Responses to Opposing Views

Response to Gary Gaudin's Open Letter

Response to Gary Gaudin’s “Open Letter to the General Council Commissioners of British Columbia Conference of the United Church of Canada: Grieving a Missed Opportunity: some Personal Thoughts on the Report of the Working Group on Israel/Palestine.”

Gary Gaudin, a United Church minister from Richmond, B.C., has raised a number of objections to the Report of the General Council’s Working Group on Israel/Palestine Policy. (see file attached below.)  Recommendations from this Report will go the General Council of the United Church in August of this year.  Gaudin particularly objects to recommendations for a limited “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” (BDS) policy against “settlement products that can be identified as produced in or related to the settlements or the occupied territories.”  (Task Force Report p. 24)  He also objects to the Report “continuing to name the occupation as the primary contributor to the injustice that underlies the violence of the region” (p. 23) and regretting “the past policy of calling on Palestinians to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state.” (p. 23) Neither Gary Gaudin nor I will be Commissioners to General Council.

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manley_response_to_gary_gaudin.pdf
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gaudin-open_letter_to_gc.pdf
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Letter to United Church from
Seriously Free Speech Committee

June 10, 2012

Rev. Mardi Tinsdall, Moderator
Rev. Nora Sanders, Executive Secretary
The United Church of Canada
3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300
Toronto, Ontario, M8X 2Y4


Dear Reverends Tinsdall and Sanders,

The Vancouver-based Seriously Free Speech Committee (SFSC) was founded in 2008 to defend activitists who were being sued by Canwest for producing a parody of The Vancouver Sun's one-sided coverage of Palestine and Israel. We have subsequently broadened our activity to defend individuals and organizations who are being attacked because of their crticism of Israel and their defense of Palestinian human rights. We are writing to support the process through which the United Church is reconsidering its policy on Palestine/Israel.

The report of the United Church's Working Group on Israel/Palestine Policy (WGIP) is an important step forward and provides the basis for a thorough discussion of the issues at the 41st General Council meeting.

We are concerned, however, that the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has responded by attacking the document, using threatening, inflammatory language: “If the United Church adopts this highly biased report without ammendment, it will place the Church outside the genuine peace movement and in the same camp as the most virulent anti-israel activists.” Those who demand that others overlook injustice are not providing help or friendship. They are seeking to intimidate and to silence.

Many individuals and organizations have endured attacks of this nature, sometimes at great personal cost. CIJA's goal is clearly to suppress free discussion and inquiry on the subject of Palestine/Israel. We encourage the United Church to vigorously defend its right to a full debate on this subject, free from the accusations and slurs used by CIJA, in defense of not only its own rights, but also those of individuals and organizations which do not have the Church's resources, so that they may continue to engage in the struggle for social justice for the Palestinians.

Brian Campbell and Anne Roberts

Co-Chairs, Seriously Free Speech Committee