Wahroonga Friends Bulletin - 6 May 2026
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Wahroonga Friends Bulletin - 6 May 2026
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The Salter Lecture 2026 –
The Middle East: a Moral Catastrophe?
A leading British-Israeli journalist has warned of a catastrophic breakdown in international law and shared values, in this year's Salter Lecture.
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Delivering The Middle East: a moral catastrophe? on 3 May, Rachel Shabi (pictured above) told Quakers gathered in Friends House, Euston, and online that the war in Gaza is part of a wider decline in global norms. It was, she said: “A shattering so seismic that it ripped through all our institutions as they supported or funded, obfuscated or misreported the intolerable violence that rained down upon the people of Gaza without mercy and without end." But she added: “In truth, the moral collapse goes deeper."
Conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, she argued, had already torn up established rules, creating what she described as a kind of “permission architecture" for further abuses. The roots of the current situation in the Middle East went back much further, she said.
Shabi, who was born in Israel to Iraqi Jews, said the creation of the Israeli state cannot be separated from European antisemitism, a form of racism that drove Jewish communities to seek safety. At the same time, she said: “The Jewish national project that produced Israel was, from the perspective of Palestinians, unequivocally and unambiguously colonial." Quoting historian Hakem Al-Rustom, she urged audiences to see these histories “as strands of the same rope, tightly braided together".
Despite her stark analysis, Shabi said universal values still endure. She pointed to individuals and movements continuing to defend human rights. She ended by encouraging steady, principled action, drawing on Quaker traditions of peace and justice. Salter Lecture 2026 – The Middle East: A Moral Catastrophe? See - The Middle East: a Moral Catastrophe? – Rachel Shabi | Salter Lecture 2026Rachel Shabi is an award-winning journalist and author who has reported extensively on Israel-Palestine and the wider Middle East, including the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Her recent book, Off-White: The Truth about Antisemitism, received widespread acclaim. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown praises her ‘unique sensibility, embodying multiple identities and universal, non-negotiable human rights’. It is available from the Quaker Bookshop: https://bookshop.quaker.org.uk/off-wh...Rachel’s lecture looks at the West’s selective empathy and deeper ignorance of racism in all its forms and argues for a genuine universalism rooted in consistent, principled antiracism. See it here The Middle East: a moral catastrophe? – Rachel Shabi | Salter Lecture 2026
UK Quakers Warn Parliament
Over Protest Crackdown
Quakers have warned a parliamentary committee that sweeping restrictions on protest are putting British democracy at risk and preventing people from acting on their faith.
Paul Parker (pictured above), recording clerk of Quakers in Britain, gave oral evidence on Wednesday, 15 April, to the Joint Committee on Human Rights.The committee is examining whether the government has struck the right balance between public safety and the right to protest.
His appearance came just one day after MPs voted to approve new protest restrictions in the Crime and Policing Bill, the third piece of anti-protest legislation in recent years.
The bill restricts demonstrations near places of worship, creates new offences around face coverings, and requires police to consider the "cumulative impact" of repeated protests.
Parker gave evidence alongside Akiko Hart, director of Liberty, Raj Chada, a solicitor specialising in protest cases, and Andy Cooke, the former HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary.
Parker told the committee that for Quakers, protest is an expression of faith, not a political choice. That faith, he said, is now being suppressed.
He read testimony from an NHS paramedic who said new laws had caused them to self-censor, and from a person with a chronic illness who said fear of arrest now kept them away from protests altogether.
The government had penalised protesters as a whole rather than tackling individual bad actors, Parker said.
"If people are turning up at a protest and behaving in ways that are not acceptable, deal with them," he said. "Do not roll it all together and conflate different things."
Parker also warned the committee that the protest crackdown is part of a "peeling away of opportunities for the public to hold the executive accountable."
"If the only protest we are prepared to tolerate is protest that no one notices, what exactly are we protecting? It is just a performative version of democracy."
He described how two Quakers had driven their mobility scooters to stand vigil outside a mosque during the 2024 riots.
The same two people have since been arrested five times for sitting silently in Parliament Square holding placards and have now been charged with terrorism charges.
"I invite you to hold those two facts in tension," Parker told the committee, "and ask yourselves whether we have that line in the right place." Read more on the inquiry here
See - Tangled Roots: Navigating the Complex Legacy of Early Quakers By Stuart Masters
In the 2026 Swarthmore lecture, Stuart Masters explores the diverse mix of characteristics visible in the early Quaker movement that produced several creative tensions which subsequent generations have had to navigate. He argues that engaging with these issues can help Friends better appreciate the diversity present within the global Quaker family and enable them to discern how to respond to these dilemmas today. The lecture is accompanied by a book which is available from the Quaker Bookshop. You can find further information about the Swarthmore Lecture and information about follow up events at http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/research/swarthmore-lectures/ See the lecture here Tangled Roots: Navigating the Complex Legacy of Early Quakers By Stuart Masters
May QBC - Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist
The May QBC (Quaker Book Club) selection is Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff.
In Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff tells Benezet’s story―who he was, what he did, how he did it, and why it was that William Penn’s “Holy Experiment” of Pennsylvania provided the matrix for the historic transformation the abolitionist educator brought about. Indeed, Chanoff carves out a place for this forgotten American hero as a pioneering figure among those who launched American ideals onto the world stage. Read the Friends Journal review, here. Obtain a copy here Anthony Benezet
e- Wahroonga Send news of f/Friends and newsletter items to quiver...@yahoo.com.au Agenda items for Business Meeting should be emailed at wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info or handed to a co-clerk. Visit us at "Our Home" First days (Sunday), 9.30 am Meeting for Worship - Wahroonga Friends Meeting, your local peace church. Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) 59 Boundary Road Wahroonga NSW 2076 Email:wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info Web: Wahroonga Local Meeting | Australia Yearly Meeting A Zoom meeting occurs 9.30 am Sundays Meeting link Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting 918 558 7747 Passcode: 554662 Phone: 02 8015 6011 Please contact Paul Carter if you have any problems.
|
The Salter Lecture 2026 –
The Middle East: a Moral Catastrophe?
A leading British-Israeli journalist has warned of a catastrophic breakdown in international law and shared values, in this year's Salter Lecture.
|
| |
|
|
Delivering The Middle East: a moral catastrophe? on 3 May, Rachel Shabi (pictured above) told Quakers gathered in Friends House, Euston, and online that the war in Gaza is part of a wider decline in global norms. It was, she said: “A shattering so seismic that it ripped through all our institutions as they supported or funded, obfuscated or misreported the intolerable violence that rained down upon the people of Gaza without mercy and without end." But she added: “In truth, the moral collapse goes deeper."
Conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, she argued, had already torn up established rules, creating what she described as a kind of “permission architecture" for further abuses. The roots of the current situation in the Middle East went back much further, she said.
Shabi, who was born in Israel to Iraqi Jews, said the creation of the Israeli state cannot be separated from European antisemitism, a form of racism that drove Jewish communities to seek safety. At the same time, she said: “The Jewish national project that produced Israel was, from the perspective of Palestinians, unequivocally and unambiguously colonial." Quoting historian Hakem Al-Rustom, she urged audiences to see these histories “as strands of the same rope, tightly braided together".
Despite her stark analysis, Shabi said universal values still endure. She pointed to individuals and movements continuing to defend human rights. She ended by encouraging steady, principled action, drawing on Quaker traditions of peace and justice. Salter Lecture 2026 – The Middle East: A Moral Catastrophe? See - The Middle East: a Moral Catastrophe? – Rachel Shabi | Salter Lecture 2026Rachel Shabi is an award-winning journalist and author who has reported extensively on Israel-Palestine and the wider Middle East, including the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Her recent book, Off-White: The Truth about Antisemitism, received widespread acclaim. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown praises her ‘unique sensibility, embodying multiple identities and universal, non-negotiable human rights’. It is available from the Quaker Bookshop: https://bookshop.quaker.org.uk/off-wh...Rachel’s lecture looks at the West’s selective empathy and deeper ignorance of racism in all its forms and argues for a genuine universalism rooted in consistent, principled antiracism. See it here The Middle East: a moral catastrophe? – Rachel Shabi | Salter Lecture 2026
UK Quakers Warn Parliament
Over Protest Crackdown
Quakers have warned a parliamentary committee that sweeping restrictions on protest are putting British democracy at risk and preventing people from acting on their faith.
Paul Parker (pictured above), recording clerk of Quakers in Britain, gave oral evidence on Wednesday, 15 April, to the Joint Committee on Human Rights.The committee is examining whether the government has struck the right balance between public safety and the right to protest.
His appearance came just one day after MPs voted to approve new protest restrictions in the Crime and Policing Bill, the third piece of anti-protest legislation in recent years.
The bill restricts demonstrations near places of worship, creates new offences around face coverings, and requires police to consider the "cumulative impact" of repeated protests.
Parker gave evidence alongside Akiko Hart, director of Liberty, Raj Chada, a solicitor specialising in protest cases, and Andy Cooke, the former HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary.
Parker told the committee that for Quakers, protest is an expression of faith, not a political choice. That faith, he said, is now being suppressed.
He read testimony from an NHS paramedic who said new laws had caused them to self-censor, and from a person with a chronic illness who said fear of arrest now kept them away from protests altogether.
The government had penalised protesters as a whole rather than tackling individual bad actors, Parker said.
"If people are turning up at a protest and behaving in ways that are not acceptable, deal with them," he said. "Do not roll it all together and conflate different things."
Parker also warned the committee that the protest crackdown is part of a "peeling away of opportunities for the public to hold the executive accountable."
"If the only protest we are prepared to tolerate is protest that no one notices, what exactly are we protecting? It is just a performative version of democracy."
He described how two Quakers had driven their mobility scooters to stand vigil outside a mosque during the 2024 riots.
The same two people have since been arrested five times for sitting silently in Parliament Square holding placards and have now been charged with terrorism charges.
"I invite you to hold those two facts in tension," Parker told the committee, "and ask yourselves whether we have that line in the right place." Read more on the inquiry here
See - Tangled Roots: Navigating the Complex Legacy of Early Quakers By Stuart Masters
In the 2026 Swarthmore lecture, Stuart Masters explores the diverse mix of characteristics visible in the early Quaker movement that produced several creative tensions which subsequent generations have had to navigate. He argues that engaging with these issues can help Friends better appreciate the diversity present within the global Quaker family and enable them to discern how to respond to these dilemmas today. The lecture is accompanied by a book which is available from the Quaker Bookshop. You can find further information about the Swarthmore Lecture and information about follow up events at http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/research/swarthmore-lectures/ See the lecture here Tangled Roots: Navigating the Complex Legacy of Early Quakers By Stuart Masters
May QBC - Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist
The May QBC (Quaker Book Club) selection is Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff.
In Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff tells Benezet’s story―who he was, what he did, how he did it, and why it was that William Penn’s “Holy Experiment” of Pennsylvania provided the matrix for the historic transformation the abolitionist educator brought about. Indeed, Chanoff carves out a place for this forgotten American hero as a pioneering figure among those who launched American ideals onto the world stage. Read the Friends Journal review, here. Obtain a copy here Anthony Benezet
e- Wahroonga Send news of f/Friends and newsletter items to quiver...@yahoo.com.au Agenda items for Business Meeting should be emailed at wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info or handed to a co-clerk. Visit us at "Our Home" First days (Sunday), 9.30 am Meeting for Worship - Wahroonga Friends Meeting, your local peace church. Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) 59 Boundary Road Wahroonga NSW 2076 Email:wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info Web: Wahroonga Local Meeting | Australia Yearly Meeting A Zoom meeting occurs 9.30 am Sundays Meeting link Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting 918 558 7747 Passcode: 554662 Phone: 02 8015 6011 Please contact Paul Carter if you have any problems.
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