MEDIA ADVISORY

Christian leaders alert Canadian public to Sabeel push for divestment

 

Toronto, October 24, 2005 – Prominent Christian clergy visiting from the United Sates have asked Canada’s leading Jewish human rights organization, B’nai Brith Canada, to join forces to alert the Canadian public to the dangers inherent in the divestment from Israel campaign being touted by organizers of the upcoming Sabeel conference, which begins Wednesday night in Toronto. The conference entitled, “A Call for Morally Responsible Investment”, is organized by the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, which has led the campaign to isolate Israel through divestment.

 

Sabeel has been widely identified as a group whose raison d’être is the delegitimization and demonization of Israel, rather than working toward a responsible and lasting peace in the Middle East. The press conference is designed as an opportunity for Christian leaders to repudiate divestment; to emphasize the integral connection between the Jewish people world-wide and the State of Israel; and the need to avoid toxic and hateful rhetoric in any discussions about a peaceful solution.  

 

PRESS CONFERENCE DETAILS

When:             Thursday, October 27, 2005

Time:              10:30 AM

Where:            Sutton Place Hotel

The Wellesley Room – Main Floor Lobby

955 Bay Street (at Wellesley), Toronto

 

Speakers:

 

Ruth Klein, National Director of Advocacy, B’nai Brith Canada, who has a long history of fighting anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, will chair the conference.

 

Rev. Dr. Bruce Chilton, chair of the Episcopal–Jewish relations Committee in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, will address the Episcopal Church in the United States’ recent decision to reject divestment in favor of a strategy of positive investment among Palestinians and corporate engagement with Israel.

 

Rev. William Harter of Presbyterians Concerned for Jewish Relations and the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel will discuss how the Presbyterian Church USA’s divestment strategy has created a major rift within the Presbyterian Church USA as well as between the Jewish and Presbyterian communities.

 

Sr. Ruth Lautt, O.P., Esq., National Director of Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East (Fair Witness) will put the Israeli-Arab conflict into a historical and current context by discussing Israel’s continued offering of a two-state solution in 1948, 1967, and 2000.

 

Dexter Van Zile, Director of the Judeo-Christian Alliance, an Initiative of the David Project Center for Jewish Leadership and an active layman in the United Church of Christ, will discuss the particular ways in which the divestment controversy has adversely affected his denomination and will recommend constructive alternatives.  

 

 

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For further information contact Karen Lazar, Communications Director:
 416-633-6224 X 140 (office) / 647-999-9835 (cell)

B’nai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875 as the Jewish community’s
 foremost human rights organization.