As expressed in an email by Bek Christensen, Australia EAPPI national coordinator, “while Australia hasn't had many EAs, a number of our EAs have come from the Uniting Church, and it was noted by a number of church leaders that the advocacy efforts of EAs through the church communities was important in enabling this decision to make it through”.

The Uniting Church in Australia at its national meeting held last week, voted “to establish an awareness-raising campaign throughout the Church on the plight of Palestinian Christians and the Palestinian people, including promotion of the boycott of goods from the illegal settlements in the West Bank as part of the campaign”.

As expressed in an email by Bek Christensen, Australia EAPPI national coordinator, “while Australia hasn't had many EAs, a number of our EAs have come from the Uniting Church, and it was noted by a number of church leaders that the advocacy efforts of EAs through the church communities was important in enabling this decision to make it through”.

The full text of the resolution can be found here:
http://assembly2015.uca.org.au/66-palestine-andrew-dutney-felicity-amery/


The speech by outgoing President Andrew Dutney, who presented the motion, can be read here:
https://andrewfdutney.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/proposal-on-palestine/

The Uniting Church will be writing to Kairos and the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem about this decision in the near future.
 
The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was established on 22 June 1977 when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, the Presbyterian Church of Australia and the Congregational Union of Australia came together under the Basis of Union. According to the Australian Census in 2011 there are 1,065,796 people identifying with the Uniting Church in Australia, making it the third largest denomination behind the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church. The church has a strong ecumenical commitment, with national dialogues with nine other Australian churches. As declared by its name, it seeks close cooperation and further union with other churches. The closest relationships and greatest cooperation are with the Anglican and Lutheran churches and the Churches of Christ (Disciples). UCA is an active member of the World Council of Churches and the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
 
Best greetings,
  
Manuel Quintero-EAPPI
 

by Theodore Bikel   Posted on Sep. 5, 2014 at 10:22 am
Source: Jewish Journal
Through all the turmoil of these last weeks and months I have been tortured by thoughts of children, Jewish children, Palestinian children, Syrian, Iraqi children – all those who most innocently of all, and most grievously of all, are the victims of the Middle East Madness.

Rachel mebaka et baneha, Rachel mourns her children. With her I weep for the children knowing that they are all her children, our children, every one of them.

The shameful apologies trying to justify the death of Arab children with trite explanations of ‘collateral damage’ and ‘use children as shields and they will die’ fill me with anger. Yes, a Jewish child’s life if precious to me but how dare anyone suggest that another child’s life is less precious, less deserving of a future? What is most frustrating is that those who place lesser values on non-Jews are supposed stalwarts of a community that I can no longer rightfully call mine. Where is the commitment to open dialogue, the respect to hear out opposing ideas, where is the dictum that commands us to listen, to debate, to agonize with each other rather than hurl epithets of disloyalty?

People see suffering and unless it is Jewish suffering they are silent. How dare they? Many years ago, at the famous March on Washington, Rabbi Joachim Prinz declared that the crime of the century was silence, silence in the face of injustice. I say it now to my own community; Jewish silence in the face of injustice is intolerable because Jews are commanded to live by a moral code that calls such silence not only wrong but makes it a crime.

My father has been gone for many years now but he left me to be the guardian of his dream, a dream of a Zionism whose engine to fulfillment would be the socialism of the kibbutz movement. Both have now been corrupted and made irrelevant in a land that practices capitalist consumerism and allows children to go to bed hungry.  In my mind I have been offering my father apologies that his dream has been thwarted and that both he and I are left with the sadness of frustrated hope.

I am an old man now but I know how to grieve over a boyhood dream that has gone.

Theodore Bikel, 90, is the chairman of Partners For A Progressive Israel. He has served as national vice president of the American Jewish Congress and as president of Actor's Equity and the 4A's. His latest film, "Theodore Bikel in the Shoes of Shalom Aleichem" recently premiered at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival; his updated autobiography "Theo" has been published early this summer, and his recording on Elektra records are now available for download on iTunes. 

Companies, pension funds, even governments in countries around the world have thrown their support behind the Israeli boycott.


By: Olivia Ward Foreign Affairs Reporter, Published on Mon Jul 20 2015 The Star

BDS achievements

The BDS movement has scored notable tactical successes in the decade since it was launched by Palestinian activists, claiming 100 victories in the U.S. alone. Here are some of its gains:


ECONOMIC


KLP: The Norwegian insurance giant divested from Germany’s Heidelberg Cement and Mexico’s Cemex over their use of Palestinian natural resources in the occupied territories.


Veolia: The French conglomerate sold almost all of its business in Israel after losing major international tenders because of its involvement in Israeli projects in the occupied territories.


G4S: The security company has been hit by millions of dollars in divestments from the Gates foundation and the American United Methodist Church pension fund because of its involvement in Israeli prisons where Palestinians are incarcerated.


U.S. Presbyterian Church: Divested from three international companies involved in the occupation, including Caterpillar, HP and Motorola Solutions.


George Soros Fund Management: Divested all its stock in the Israeli company SodaStream, which operates in the occupied territories.


PGGM: The major Dutch pension management fund divested from five Israeli banks over their involvement in the occupied territories.


Norway: The country’s giant sovereign wealth fund divested from two Israeli companies involved in settlement construction.


Europe: Governments have issued guidance notices to their citizens and businesses advising them against involvement in Israeli projects in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem. The EU issued guidelines against funding Israeli projects and entities in the territories.


CULTURAL


International petition: Almost 1,000 British cultural figures signed a pledge for a cultural boycott of Israel, joined by others in Montreal, Ireland and South Africa. Major U.S. filmmakers, writers, musicians and artists refused to participate in Israeli cultural events.


Holocaust survivors criticize Israel: A half-page New York Times ad signed by 327 Jewish Holocaust survivors condemned Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and called for a “full economic, cultural and academic boycott.”


Academic boycott: More than 1,200 Spanish university staff joined an academic boycott of Israel, along with Belgian students and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland. The American Studies Association and three other major U.S. academic groups endorsed an academic boycott of Israel.

Mondeweiss

The United Church of Christ will hold its general synod in Cleveland June 26-30 and consider a divestment resolution targeting the Israeli occupation. On June 17, 2015, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu issued a statement supporting the resolution.

My dear sisters and brothers in the United Church of Christ,

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, through whom we share work and witness on behalf of God’s love and God’s justice.

I write to endorse, “A Call for the United Church of Christ to Take Actions Toward a Just Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”, Resolution #4, which will be put to the vote at your 30th General Synod later this month in Cleveland, Ohio.

We grieve over Israel’s decades long oppression of Palestine and Palestinians: The illegal occupation; the expanding West Bank settlements; the separation wall; the siege of Gaza; the manipulation of water rights; the network of checkpoints and settler bypass roads; the detention of people without charges; the travel restrictions, identity cards, and disruption of every aspect of daily life for Palestinians.

We condemn the brutality of Israel’s policies. But we do not condemn Judaism or Jews.

As South African, we recognize institutionalized racism when we see it. We have experienced the corrosive effects of segregation – and have witnessed the healing power and joy of reconciliation.

It is unconscionable to remain silent, or neutral, in the face of injustice. Neutrality maintains the status quo and compounds the injustice.

The depth of my commitment to justice in the Holy Land has cost me friends and elicited vehement criticism. It is the cost of discipleship that requires us to name evil and clearly oppose it. Calling me anti-Semitic will not stop me from speaking out for justice.

We do not seek to demonize the architects of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, but to implore those with the political power to change their policies and their ways. Injustice brutalizes the humanity of the oppressors as well as that of the oppressed. Freedom for Palestinians will liberate Israelis, too.

We are sisters and brothers of one family, the human family, God’s family. We are made for each other, for inter-dependence, for goodness and for love. When we recognize each other for what we truly are, we make the impossible possible.
Thank you for recognizing our common humanity, for taking a stand for justice. Your resolution places you on the side of justice and human rights for all.

I endorse fully your resolution’s proposal to use the powerful non-violent tools of economic leverage. These tools helped us to engineer a new day for my own country, South Africa. With you, we proved that economic pressure can force the most powerful to the table. I am grateful that your denomination stood with us then, voting to join the South African divestment movement, and that you are prepared once again to take this stand for justice.

I applaud your decision to be guided by the faithful voice of the Christian community of Palestine, and to encourage widespread study of Kairos Palestine – a Moment of Truth (2009). It was just such a document which, in 1985, allowed the world to hear our voice and learn the depth of our oppression in South Africa. May we all heed the Kairos Palestine call, as people of faith, to engage in “resistance with love as its logic”.

I affirm your resolution’s condemnation of all violence and your uncompromising commitment to the path of non-violence and inter-religious dialogue. And I commend the resolution’s call for accountability from your own, United States, government over its annual $3.1 billion in military aid to Israel.

As US citizens you have the responsibility to speak truth to the power of your own government. As Christians you have the duty to side with the oppressed and by so doing to liberate the oppressor.

I endorse your resolution, and fervently pray for the day when Palestinians and Israelis will be reconciled and live together in dignity, security, and peace, with equal rights for all. When that day comes our collective hallelujahs will resound across the world we share.

God bless you.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu Cape Town, South Africa

 Jeremy Moodey 10 July 2015

The following article is excerpted from Christian Today.  You can read the full article at http://goo.gl/tDDTKo

One year ago this week, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) began their attack on the tiny and overcrowded territory of Gaza, with a massive artillery bombardment and airstrikes, supposedly in response to Hamas rocket attacks.
...
The picture [left] was taken by me in Gaza earlier this year and shows a Palestinian child standing in front of the ruins of the al-Wafa Geriatric Hospital, destroyed by Israeli bombing on 23 July 2014. The social and physical infrastructure of the territory was shattered.
...
Gaza has become a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, and yet the world – and many evangelical Christians in particular – seem strangely indifferent to its suffering and ignorant of the underlying causes. Why is this?

Martin Saunders put his finger on the problem in his piece 'The awkward truth about Evangelicals and Gaza'. A simplistic and often knee-jerk view that the Israelis are the 'good guys' and the Palestinians the 'bad guys', together with a visceral fear of what Saunders called 'accidental antisemitism' when embarking on any criticism of Israel's actions, has meant that many evangelicals have 'consciously looked away' when confronted by the suffering and injustice in Gaza.

I think the problem is worse. Some evangelicals, especially in the United States, have been positively callous in their response. Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a fundamentalist Christian and former Baptist minister, told apro-Israel gathering in New York in December 2014 that the US should stop funding the reconstruction of Gaza and spend the money instead on concrete for more Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. This despite the fact that the entire international community, including the current US administration, regards such settlements as illegal under the Geneva Convention.
...
Another area of potential confusion for Christians, touched on by Saunders, is what the Bible has to say about the situation in Gaza. Many Christians seem to feel that Israel's military interventions in Gaza have a divine sanction, as the land belongs to the Jewish people anyway. This seems to overlook the fact that the land promise is now fulfilled in the person of Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). I am always struck by the fact that Gaza appears only once in the New Testament, in Acts 8:26, where the Angel of the Lord sends Philip the Evangelist to Gaza, presumably to preach the Gospel. Some of the earliest believers were in Gaza, and around 1,300 Palestinian Christians still live there today.

The fact is that the Holy Land, including Gaza, belongs to God not man (Leviticus 25:23). I believe that He is grieving at the daily suffering which is occurring in the Palestinian territories, and the world's inability to address the underlying problem, which is how Israel's 48-year occupation can be brought to an end and Jews and Palestinians can share the land in peace and justice. Slowly but surely, more Christians are coming to understand this reality. Whether this will be in time to save the people of Gaza remains to be seen.

Jeremy Moodey is Chief Executive of the Christian development charity Embrace the Middle East, which supports Christian-led development projects in Gaza. You can follow Jeremy on Twitter@JeremyMoodey.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a letter to the United Church of Canada urges the denomination to take peaceful, economic action against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. He calls for the United Church at its General Council meeting in August to, “join with other denominations around the globe who have decided to boycott and divest from companies that benefit from the occupation.”

Desmond Tutu first rose to prominence in the struggle against apartheid. He was one of the initial and strongest advocates for boycotts, divestment and sanctions in South Africa. In 1984 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Tutu has been a frequent visitor to the Holy Land. In the letter he draws strong parallels between apartheid in South Africa and the treatment of Palestinians. “I saw the marks of apartheid in the policies of the Israeli government continued to the present day. The Palestinians are forced to live in segregated areas, often relocated to less desirable land so Jewish settlers can live in fine red ceramic-roofed houses with paved roads while most Palestinians live in squalor in villages and refugee camps. Water is diverted to settlers so that they can have nice green lawns, irrigated fields and community swimming pools while Palestinians endure shortages and dusty roads. I have looked at this and seen the ugly face of apartheid and the racism within it.”

Tutu’s letter to the United Church is timely as it arrives before the triennial meeting of the denomination in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland and Labrador scheduled for Aug. 8-15. At its last meeting, the United Church voted in favour of boycotting goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements. Since then, SodaStream one of three targeted companies, have moved their facilities out of the occupied area.  Ahava cosmetics, another targeted company, is reported to be ready to leave Palestinian territory also. 

Tutu’s letter also calls attention to Canada’s, “complicity in Palestinian suffering under occupation.”

Rev. Steve Berube, co-chair of the United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI), sees this letter as being important. “Archbishop Tutu, is one of the few people who can speak with authority when comparing his life in South Africa to what he has actually seen in Palestine.”

Berube spoke of his own experience in the West Bank, “Like virtually every other human rights observer in Palestine, I witnessed Israeli violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws as well as the Geneva Conventions on a daily basis. With last year’s war in Gaza more people are beginning to wake up to the horrors of the occupation. The only way the illegal occupation will end is through civil society putting economic pressure on Israel and forcing them to negotiate seriously.”  

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For more information, please contact:  Rev. Steve Berube / Telephone: (506) 381-7869 
                                                                  Email: sberube@nb.aibn.com