Church of England leaders have closed a Gaza memorial exhibition after discovering that its tribute included the names of Hamas terrorists among those listed as dead.
The Bishop of Leeds withdrew the event after Jewish community leaders presented him with a dossier identifying at least 25 members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on a commemorative tapestry.
The two groups were involved in the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed and 250 hostages were taken.
Following the exhibition’s closure, Leeds Minster rector Canon Paul Maybury issued an apology. He said he condemned all violence, particularly Hamas’s killing of civilians and seizure of hostages on October 7, 2023.
However, footage that emerged on Saturday night showed Canon Maybury telling Jewish protesters at the exhibition that “history is complex” when challenged to condemn the kidnapping and killing of civilians by terrorists.
The 36-second video captured him making the remarks after being asked specifically about the abduction of four-year-old Ariel Bibas, her nine-month-old brother Kfir and their mother, Shiri, 32.
The three members of the Bibas family were seized from a kibbutz in southern Israel on October 7 and later died while in Hamas captivity.
Images of Shiri screaming and clutching her two red-haired sons as masked terrorists dragged the family away became among the most recognisable pictures of the attack.
When pressed for a clearer response, Canon Maybury said “no comment” before walking away.
The Church of England has withdrawn a Gaza memorial after criticism that it honoured jihadist fighters among those killed in the conflict
The tapestry, titled Stitch Their Names Together, listed people who had died in the conflict with Israel and was scheduled to remain at Leeds Minster until Sunday
Jewish leaders and relatives of victims of the October 7 attack condemned his remarks last night.
The controversy came days after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, withdrew an award given to Muslim cleric Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi when it emerged that he had praised Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The memorial, titled Stitch Their Names Together, featured at least 90 panels carrying 16,800 names. The names were drawn from a list of people killed in Gaza compiled by the Hamas-run health ministry.
Researchers at the Leeds Jewish Representative Council (LJRC) identified at least 25 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists among the names on the tapestry.
One of them was Hatem Suleiman Abu Sharia, 28, a member of the Mujahideen Brigades, one of the smaller terrorist organisations in Gaza. The group kidnapped the Bibas family before handing them over to Hamas.
Abu Sharia, who was killed in May 2024, had been a senior member of the group’s military council. He was released from an Israeli prison only months before the October 7 attacks.
The names also included Salah Shaaban Ismail, 50, who commanded Islamic Jihad’s sniper unit. He was killed in May and later described as a “martyr commander” in tributes published online by the group.
Another was Hamdi Saeed Yousef Toulan, 39, a Hamas field commander who was killed in December 2024.
Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi (pictured, left) and his wife (centre, left) receive The Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation from 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.
