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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: average joe who wrote (275979)	7/10/2010 8:31:11 AM
From: SARMAN	Respond to of 281500

ROFLOL Jeez, they have you by the balls too? United Church defends Israel boycotts dubbed ‘anti-Semitic’ Canwest News Service July 29, 2009 The United Church of Canada defended itself Wednesday against claims of anti-Semitism after proposals calling for the boycott of Israeli institutions were put forth to the church’s national council for debate. “The United Church has consistently striven for peace with justice in Palestine and Israel,” Wendy Gichuru, the church’s Middle East program co-ordinator, said in a statement posted on its website Wednesday._“The church’s policy in the Middle East is shaped and informed by Israeli and Palestinian partners in the region.” The four resolutions call for a “comprehensive boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions at the national and international levels” and refer to the recent assault on Gaza as a “visible reminder of the ongoing Israeli regime of exclusion, violence and dehumanization directed against Palestinians.” They also said that Israel was “built mainly on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners,” and make reference to the effectiveness of boycotts when dealing with state-sponsored racial discrimination and violence as was the case in South Africa. The proposals, which will be voted on at the church’s August conference in Kelowna, B.C., drew complaints of “anti-Semitic behaviour” from major Canadian Jewish organizations. “The use of boycott, divestment and sanction has been a weapon used by Israel’s enemies to destroy it. Those are elements of anti-Semitic behaviour in the contemporary world,” Eric Vernon, director of government affairs for the Canadian Jewish Congress, said of the church’s proposals Tuesday. In an open letter, Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber added that the United Church resolutions “ally the church with the enemies of Israel.” “The whole purpose of this material is to vilify Israel and to present it in a crude caricature as the ‘new apartheid’ state, allegedly based on a state-sanctioned policy of racial superiority,” Farber wrote. “The purpose of this hateful invective is to deny the legitimacy of Israel because it is a Jewish state.” Church spokesman Rev. Bruce Gregersen said Tuesday that the proposals “are not meant to undermine the state of Israel, but rather calling on them to make moves toward peace.” Gregersen acknowledged that there has been “a history of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism within Christianity as a whole, including the United Church of Canada.” The current proposal makes clear that Palestinians have to stop suicide bombings and other violent attacks directed at Israeli civilians, Gregersen said. “In 2003, the church said that we affirm the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state. And that’s a significant commitment. What is means is that we are strongly supportive of the existence of Israel for the sake of the Jewish people in the world.” canada.com