on the tapestry came from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s register, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.