VANCOUVER - The United Church of Canada has rejected calls from some of its members for a national boycott of Israel.
Canada's largest Protestant denomination voted against three resolutions that would have seen an end to trade, as well as cultural and academic activities, with the Jewish state.
The resolutions also called for financial divestment and sanctions and equated Israel's policy toward the Palestinians to South African apartheid.
"What is most significant and what is relevant to people's concern is that the United Church has not begun or approved a boycott on a national level," said Bruce Gregersen, a church spokesman.
The church's announcement was met with cheers by the Canadian Jewish Congress and its chief executive officer, Bernie Farber.
"Rejecting boycotts as a policy of the national church, I think, speaks very well for the general council members who took to heart our concerns and are looking for ways to be more inclusive as opposed to exclusive," Farber said.
While the church decided against a national boycott, Gregersen said its individual members are free to invoke such measures if they see fit.
"(The church) has stated its encouragement and recommendation to its member bodies ... that they are free to study, discern, and pray and undertake their own initiatives, which may include an economic boycott as a means to ending the occupation," he said.
Gregersen said leaving such decisions to individual member bodies is consistent with church policy.
Farber agreed that such a move is par for the course and didn't view it as a concern.
"The issue would have been far more complicated and would have caused far more problems had this boycott resolution been passed," he said.
"It wasn't, it was rejected out of hand, and that's the good news. I think it's brought really a sigh of relief to the entire Jewish community."
Last week, Farber expressed concerns about the relationship between the church and the congress if the resolutions passed. The two have worked together for years through the Canadian Christian-Jewish Consultation.
But, with the rejection of the proposals, Farber said the two parties will continue their working relationship.
The church is holding its general meeting in Kelowna, B.C. Of the 105 resolutions on the agenda, four pertain to Israel.
One tabled by the church's Ottawa and Montreal delegates was not opposed by the congress.
It called for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and other occupied territories but condemned suicide bombings and other attacks against Israeli civilians. It also said Palestine must recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.
The congress also expressed concern that the background material for one resolution claimed some MPs are dual Canadian-Israeli citizens and therefore could have questionable loyalties. The material said MPs have taken Israeli-sponsored junkets "which might be called bribes."
Farber said he never would have expected to see such accusations from one of Canada's mainstream church organizations.
The church backed away from that material earlier this week in a motion that called the language "provocative, unbalanced, and hurtful."
"We are encouraged that members of the United Church saw through this dangerous and hateful language and rejected both the background materials and the Israel boycott proposals themselves," said Rabbi Reuven Bulka, the congress' past co-president.
The material was put forward by the Toronto conference's world affairs committee.
Rick McKinley, past president of the Toronto conference, said he didn't agree with either the resolution or the material.
"We worked too hard to have a good relationship with our Jewish friends. I just don't agree with anything to do with a boycott," McKinley said, stressing that he was speaking on his own behalf and not for the church.
He said such squabbles commonly pop up every three years, as the church prepares to select a new moderator.
Farber agreed.
"It's happened certainly since I've been around and I go back to 1984," he said.
"It always seems that it comes from a small segment within the church."
Farber said because the United Church is a democratic body it is comfortable with these issues being brought forward and discussed.
"The good news is that rational minds win out in the end."
