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Comment

God is back as part of politics

By Alan Simons

This past week the United Church of Canada voted to boycott products exported by Israeli settlements on the West Bank. Not to be outdone, in the UK, The Jewish Chronicle reported “the Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks has resigned as patron of an interfaith charity after it circulated an anti-Israel campaign to members and encouraged them to lobby against the country. Lord Sacks said he was unable to continue working with the Wyndham Place Charlemagne Trust after it sent supporters details of an initiative organised by the Quaker Council for European Affairs that attacks European Union trade links with Israel… The campaign aims to stop the EU adopting the agreement and bar Israeli companies from benefiting from preferential relations with the EU.”

It’s been widely noted that Palestinians, who work for Israeli companies based within Israeli settlements, often think less of the political consequences, but rather of how to keep their jobs. One would have thought the United Church of Canada, before making their asinine boycott decision, would have given some thought to the thousands of Palestinians who now might be wondering if they will have a job tomorrow.

As Hisham Jarallah wrote last week in jewishinfoNe.ws:

“The Arab countries continue to impose strict employment restrictions on Palestinians, Israel is opening its doors to Palestinian workers from the West Bank. Palestinians say, in fact, that Israel is becoming one of the largest employers of Palestinians in the Middle East. Figures released this week by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in Ramallah showed that at least 80,000 Palestinians were now working in Israel and even in Jewish settlements. In the first quarter of 2012, according to the bureau, there were only 77,000 Palestinians working in Israel and the settlements. In the second quarter of the ear, the number grew to 80,000; and earlier this week, the Israeli government issued work permits to another 10,000 Palestinians from the West Bank. The move has been received with a sigh of relief among Palestinians, especially as it comes on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan. The figures also showed that Palestinians employed by Israelis earn more than those who work for their Palestinian brethren in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

Al Quds 2012 Rally in Toronto Praises United Church of Canada.-Click on this image-

John Micklethwait, Editor of The Economist, in his book, God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World, looks at the rise of religious sentiment around the world and how it is affecting politics. The United Church of Canada in their quest to eagerly join their international Israel-bashing religious brethren, such as Wyndham Place Charlemagne Trust and the Quaker Council for European Affairs, give credence to Micklethwait’s comments that God is back, that God is back as part of politics.

Martin Luther King in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1964) said: “Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love!”

Love and brotherhood? Tell that to the Palestinian about to lose his job through the righteous decision of the United Church of Canada. Amen.

(Photo credit: the United Church of Canada)