Bishop Dawani is being accused off colluding with the Palestinian Authority in shady land dealings. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen but, considering the strident anti-Israel bias of the Western Anglican Church, I’m surprised he had a visa in the first place.

From here:

Bishop Dawani, his wife and daughters had successfully renewed this permit, as required, in 2008 and 2009. On 24 August 2010, Bishop Dawani went to renew the permit with the Ministry of the Interior and was informed in writing that permits for himself, his wife and daughter would not be renewed because of allegations pending against the Bishop. The letter, in Hebrew, included the following: “Bishop Suheil acted with the Palestinian Authority in transferring lands owned by Jewish people to the Palestinians and also helped to register lands of Jewish people in the name of the Church.” There were further allegations that documents were forged by the Bishop. The letter also stated that Bishop Dawani and his family should leave the country immediately.

The Jerusalem Inter-Church Center secretary, Yusef Daher, thinks that Israel doesn’t respect Christians – an odd perspective, considering Israel is the most religiously tolerant nation in the Middle East and is surrounded by rabidly anti-Christian nations who routinely murder Christians. What Daher really means is that Israel has little use for politically motivated pro-Palestinian Anglican prelates whose main contribution to the Israeli people is to criticise them.

“There is a feeling among church leaders that Israel has no respect for Christians or Christian leaders,” Daher said Tuesday (March 1). “There is no respect for the request of the issuing of residency visas.”