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Tag Archives: Israel
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Canadian church and Muslim leaders meet to sort out the Middle East
From here:
Representatives of Canadian churches and church-based groups met on Feb. 4 with Arab and Muslim leaders who are similarly committed to “peace with justice” in Israel and Palestine.
Both sides have been careful to note that the meeting signalled nothing more than a commitment to meet face to face more regularly in order to consult and share information about issues affecting peace in the Middle East.
Hosted by the Canadian Friends of Sabeel, the meeting in Toronto gathered an ecumenical forum on the Middle East which includes representatives from the Anglican Church of Canada, the United Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Roman Catholic Church and church-based groups such as KAIROS. They were joined by six delegates from the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), which describes itself as “a national, non-partisan, non-profit” umbrella of over 40 member organizations.
The article goes on to note that “[t]he meeting signals a new beginning of intentional conversation”. Churches pontificating on how to achieve peace in the Middle East is hardly new: presumably prior efforts to establish Elysium were thwarted by the conversations being unintentional.
The only tangible action being suggested is a divesting of church interests in companies that do business in Israel; predictably one-sided and hardly new – however intentional.
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Blame Canada!
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United Church of Canada passes boycott of Israeli goods
The United Church of Canada has distinguished itself: it is now Canada’s official anti-Semitic denomination.
Why anti-Semitic? Because the United Church is ignoring Egypt’s persecution of Christian Copts, China’s repression of its minorities and its forced abortions, Pakistan’s persecution of anyone identifying themselves as Christian, the Islamist massacre of Christians in Sudan, the mayhem in Syria and, instead, has singled out the one moderately tolerant democracy in a sea of disintegrating, tyrannical banana republics run by demented Arab goons.
What else could it possibly be other than antiSemitism?
From here:
Canada’s largest Protestant church has approved a controversial boycott of products made or linked to Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory.
The United Church of Canada’s decision is intended to signal to the Israeli government that it considers Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal, and to contribute to a long-term Middle East peace.
Some also hoped it would send a signal to the Harper government, a staunch ally of Israel that has come out strong against such boycotts in the past while refusing to condemn the settlements.
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A Palestinian Christian peace activist urges churches to tell the truth
From here:
Nora Carmi, a Palestinian Christian peace activist, came to Canada with a challenge for churches to “dare to tell the truth” about Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and to “stand with those who are oppressed.”
Dressed in black with a silver cross at her throat, Carmi, 64, visited the national office of the Anglican Church of Canada at the beginning of her 12-day speaking tour. She was hosted by Canadian Friends of Sabeel, an ecumenical liberation theology movement and a long-time partner.
“Oppression against the Palestinians includes violation of all forms of rights,” Carmi said in an interview. “Access to sites of worship, revoking residency rights, denying family reunification—everything that is basically human is being denied at this point to the Palestinian people.”
There are some aspects of the truth that Nora Carmi isn’t daring to tell, though. Things like: Israel is the only true democracy in a region awash with despots who routinely proclaim that Israel shouldn’t exist; if Israel stopped defending itself and relied on the good will of its neighbours, it would cease to exist; Palestinians Arabs constitute 20% of the population of Israel and according to polls, most would prefer to live in a Jewish than a Palestinian state.
Let’s hope that Canadian churches do “dare to tell the truth” about Israel.
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The United Church of Canada really does hate Israel
What other conclusion can one draw from the cockamamie responses in this interview:
Q&A: Why United Church activists are targeting Israel:
Q Your task force has 15 members and you say that the boycott expresses the will of the 60 congregations in your church region. How do you know it reflects the views of those 7,000 members in those congregations?
A A corporation doesn’t have all its policies approved by all their shareholders, do they? We did not go to every single individual and every single congregation, but we’re a body of the United Church that has the authority to make these decisions and we did that.
Q Has the national church endorsed what you’re doing?
A The national church has not endorsed this campaign, but it hasn’t unendorsed it either.
Q What other countries are you targetting for boycotts?
A We’re active in a whole bunch of issues.
Q But what other boycotts have you called for?
A Oh, boycotts. Well, not necessarily boycotts at this point. But this is a long entrenched problem and boycotts have been called for against Israel by civil society in many other countries.
Q But I am wondering what other boycotts your group has called for or been involved with.
A We have participated in other boycott campaigns. In South Africa we participated during the era of apartheid.
Q That was a while ago. What oppressive regimes have you called for boycotts against since then? There are many oppressive regimes in Africa and the Middle East. Or what about communist China?
A No, we have not.
Q So why a boycott of Israel?
A Number one, because Israel purports to be a democracy. Number two, they are in violation of international law and even the UN has tried to call Israel to account. So what is left for people who want to see international law enforced? Libya just happened and the U.S. jumped to take on the presumed responsibility to protect civilians; they jumped in with all kinds of force. But they won’t do that against Israel ever because Israel purports to be a democracy.
Q You say five of the companies extract minerals from occupied land or exploit labour or is a supporter of the IDF. Does Indigo make books in Israel?
A Chapters Indigo owners [Heather] Reisman and [Gerald] Schwartz founded the HESEG foundation, which provides scholarships and other support to “lone soldiers” who have been in the Israeli military. [Lone soldiers are Jews who leave their home countries to join the Israeli army. They have no family in Israel, but often want to stay once their military service is done.]
Q Why would you boycott the company then? This is not the company doing this, but a couple as private citizens.
A I don’t know what to say to you. It’s not a purely private interest. They use the profits from their ownership from this huge company. They are supporting the occupation. This was the only way we could bring the light of day to how the profits of this company support this foundation.
Q Are you concerned that people think you’re fixated on Israel?
A This is not our only effort. We do anti-poverty work, we’ve lobbied about aboriginal rights and environmental issues.
Q But to be clear, you don’t target other countries.
A No.
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Gaza rocket barrage hits Israel
From here:
Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired dozens of missiles into southern Israel in what appears to be their heaviest such barrage in two years.
About 50 mortars were fired – two Israelis were hurt, Israel says.
Israeli tanks later shelled targets in the coastal strip, wounding at least five people, Palestinian officials say.
The Islamist group Hamas, which runs Gaza, said it fired some of the mortars. Three days ago an Israeli air strike killed two of its members.
The BBC’s Jon Donnison in Gaza says this seems to be an escalation – both in terms of the number of rockets fired from Gaza and the fact that Hamas said it was responsible.
Hamas’s military wing said it launched dozens of rockets, our correspondent reports.
There were immediate statements condemning Hamas from the Right Reverend Suheil Dawani, Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada and Katharine Jefferts-Schori, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church.
Sorry, no there weren’t; I must have dozed off and been dreaming.