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Settlers holding Israeli flags
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| By Israel Insider staff August 16, 2007 |
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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is working towards a boycott of goods made in Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria. The church, its membership numbering nearly five million, has proposed stepping up investment in the Palestinian Authority.
The Churchwide Assembly called for the "consideration of refusing to buy goods or invest in activities taking place in Israeli settlements, and a review of other economic options," according to Bishop Christopher Epting, the presiding bishop's deputy for ecumenical and interfaith relations," according to Haaretz.
The paper reported that the Pondering Pastor blog said that the resolution picked "up with an amendment to call upon the ELCA to underscore the call for economic initiatives by this church and its members in the ['Peace not Walls'] campaign. Such initiatives, in consultation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land could include purchasing of products [from] Palestinian providers and exploration of the feasibility of refusing to buy products produced in Israeli settlements. Also to be explored is the entire investment activity by this church."
However the assembly decided not to endorse divestiture from Israel.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center slammed the assembly ambiguous posture- rejecting divestiture but "studying" a boycott.
"This marks the first time a mainline American Protestant church has moved toward a possible boycott of Israel," the center's Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper said.
"While we note that the ELCA delegates have now joined the Presbyterian Church (USA) in explicitly rejecting divesting from companies doing business with Israel, they have decided to embrace one of the anti-Israel tactics adopted by United Kingdom trade unions and others in Europe. ELCA delegates would have made a stronger contribution to the quest for peace and justice in the Holy Land had they also raised the ransacking of Christian places of worship and [the] recent forced conversion of a Christian professor in Gaza, as well as the unrelenting targeting of Israeli civilian communities by Palestinian Kassam rockets."
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