American Lutheran Church to consider boycott of Israeli goods
20 Aug 200720 August 2007
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States has moved towards a partial boycott of Israeli goods. At its 2007 Churchwide Assembly in Chicago, the church's top body urged "consideration" of economic options, including the refusal to buy Israeli products or invest in activities in Israeli settlements, according to a report by the Jerusalem Post newspaper. The church also resolved to work toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for investment in the Palestinian Authority. However, the assembly rejected a call for divestiture of church assets from Israel.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized the assembly's "mixed message" of rejecting divestiture but "studying" a boycott. "This marks the first time a mainline American Protestant church has moved toward a possible boycott of Israel," Rabbi Abraham Cooper said, adding: "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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