Church of England officials have withdrawn a Gaza memorial exhibition after investigators found that its list of the dead included Hamas terrorists and members of other armed groups.
The Bishop of Leeds cancelled the display after Jewish community representatives presented evidence that a tribute tapestry featured the names of at least 25 people identified as members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were involved in the October 7, 2023, assault on Israel, in which almost 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage.
Following the exhibition’s removal, Leeds Minster rector Canon Paul Maybury issued an apology. He said he condemned violence in all forms, especially Hamas’s killing of civilians and hostage-taking during the October 7 attack.
However, footage that surfaced on Saturday night appeared to show Canon Maybury telling Jewish demonstrators that “history is complex” when they asked him to condemn the abduction and murder of civilians.
In the 36-second video, he is questioned specifically about Ariel Bibas, who was four, his nine-month-old brother Kfir and their mother, Shiri, 32, before being challenged over their fate.
The family was taken from a kibbutz in southern Israel during the October 7 attack and later died while in Hamas captivity.
Images of Shiri Bibas clutching her two red-haired sons as masked gunmen dragged them away became among the most recognisable images of the assault.
When pressed for a clearer response, Canon Maybury replied “no comment” before leaving.
The Church of England has withdrawn a Gaza memorial after critics said it appeared to honour jihadist fighters among those commemorated
Known as Stitch Their Names Together, the tapestry listed people reported to have died during the conflict and had been scheduled to remain at Leeds Minster until Sunday
Jewish leaders and families of victims of the October 7 attack condemned the rector’s comments last night.
The controversy follows a separate dispute involving the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, who withdrew an award given to Muslim cleric Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi after reports revealed that he had praised Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
The exhibition, titled Stitch Their Names Together, contained at least 90 panels carrying 16,800 names. Organisers said the names were drawn from a death toll published by Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Researchers working with the Leeds Jewish Representative Council said they had identified at least 25 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members among those named on the tapestry.
One was Hatem Suleiman Abu Sharia, 28, a member of the Mujahideen Brigades, a smaller Gaza-based armed faction accused of abducting the Bibas family before transferring them to Hamas.
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Abu Sharia was killed in May 2024 and had reportedly served as a senior member of the group’s military council. He had been released from an Israeli prison only months before the October 7 attacks.
The names also reportedly included Salah Shaaban Ismail, 50, described as the commander of Islamic Jihad’s sniper unit. He was killed in May and later celebrated online by the group as a “martyr commander”.
Another listed individual was Hamdi Saeed Yousef Toulan, 39, identified as a Hamas field commander who was killed in December 2024.
Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, pictured left with his wife, was presented with the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation by Dame Sarah Mullally, pictured 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.