World Jewish Congress head welcomes US Episcopal Church’s rejection of Israel boycott

NEW YORK - The president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) today hailed a decision by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States to reject a motion endorsing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Ronald S. Lauder said: “We wholeheartedly thank the Episcopal Church convention for lending its support to Israel on this issue, and for taking a moral stand. We sincerely hope that other major church denominations in America will follow this example and stop the BDS movement in its tracks.”

Lauder added: “Endorsing BDS does nothing to improve the plight of the Palestinians, in particular not of those employed by Israeli companies in the West Bank. Endorsing BDS also doesn’t contribute to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All it does is to sow division and hatred. The BDS movement won’t bring peace and justice to the Middle East; that will only come once the Palestinians and their supporters choose cooperation over confrontation.” The WJC president said the real motive of the BDS movement was “to put into question the existence of Israel as the democratic nation-state of the Jewish people.”

On Thursday, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Salt Lake City, rejected in a voice vote the proposal to divest from businesses that have operations in the West Bank and to boycott West Bank settlement products. The Episcopal Church has around 1.8 million members across the United States.

Lauder also welcomed the fact that the delegates at the Mennonite Church USA in Kansas City, decided to delay a vote on divestment from Israel until their next assembly in 2017.

Earlier this week, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ (UCC) voted in favor of divestment from Israel.