By Michael Regenstreif
The General Council of the United Church of Canada (UCC) – the largest Protestant denomination in the country – met here in Ottawa three weeks ago. As noted in a brief article on page 24, the UCC decided at the conclave to boycott products from Israeli settlements on the West Bank and in eastern Jerusalem after deciding that Israeli settlements are the principal obstacle to peace in the Middle East.
The UCC also apologized to the Palestinians for having once passed a resolution asking them to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
The UCC passed its anti-Israel resolutions – based on a UCC working group’s report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which placed almost all responsibility for the stalemated peace process at Israel’s feet – despite understanding the ramifications the action would have on relations with Canada’s Jewish community and, perhaps more significantly, the one-sided stance does not represent the views of the greater UCC membership.
An independent survey of United Church members – commissioned by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Faithful Witness, a grassroots group of UCC clergy and congregants – was conducted by the Gandalf Group, a leading polling and research firm, in July. Among the survey results were that 78 per cent of UCC members felt the Church should remain neutral on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
As well, only five per cent agreed with the UCC working group report’s conclusion that Israeli settlements are the principal obstacle to peace. Only seven per cent believed a boycott would advance the cause of peace and only nine per cent believed favouring one side over the other would strengthen the Church’s credibility as a voice for peace.
Clearly, the vast majority of UCC members rejected the working group’s report and recommendations. The survey results would suggest most UCC members would lend their support to those on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide who advocate and work for peace.
Unfortunately, the UCC General Council did not seem to care about how the overwhelming majority of Church members felt about the issue when it passed its resolutions. And the Council certainly did not seem to care about a rift – perhaps irreparable – it knew would be created between the United Church and the mainstream Jewish community, should it approve the working group report. Jewish organizations, including CIJA and B’nai Brith, warned of such a consequence. So, too, did a group of nine members of the Canadian Senate, all UCC members. So, too, did Faithful Witness, a group of UCC clergy and members organized by Reverend Andrew Love of Grace St. Andrew’s United Church in Arnprior.
In the wake of the anti-Israel resolutions passed by the UCC General Council, CIJA, in a memorandum to Canadian Jewish community leaders on August 23, called for a complete “moratorium on all dialogue and partnership activities between the institutions of the Canadian Jewish community and the United Church of Canada, its regional conferences, local presbyteries, and individual congregations. This moratorium specifically includes bilateral discussions involving the UCC and Jewish communal institutions, broad interfaith groups in which the United Church is one [of] several partners, and educational activities. We ask the rabbinic and lay leadership of the Canadian Jewish community to respect the highest degree of solidarity with this moratorium.”
While calling for the moratorium, CIJA also recognized and thanked those “within the UCC who worked to defeat the General Council resolutions on Israel-Palestine and who spoke out against a boycott of Israeli goods. The Centre Board will consider how and where to maintain contact with those whose principled opposition to the decision to boycott Israeli goods led them to oppose the resolutions.”
A rational analysis of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians shows it is an extremely complicated situation and the Palestinians – whose authority is divided between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas – bear much of the responsibility for the lack of progress in the peace process. While Israel constantly expresses its readiness to resume negotiations without pre-conditions, it is the Palestinians, sadly, who will not come to the table.
But Palestinian rejectionism, Hamas rockets and Iran’s nuclear threats were not part of the UCC discourse. The UCC General Council also seemed silent on the massacres that come to light almost daily in the brutal civil war in Syria or the repression of Christians in post-revolutionary Egypt. No, it was all about Israel.
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