Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan Canada's largest Protestant church has taken a modest stand on the Middle East that is upsetting those who want Canada to back Israel's oppression or at least keep quiet about it. The United Church's action shows, however, that conscientious Canadians do care for peace, justice and human rights for everyone. The United Church of Canada chooses a new moderator and adopts new policies every third year. It has an estimated 525,000 members and 2.8 million adherents, according to the church and Statistics Canada. This year the Church asserted that ending the Israeli occupation is necessary for peace. It urged Israel to dismantle its illegal settlements in the occupied territories and the Canadian government to “provide leadership among nations advocating the end of the occupation.” It asked members to “avoid any and all products produced in the settlements” and the Canadian government to ensure that goods produced in the illegal settlements be labelled clearly and differently from products of Israel and that the products made in the occupied territories not be given preferential treatment under the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement. The church, however, voted down a proposal for boycott, divestment and sanctions, partly because of lobbying by diehard Israeli supporters. These are constructive but small steps. The church didn't chastise Israel for defying United Nations resolutions and international law, settling more than half a million illegal settlers in the occupied territories, annexing Palestinian land, building an illegal wall on Palestinian land cutting off many Palestinians from their lands and fields, setting up checkpoints that harass Palestinians every day, imposing an illegal and inhumane siege of Gaza and arresting and detaining Palestinians for years on the slightest pretext. Nor does the church condemn the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that Jewish scholars and journalists like Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappe, Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, Norman Finkelstein, Uri Avery and others have documented or Israel's use of lethal American weaponry, including phosphorus bombs, on civilians. It also doesn't censure Israel for developing nuclear weapons or criticize Israeli laws that grants rights to Jews that they deny to non-Jews. Bruce Gregersen, the United Church's senior program officer, asserted: “We are solidly behind Israel as a legitimate state. We don't want to demonize in any way Israel or Jewish people. The problem is the occupation and the settlements.” The report of the working group said that the United Church wishes to “contribute, even in a small way, to justice that leads to peace in Israel/Palestine.” The Independent Jewish Voices Canada, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East and others wishing for a just peace welcomed the church's small step. Dr. Norman Finkelstein, who analyzes Jewish attitudes in the US, has spoken and written about American Jews becoming increasingly upset over Israeli brutalities that contradict Jewish values and bar a just peace. But blind supporters of Israel are outraged, such as spokespersons for The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies and some other organizations. These groups never acknowledged that the Saudi peace proposal offered peace to Israel on a two-state basis, which the Palestinians and Iranians also accepted. These groups also never criticize Israeli actions. The church's call is not a total surprise. Polls show that as westerners learn more about the Middle East from visits or the social media they are horrified by Israel's brutality. Canadians now have a negative perception of Israel and Europeans regard Israel as a major threat to peace, polls show. As a part of the intense lobbying, nine Canadian Conservative and Liberal senators, all members of the United Church, worked to oppose the resolutions because “the church cannot maintain credibility in criticizing Israeli policies while relieving the Palestinian leadership of its own duty to advance peace” and also because its resolutions could upset many Jews. This is a curious reasoning — blame the victim rather than the oppressor and don't speak out for justice lest the oppressor should be upset. In response to the senators' letter, the United Church made the following points. o The Jewish community is itself getting concerned over settlement products (Peter Beinart's book, the Crisis of Zionism). o Several countries, including the UK, Denmark and South Africa, now require that settlement products be clearly marked as distinct from those produced in Israel. o Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal according to international law and the policies of most countries in the world, including Canada. Buying products from these settlements is benefiting from and supporting illegal activity.... o Palestinian Christians are concerned that if Israel is recognize as a Jewish state it could lead to Palestine being recognized as an Islamic state. Palestinian Christians want both to be secular. The reaction of Israel's stubborn backers is understandable. Criticism of Israel has been effectively stifled in North America. But North American Jews and others are decent people. They are now getting to see the reality in the Middle East, as the church's working group did. It is not surprising that they are beginning to speak out for justice. — Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, civil servant and refugee judge. He has received the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and Golden Jubilee awards.
