September 10, 2012: United Church takes anti-Israel stance despite members’ opposition

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.

July 23, 2012: United Church meeting in Ottawa may be dominated by Israeli-Palestinian conflict

By Michael Regenstreif

The 41st General Council of the United Church of Canada will be held at Carleton University in Ottawa from August 11 to 18 and virtually all of the advance attention has focussed on a United Church working group’s report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which – not surprisingly – lays almost all responsibility for the situation at Israel’s feet and calls for boycott of goods produced by Israeli settlements in the West Bank and some measure of divestment from Israel.

The report questions the validity of Israel as a Jewish state and even finds moral equivalency between the current situations of the Palestinians with the plight of the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust:

“The deepest meaning of the Holocaust was the denial of human dignity to Jews. ‘Never again’ is a call that must continue to echo throughout the world. The implication of this call is not that Israel will be free from accountability for unjust policies, but rather that there will be no question or doubt that Israel and Jewish people throughout the world are deeply respected. The working group is also aware that the occupation has meant a loss of dignity for Palestinian people. This loss of dignity is evidenced not just by the occupation but also in the denial of the legitimacy of the Palestinian experience. This is accentuated by the view that any form of Palestinian resistance, even non-violent resistance, is unacceptable. Palestinians must be afforded dignity and respect for the struggles they face.”

As the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs noted in a response to the report, “the ‘deepest meaning’ of the Shoah (Holocaust) was the industrialized mass murder of six million Jewish men, women and children whose only crime was that they were Jewish,” and that such “moral equivalence is deeply offensive to Jewish Canadians and individuals of conscience from all backgrounds.”

While the report has enjoyed the expected support of the anti-Zionist left, including Independent Jewish Voices, it remains to be seen how widespread its support is among United Church members. An Ottawa-area minister, Reverend Andrew Love of Grace St. Andrew’s United Church in Arnprior, has spoken out against the mostly one-sided report and has organized a United Church petition calling for its rejection at the General Council. Reverend Love, instead, calls for support for those on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide who are actively working for peace.

Late last month, a group of nine Canadian senators – five Conservatives and four Liberals – all members of the United Church, published a letter condemning the report, which “does not mention a single expectation of the Palestinians in its recommendations. To put it bluntly, the Church cannot maintain credibility in criticizing Israeli policies (such as settlements and the security barrier) while relieving the Palestinian leadership of its own duty to advance peace.”

It will be interesting to see which path the United Church will choose to take at its General Council.

Thank you Laurie Dougherty

As editor of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, I rely on the collaboration of many people and one of my most important collaborators is the archivist of the Ottawa Jewish Archives. Almost everything that appears in the Bulletin pertaining to the history of Ottawa’s Jewish community is done with the help of the archivist.

For the past three-and-a-half-years, the archivist has been Laurie Dougherty. Laurie also spent 18 months as assistant archivist before that. As we were finishing production of this edition, we bade farewell to Laurie who left the Ottawa Jewish Archives on July 12 to become archivist for the town of Arnprior, where she lives.

Laurie has been a great person to work with – particularly on big projects like the 2009 supplement celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa or the year-long page 5 reprint features we’ve been doing throughout 2012 to mark the 75th year of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin (with a special supplement to come with our Chanukah community-wide issue on November 26).

There have also been many occasions when I’ve called on Laurie to find or verify all kinds of information. For example, I wanted to add the late Erwin Koranyi’s date of birth to the remembrance of him, which appears on page 4 of this issue. When an Internet search only turned up the year, I dialled Laurie’s extension and she was able to quickly find the exact date in the Archives files.

As well, the From the Archives photos Laurie regularly submitted to the Bulletin and the feature articles she wrote about Archives projects and displays have been greatly appreciated. See Laurie’s article about the Archives’ current display on page 13 of this issue.

Thanks for everything, Laurie! All the best in your new job. We’re going to miss you.