Talks to continue with Uniting Church despite boycott motion
A MOTION passed by the national assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia’s (UCA) supporting a boycott of Israeli goods has been met with a mixed response from Jewish community leaders.
A MOTION passed by the national assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia’s (UCA) supporting a boycott of Israeli goods has been met with a mixed response from Jewish community leaders.
Proposal 66 calls upon the assembly to “establish an awareness-raising campaign throughout the church on the plight of Palestinian Christians and the Palestinian people, including promotion of the boycott of goods from the illegal settlements in the West Bank as part of the campaign”.
However, it stops short of endorsing the formal Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, with the church’s Reverend Dr Matthew Wilson telling The AJN, “We do know that there are significant anti-Semitic problems with the full BDS movement. Therefore, we worded things very carefully and we were certainly to a degree supportive of boycotts of goods produced in the settlements and occupied territories, but not of BDS as an organisation and as a policy.”
Nonetheless, B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich slammed the church, insisting, “It is morally reprehensible for the UCA to single out Israel for censure while turning a blind eye to the killing of Jews by Hamas, a terrorist organisation whose openly declared goal is the destruction of Israel.”
He added, “This vote sends a very hurtful message to Australian Jews and foments an atmosphere of hostility.”
However, Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) executive director Peter Wertheim was more measured, cautioning against exaggerating the impact of the motion. “A handful of activists infiltrate the organisation and bombard its members with a dishonest, one-sided view of the conflict, demanding that the organisation support the activists’ position and proposals,” Wertheim told The AJN.
“Very few of the other members are equipped with the knowledge or the courage to contradict them. But there are signs that this is starting to change, and that ordinary members of the UCA are becoming tired of being steamrollered by the activists.”
He added that continuing formal meetings of the UCA-ECAJ Dialogue is imperative.
“That dialogue is a constant reminder that there is much more to the truth than they are being told by the BDS activists, another side to the story that the BDS movement does not want them to hear,” Wertheim said.
This series of meetings has taken place biannually since 1992, covering topics including differing readings of messianic passages, Christian and social anti-Semitism, and the theology of land as it relates to Israel.
Reverend Wilson, UCA convenor for the dialogue, concurred.“The UCA remains committed to dialogue with the Jewish community.”
The importance of interfaith talks with the UCA was also stressed by Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council director of international and community affairs Jeremy Jones.
“We bring to them perspectives they would otherwise not hear, encounter or consider,” he said.
The next UCA-ECAJ Dialogue meeting will take place in May on the topic of religion and the state.
ELENORE LEVI
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