London, July 2, IRNA – Britain’s Methodists broke new ground this week by becoming the first Christian Church in the UK to boycott all products from illegal Israeli settlements as well as call for an arms embargo.
The decision, in response to calls from Palestinian Christians, a growing number of Jewish organisations, both inside Israel and worldwide, and the World Council of Churches, was made at the Methodist Church’s annual conference in Portsmouth, southern England.
Christine Elliott, the church’s secretary for External Relationships, said the overwhelming vote has “not been taken lightly, but after months of research.”
“The goal of the boycott is to put an end to the existing injustice. It reflects the challenge that settlements present to a lasting peace in the region,” Elliot said.
The conference passed every recommendation in a damning 54-page report, including adopting a statement calling for a full arms embargo against all sides in the conflict.
“This conflict is further fuelled by partisan support by other countries. Violence from all parties in this conflict must be denounced, and a just peace sought for all peoples living in the region,” said Elliot.
The Justice for Palestine and Israel report, which blames Israel’s occupation as the “key hindrance” to Middle East peace, attracted the support of more than 30 Christian and Jewish organisations and individuals for its “humane and principled conclusions”.
But according to the Jewish Chronicle, the boycott vote has inflamed Britain’s chief rabbi Lord Sacks, who described the report as “unbalanced, factually and historically flawed” and offering “no genuine understanding of one of the most complex conflicts in the world today.”
Sacks was said to have even warned that the implications of the decision would “reverberate across the hitherto harmonious relationship between the faith communities in the UK”.
The Methodists are Britain’s largest non-conformist Christian church, numbering some 330,000 adherents among around 70 million worldwide.