By Lloyd Mackey

DEPENDING on which religious leader was speaking, this past week provided a good opportunity for Christian input into Israeli-Palestinian relations -- or it provided a platform to insult Canadian Jews.

The occasion was the United Church of Canada's 40th General Council (GC), which drew 600 or more commissioners and advisors to the University of British Columbia Okanagan's Kelowna campus. One of the most publicized set of GC agenda items was a cluster of proposals concerning Israeli-Palestinian issues.

Debate occurred in two stages. On Tuesday, commissioners voted to repudiate language contained in background papers supporting proposals from the church's Toronto conference. Some of that language included references to Israel being an "apartheid" state -- in effect, equating the Jewish state's treatment of Palestinians with the racist policies of South Africa.

Jewish leaders, both from the mainstream Canadian Jewish Congress and the more conservative B'nai Brith, welcomed the rejection of the background papers' premise.

And GC programs officer Bruce Gergersen told CC.com that Council "has never used [such] language, 'repudiate and regret,'" as it did in its rejection of Toronto South Presbytery's portrayal of Israel.

Gregersen had a reason, if not a defence, for the way some of the anti-Israeli rhetoric has developed. "Montreal-Ottawa is quite a moderate conference. Toronto Conference, in particular the Toronto South, has a small and passionate activist group," he said. "In their passion and concern, they made a mistake; but they care for the Palestinians. People sometimes focus on ultimate concern, and not the detail."

The repudiation won mild praise from Ottawa rabbi Rueven Bulka, a former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. He told the United Church Observer: "Our concern was that it not become church policy to vilify Israel and single it out and call for a boycott. So in that sense, I am pleased."

On Thursday, the GC rejected the Toronto Conference's idea of national boycotts against Israel -- and adopted a more moderated approach to encouraging peace in the Middle East, and the building of viable Israeli and Palestinian states.

But the Council, in the words of Gregersen, encouraged member bodies of the Church -- congregations, presbyteries and conferences -- to feel free "to study, discern and pray, and to undertake their own initiatives." Those initiatives, he added, "may include economic boycotts as a means to ending the occupation [of Palestine]."

That move, in the view of Frank Dimant, B'nai Brith's Canadian vice-president, negated the apartheid 'repudiation.' "I was counting on an understanding of Jewish issues," he lamented.

Dimant said he and his organization are finding themselves "fighting a constant uphill battle against a coalition of hate, involving Islamofascists, neo-Nazis and the radical left wing, including extreme trade unions. They are the strangest groupings, [because] they come together on Israel-bashing."

Dimant used the example of the GC's call to dismantle Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as an example of the "semantics" involved -- suggesting that, ultimately, the United Church would like them to "give up the Western Wall. That means an ethnic cleansing of Jews."

In responding to United Church criticism of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Dimant said that, in Israel -- even though it is a 'Jewish state' -- Arab people have full citizenship rights. He wondered why a Palestinian state would not consider extending citizenship to Jewish settlers.

Dimant said he regretted the GC did not seem to invite any of the kinds of Christians who believe biblical prophecy is being fulfilled through the Jewish people "coming home" to Israel.

For his part, Gregersen allowed that "no one has an easy answer regarding East Jerusalem. There are proposals for trading off land as part of the process. But the [Israeli] occupation continues, and that makes final resolution harder to achieve."

The GC officer agreed that the return of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of Israel, and his reputation as a "hardliner" with respect to Israeli-Palestinian issues, was seemingly making the peace process more difficult. "We have not mapped out a pathway, but we go to the fundamentals," said Gregersen. "And we know we will have to go to the more moderate states, [like Jordan and Egypt], to see that the emerging Palestine is recognized."

Further, he suggested, the states that have held out against recognizing the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state will need to show movement.

To that extent, the GC and B'nai Brith are on the same page. They both accept the "two-state" solution, as advanced by the United States/European Union/Russia/United Nations "quartet." Their most striking disagreements relate, for example, to whether the post-1948 or post-1967 Israeli boundaries should prevail.

Gregersen said he hopes United Church congregations and Jewish groups -- as well as other religious groups and leaders -- will continue to work their way through the peace-making process. To him, the key question was this: "How do we help both those in Israel and in Palestine, so peace will have a chance?"

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