Faced with opposition from Jewish groups and its own constituents, the United Church of Canada backed away from a national boycott of Israel at the church’s August General Council.
A series of proposals sparked passionate debate and drew national media attention when they hit the floor of the national assembly in Kelowna, B.C. The most contentious included a “comprehensive boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions” in favour of direct support for Palestinian institutions, and the implementation of boycotts similar to those used against South Africa during apartheid.
“The initial boycott proposal was totally unacceptable in our view,” said Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress, who attended the week-long meeting. He described background documents as “anti-Semitic” and “the kind of thing you’d expect to find on racist blogs on the net.”
Commissioners distanced themselves from the supporting documentation, calling the language used “provocative, unbalanced and hateful.” The reports were prepared by the Toronto Conference’s World Affairs Committee.
In the end, the church dropped the proposals and voted to condemn human rights violations on both sides of the conflict.
“Those who were concerned that the church would implement a boycott will be relieved that no national boycott will be undertaken,” said Bruce Gregersen, the church’s officer for programs in a press release. “However, [the church] has stated its encouragement and recommendation to its member bodies, that they are free to study, discern, and pray, and to undertake their own initiatives, which may include economic boycotts as a means to ending the occupation.”
Ferber said the CJC “grudgingly accepts” the church’s decision. “We can agree to disagree. We never thought it was anti-Semitic to criticize Israeli policy. It becomes anti-Semitic when the country is so focused on, that it becomes out of proportion to any other democratic state in the world. ”
In the days leading up to the meeting, the World Council of Churches expressed support for the United Church’s “ongoing work for peace with justice in Israel-Palestine” in a public letter from WCC general secretary Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia. The letter commends the church’s “efforts to speak truth to power and to discern just solutions with love.”
