Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan Christmas lights are shimmering, bells are jingling and carols are being sung. Children who wrote to Santa Claus for gifts are opening their presents. It is a season of good will and love, the most beautiful time for many Canadians. This month the United Church of Canada launched a campaign in 13 cities across Canada to boycott products made in illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian lands by Keter Plastic Ltd., SodaStream and Ahava. The boycott movement is not new. Some Christians and Jews call it anti-Semitic. Nine Liberal and Conservative senators drafted a letter condemning the implication that “Israel is guilty and the Palestinians the only injured party.” But its supporters see it as a duty to promote justice and peace and oppose oppression and injustice. Reverend Steve Berube, a United Church minister in New Brunswick who lived in Bethlehem, stated: “At Christmas, we tell the story of the wise men. Today the Magi would hit a 30-foot-high concrete wall around the city built on Palestinian land.” In August 2012, the United Church of Canada passed a resolution urging its members to “avoid any and all products produced in the settlements.” The council did not call for a boycott of products made in Israel. “As the church, we are once again being asked to strive to live out God's mission in the world. Much is before us. Much is at stake,” the Right Rev. Gary Paterson wrote to church members. “We join with many others striving to bring peace with justice to the Holy Land.” The church has long performed social service and spoken out on poverty, the economy, labor conditions and fair wages. It also called for nuclear disarmament and ending apartheid in South Africa and the war in Vietnam. As the United Network for a Just Peace in Palestine and Israel states in its mission statement, the goal is a “just peace in Palestine/Israel, primarily through calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and for equal rights for all who live in Palestine/Israel.” The action is opposed by the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), B'nai Brith and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, organizations that support Israel right or wrong and who seem oblivious to the sufferings of the Palestinian people. They argue that the boycott would increase unemployment and misery in the occupied territories - an echo of the argument by the supporters of apartheid that boycotting South African products would hurt South African blacks. Ironically, CIJA called the UCC boycott “intellectually dishonest” - a label that more appropriately describes its own policy of applying double standards for Israel and the Palestinians. Some church groups also have condemned the United Church. They have ignored the fact that the UN General Assembly, the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, the Red Cross and the parties to the Geneva Convention agree that the settlements are illegal and violate international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention is one of four treaties that govern the conduct of states during war and occupation. Companies operating in settlements are violating international law by aiding and profiting from an illegal occupation even though they provide some jobs to Palestinians. Nevertheless, Palestinian civil society issued a call in 2005 for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel - a nonviolent form of resistance to a brutal and never-ending occupation that has made life a nightmare for those living in the occupied territories. The World Bank has issued several reports on the crushing of the Palestinian economy by the oppressive occupation. Those who oppose the sanctions do not suggest any alternative on how the brutal occupation might be ended. Among those supporting the action is the Independent Jewish Voices. Tyler Levitan, IJV's campaign coordinator, said that some Jewish organizations promote “boycott, divestment and sanctions as tools in the battle for social justice in Israel and Palestine. Characterizing boycott efforts as anti-Semitic is an outrageous misuse of the term. The Israel lobby, unable to defend Israel's occupation and brutal treatment of the Palestinian people, can only slur those who support Palestinian human rights.” As Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote: “A quarter-century ago I barnstormed around the United States encouraging Americans, particularly students, to press for divestment from South Africa. Today, regrettably, the time has come for similar action to force an end to Israel's long-standing occupation of Palestinian territory and refusal to extend equal rights to Palestinian citizens who suffer from 35 discriminatory laws. Many black South Africans have traveled to the occupied West Bank and have been appalled by Israeli roads built for Jewish settlers that West Bank Palestinians are denied access to, and by Jewish-only colonies built on Palestinian land in violation of international law. “This, in my book, is apartheid. It is untenable. And we are in desperate need of more rabbis joining the brave rabbis of Jewish Voice for Peace in speaking forthrightly about the corrupting decades-long Israeli domination over Palestinians.” Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, civil servant and refugee judge.
