United Church affirms Israeli settlements boycott

[blake 3:17]

FYI, the United Church is Canada's largest church with a left liberal/ social democratic bent to it -- supporting abortion rights and gay marriage as two examples. In the past they supported a boycott in defense of native rights against a logging company. A few church leaders had pushed for a full support of BDS in the past, this is a bit of a compromise but a very important one. It has been smeared as anti-Semitic recently by The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, a relatively new unified Zionist lobby group, for discussing the possibility of a boycott of Israeli goods. This is a very positive development!

United Church affirms Israeli settlements boycott

Josh Tapper
Staff Reporter
6 Comments
Members of the United Church of Canada, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, voted Wednesday to affirm a controversial motion supporting a boycott of goods produced in Israeli settlements on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

Wednesday’s vote was preceded by nearly six hours of contentious debate, in which the church’s general council members nitpicked the proposal’s wording and heard drawn-out testimonies from representatives on both sides of the issue.

The motion was one of several recommended by a report released by a church working group last May. Along with calling on church hierarchy to accept a comprehensive boycott, the report named the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory as a major challenge to a two-state solution in the Middle East.

Bruce Gregersen, a United Church general council officer and spokesperson who assisted the working group, called the vote Wednesday a “significant step” toward the church’s affirmation of the entire proposal.

“I think the mind of the council appears to be clear,” he said. “If there was any sense that all the (anti-report) lobbying was going to have an effect, the council made up its own mind, irrespective of the lobby.”

Voting results were not immediately available but Gregersen said voters were “substantially in favour” of the boycott motion.

The general council will vote again Friday on whether to confirm the proposals as official church policy.

Full article: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1242391--united-church-affirms-israeli-settlements-boycott

[blake 3:17]

The motion was fully adopted Friday. I thought it might get dropped. This is a major breakthrough.

From the National Post:


United Church of Canada passes boycott of products tied to Israeli settlements

OTTAWA — Canada’s largest Protestant church has approved a controversial boycott of products made or linked to Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory.

The United Church of Canada’s decision is intended to signal to the Israeli government that it considers Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal, and to contribute to a long-term Middle East peace.

Some also hoped it would send a signal to the Harper government, a staunch ally of Israel that has come out strong against such boycotts in the past while refusing to condemn the settlements.

“It wasn’t part of our design, but one of the possibilities is that this gives at least an alternative message to the government to say ‘Maybe you need to think carefully about where Canadian society is on this,’” said Bruce Gregersen, a United Church general council officer.

Exact details of how the United Church of Canada’s boycott will be applied will be determined in the coming weeks and months, officials said.

It will likely only apply to a small number of products initially. The boycott will not apply to goods produced within Israel proper.

The Israeli settlements are self-contained, fortified towns or conclaves built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

They are considered illegal by the UN and most countries because those territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence seen as being subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied land.

Not only has the presence and continued expansion of these settlements been a major source of international criticism against Israel, but they are also considered one of the main obstacles to Middle East peace.

A number of industries have sprung up in the settlements, with products like cosmetics, wine and plastics exported around the world.

The United Church of Canada is only the latest in a growing list of organizations around the world to have adopted a boycott of such products.

Individual church members are not required to participate in the boycott, but they will be encouraged to do so — and spread the word at the same time.

Those who championed it say on that latter front, success has already been achieved.

“I can’t say whether it’s made a difference in Israel and Palestine,” said former United Church moderator David Giuliano.

“But it’s made a difference already in that it’s generated a lot more discussion in Canadian culture, and I think there’s a greater awareness among Canadians about the situation.”

Indeed, the resolution has been quite controversial.

It prompted strong opposition from United Church members right up until it was approved on Friday afternoon, and Gregersen acknowledged some members may be deeply upset by it.

It has also been criticized by pro-Israel and Jewish organizations that called it unbalanced and alleged that it borders on anti-semitism.

“It singles out Israel in a way that is so fundamentally unhelpful,” Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs CEO Shimon Fogel said earlier this week.

“In undertaking this action, the United Church has absolutely disqualified itself from playing a constructive role in advancing peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.”

But there were also many groups that supported it, including Jewish Canadians who have been concerned about Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the UN and most countries recognize as being illegal.

“It’s a positive step toward a resolution in the Middle East,” said Sid Shniad, co-chair of Independent Jewish Voices.

There was no immediate response from the Harper government to the boycott’s approval.

It has previously stripped federal funding from civil society groups that have or were suspected of advocating for a boycott on goods produced in the settlements and divestment from Israeli companies based there.

They argue such advocates are seeking to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist.

Champions of the boycott disputed that allegation, noting that the resolution also “denounces all questions about Israel’s right exist or that seek to undermine its legitimacy as a state.”

The resolution also denounces aggression and incitement to violence toward the state of Israel and its people — though it doesn’t prescribe any actions against those who do so.


http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/08/17/united-church-of-canada-passed-controversial-boycott-of-products-tied-to-israeli-settlements/

[blake 3:17]

Rick Salutin on the UC

Responding to the United Church position on Israeli settlements

By
Rick Salutin [2]
| August 24, 2012
Razor wire wall, Occupied Palestine. Photo: Scott Weinstein [7]
Speaking as a Jew, it feels good to be able to offer to relieve Christian guilt. It went the other way and with reverse traction for millennia, as Christians burdened Jews with guilt for "killing Christ." Real satisfaction comes from not doing to others what they did to you, when you finally get a chance.

I'm referring to the decision by Canada's largest religious organization, the United Church, to take a very mild position on Israeli settlements in occupied territories, as the main cause of Mideast conflict. You can disagree with this but it's hardly absurd and it's solidly grounded in international law. They don't say they'll cancel any investments they have in those settlements, as others have, though they think they'll "study" that. They breathe no hint of a "boycott" of Israel, like the one directed at apartheid-era South Africa. They merely "encourage" their members to "avoid" goods from settlements if they're sure of the source. They condemn any violent opposition to the occupiers and endorse non-violence. Most pertinently, their motion "denounces all questions of Israel's right to exist or that seek to undermine its legitimacy as a state."

They did all this with agonizing and reluctance because the United Church is so nice. They love everybody and want everybody to like them. Their greatest horror is the thought of being called mean, racist or, worst of all, anti-Semitic. They knew with certainty what would come if they did what they did -- and it came. "The only comments I've received so far are those advocating a complete severing of ties with the United Church," said the head of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs [8]. Israel supporters had issued dark warnings long in advance.

So I'd like to congratulate members of the United Church and say I think they showed real courage, which consists in confronting your own deepest fears rather than fears abstractly or generally defined. This is especially true since there's a backstory here: In the 1960s, the United Church and its newspaper were early supporters of Palestinian rights and attacked by many Jews for undermining Jewish-Christian reconciliation. But that was long ago, well before Canada came to seen as a Judeo-Christian, and not merely a Christian, society.

Let me add that I think anti-Semitism still exists and could be having a resurgence. Some of it may even hide as criticism of Israel, though mostly it's content to exist as outright hatred of Jews and not bother with camouflage. But anti-Semitism has come (or descended) a long way since the 1930s. Then it could be found proudly in the upper classes, reputable intellectuals, political parties and high-level civil servants ("none is too many"). Anti-Semitism has moved way down-market since then. It exists in milieus that United Church members don't aspire to and would be horrified to find themselves lumped with.

I offer this support as a Jew without clearance from the Centre (for Israel and Jewish Affairs), which claims to be the main voice of Jewish Canadians. It took over a year ago from its predecessor, the Canadian Jewish Congress, which it smothered with a pillow. It dropped the "Canadian" part along with "Congress," which had at least implied concern with democratic representation; changed that to "Centre," implying centralized control, and indicated Israel was its priority.

So United churchpeople may find more encouragement in a National Post editorial that said they'd chosen "to put politics ahead of matters of faith. Indeed, it is getting harder to tell where the church ends and a budding left-wing political party begins." I'd take that as encouragement if I were them. Politics is part of religion. Like Jesus, who drove the money-changers and other banksters from the Temple; or the Biblical prophet Amos who said, Let justice well up as waters; or Jeremiah who rebuked the diplomats of his time for crying Peace, Peace, when there is no peace. Religion, when it's strong, is about politics not because it wants to be but because it can't not be if it takes its precepts seriously. That's also true of the vigorous religious right in the U.S., which is active from the Republican party to school boards. Right on, United churchers.

http://rabble.ca/columnists/2012/08/responding-united-church-position-israeli-settlements