Canadian Church Votes To Back Israel Boycott
The general council of a large Canadian church network voted in favor of promoting a boycott against institutions complicit in what it called the illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
On its 42nd annual gathering this week, the council of the United Church of Canada voted in favor of the text on Israel on Aug. 11, its website reported.
The resolution passed was in favor of ““initiating and developing a program of education and advocacy in cooperation with our partners, related to divestment from and economic sanctions against all corporations and institutions complicit in and benefitting from the illegal occupation. This would include education about tourism which bolsters the oppression of Palestinians.”
Founded in 1925, the United Church of Canada is among the country’s largest with at least 600,000 members, according to The National Post of Toronto.
Separately, in Europe the prominent Swiss Jewish filmmaker Stina Werenfels weighed in on a debate around funding by the Israeli Film Fund for Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival. In recent weeks, over 400 personalities from the film industry signed a petition titled “No Carte Blanche for Israeli apartheid” denouncing the collaboration.
At a press conference earlier this week, Werenfels, who was raised as a Christian but has a Jewish mother, said she was “shocked” that the Locarno festival organizers accepted money from an organization that enjoys funding from the Israeli government, the Jewish Swiss WSeekly Tachles reported Friday.
Organizers of the festival, which opened on Aug. 4 and is due to end Saturday, dropped Israel from the name of a program dedicated to Israeli cinema, calling it “First Look” instead.
Earlier this week, Israeli director Roy Zafrani said his submission of his film on children with disabilities was rejected from a Norwegian film festival because of what organizers called Israeli occupation. He has declined to name the festival in question.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
