Held To A Higher Standard

"The vast majority of people in the pews are not ready to embrace this kind of extremist and radical agenda from a small minority.  There is a real disconnect between the leadership and its people."  Pastor Andrew Love, Arnprior

The United Church of Canada has distinguished itself of late by its puzzling and covertly anti-Semitic stance on Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinians.  Israel is gently demonized, the Church hierarchy being careful to avoid using the word apartheid, but it is there in glowering condemnation between the lines. 

The point of a recently-released paper calling for a selective boycott of goods emanating from 'illegal' Israeli settlements, inclusive of East Jerusalem was to chide Israel.  As a 'friend' of Israel the United Church was simply reminding the Jewish State that it is legitimate to criticize it, but such criticism is not to be construed as anything other than a friendly caution.

And such criticism that leads to calls for divestment and boycott is done with a heavy heart, for Israel and Jews are beloved of the United Church.  It is just that the United Church also loves the Palestinians and it is to them that their hearts go out in heavy empathy at the plight that the occupying Jews have placed them in.

The United Church will have nothing whatever to do with honouring any statements or movements that reflect anti-Jewish bigotry.  The report which took two years to put together, represents the feelings and the apprehensions of the United Church leaders.  Previous such attempts at bringing the entire Church to agreeing with divestment/boycott were led by disparate members.

This report, then, has the appearance and the gravitas of presenting the official views of the United Church.  "I really want to believe this is the workings of a very active minority in the church", Andrew Love, a pastor at a parish in Arnprior, not far from Ottawa said in a newspaper interview. 

The proposal contained in the report, as far as he is concerned, contains "elements of anti-Semitism", detectable in large part by the casual manner in which it refers to the Holocaust as a lamentable event that diminished the dignity and feelings of self-worth of European Jewry.  Bypassing entirely the unfortunate minor detail respecting the wholesale extermination of six million Jews.

The economic boycott proposal against Israel is meant to be presented to the Church laity at a general council in August, to be voted upon.  This will be the fourth such proposal recommending sanctions against Israel in the last six years.  None ever came to a vote by the general council.  None previously represented a proposal requested by the Church leaders.

Reverend Love plans to launch a website in the next little while, inviting support from his co-religionists who may also be concerned about boycott calls and rabidly anti-Israel sentiments from within the Church.  He claims, through his own personal experience on visits to Israel and the West Bank where he was able to judge for himself the hardships experienced by Palestinians, not to be biased for Israel.

"...It's not that I'm blinded to the plight of Palestinians", he said.  "But where is the sense of balance in this report?  Once again we are isolating Israel for all our moral condemnation.  Shouldn't we hold to the same fashion other countries in the Middle East?  It's absurd that Israel is singled out because it's a democracy."

"The report is almost completely silent on Israel's very legitimate concerns to protect itself from terrorism as well as the ever-present threat from Iran and the proxy forces that work for Iran in the region." 

As for the Church leaders, one minister who assisted in the writing of the report points out the document clearly states it is unhelpful to use the term apartheid for the time being - but the term could be applicable at some point in the future given, he claimed, the fluidity of the situation. 

This man, Bruce Gregersen, claims that Jewish leaders recognize criticism of Israel does not imply negative feelings about Jews.

As for the appearance of minimizing the horrors of the Holocaust, "That was never our intention to minimize the Holocaust and we are really concerned that it can be seen like that." 

It can be seen like that.