The United Church of Canada is calling on its 2,500 congregations to adopt Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) strategies against the state of Israel.
In a letter published in October, the Church advocates for its congregations to join “the consensus of the international human rights communities in recognizing and rejecting Israel’s apartheid system.” The BDS movement calls for the boycotting of products manufactured by Israeli and international companies engaged in “violations of Palestinian human rights.”
The move is “highly problematic,” says Richard Marceau, vice president of external affairs and general counsel for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, an advocacy organization that represents 150,000 Jewish Canadians. The call is antisemitic and contrary to the Church’s prior commitments, he says.
The call was issued by the United Church of Canada’s moderator, the Right Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne, who is the church’s most senior elected official.
It is based on the United Church of Canada’s justice principles — broad-based principles that were adopted in 2023 by the General Council, the Church’s decision-making body. Those principles include opposing oppression and colonization, truth-telling, respecting human dignity and acting against injustice in all its forms.
The stated aim of these principles is to enable the Church to respond more quickly to “historic, current and emerging social justice issues,” rather than taking an issue-by-issue approach that can be slow and cumbersome to implement.
In addition to participating in BDS, Lansdowne’s letter invites United Church congregations to support calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and the cessation of other “armed attacks within Occupied Palestinian Territory” and Lebanon. It also calls for immediate humanitarian access to all who need aid in Gaza, and for the release of all hostages.
In the pastoral letter, Lansdowne says the United Church is called “to uphold the voices of partners who are part of the communities most impacted in the region — Palestinian and Jewish — by expecting our government to do all in its power to ensure a just peace in the region.”
Japhet Ndhlovu, executive minister of the Church in Mission Unit — one of the Church’s operational units — said congregations are free to decide whether to participate in the call.
“The polity of the United Church of Canada is such that it does not impose it,” he said, adding regional conferences or individual churches can make their own decisions about whether to be involved.
If congregations decide to become involved, they can learn more about the situation in the Middle East, explore ways to participate in BDS activities, and ask their members to write to their members of Parliament to urge a ceasefire and to halt shipments of arms from Canada to Israel.
The end goal, Ndhlovu said, is for “all people to have abundant life.”
“We would like to see Israelis and Palestinians live in harmony and peaceful co-existence,” he said, adding the United Church of Canada is in favour of a two-state solution.
‘No engagement’
When asked whether he was concerned the Church’s BDS call might be seen as antisemitic, Ndhlovu said the Church follows a broad definition of antisemitism from the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. This declaration defines antisemitism as “discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish).”
That is different from the definition used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association, which has been adopted by Canada. This association defines antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews” and that includes targeting the state of Israel.
The United Church has zero tolerance for antisemitism, Ndhlovu says. But it does not want it to be so narrowly defined that it is prevented from saying “the atrocities that Israel is committing are wrong. Because that’s what is happening.”
For Marceau, of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the United Church’s call to participate in BDS is “highly problematic” for several reasons. These include how it breaks a commitment the centre believes the United Church of Canada made in 2022 to consult the Jewish community in Canada on issues related to Israel and Palestine.
“There was no engagement” before this call to participate in BDS was released, he said.
The call also “crosses the line” into antisemitism by saying Israel practices apartheid, Marceau says. The BDS movement has, as a goal, “the erasure of the state of Israel,” he said.
Marceau is also concerned about the timing of the Church’s call. It comes around the same time the Government of Canada released its handbook on the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s definition of antisemitism.
Overall, the United Church seems to have an “unhealthy obsession” with Israel that “doesn’t serve the Church well,” he said.
This is not the church that I grew up in.
I will never step inside a un-united church again. My parents are rolling over in their graves. This is unmitigated BS.
SHAME ON THIS CHURCH, my belief is that the leaders of this church are anti-smites
Why not condemn a country whose military is indiscriminately killing tens of thousands of civilians, including women and children? This has got nothing to do with the Jewish religion.