TORONTO — Jewish groups are urging Canadians to buy goods from companies being targeted in a holiday boycott campaign endorsed by the United Church of Canada against Israeli firms that make products in the West Bank.

“[The goal is] to really send the message that when people try to isolate Israel by calling for a boycott of any product, the immediate consequence will be exactly the opposite,” said Sara Saber-Freedman, executive vice-president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), which organizes what it calls “buycott” campaigns to thwart such efforts.

With the start of the Christmas shopping season, the United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine/Israel (UNJPPI), which consists mostly of United Church members, is encouraging consumers to boycott products from Ahava cosmetics, SodaStream and Keter Plastic, which all have plants in the West Bank that employ both Jews and Arabs.

The group held a press conference Dec. 3 at Toronto’s Metropolitan United Church to launch its drive.

Len Rudner, CIJA’s director of community relations and outreach, said fewer than 10 people attended the event, and he saw no new media there.

“[Attendees] were all folks already committed to the cause,” he told The CJN.

The press conference was followed by what UNJPPI co-ordinator Dale Hildebrand called a “public witness event” outside the Canadian Tire store at Bay and Dundas streets.

Rudner described it as roughly 10 people carrying placards and handing out flyers to passersby, while Hildebrand estimated the number of participants in Toronto was closer to 20.

“There was absolutely no indication that their messaging found any traction in front of the store,” Rudner said, noting that inside, it was business as usual.

The UNJPPI initiative is aligned with one the church launched in June based on its August 2012 General Council resolution. The campaign, called “Unsettling Goods,” urges church members to “pray, choose, speak for peace in Palestine and Israel” by boycotting products made by Israeli firms in the West Bank. The campaign calls Israeli settlements there an “obstacle to peace.”

The United Church sent out materials to congregations last month inviting them to join in the campaign, which includes the boycott, Hildebrand said.

He described his group’s demonstrations as “public witness events,” as opposed to protests, since members were engaging people in conversation, rather than chanting slogans or acting in a confrontational manner.

Hildebrand called the overall campaign a success, with some 100 people taking part in events across the country last week. He said the Toronto event “was successful in that we talked to a lot of people on the street.”

But Rudner suggested that people who did take the group’s pamphlets were unlikely to be swayed, because the area near the store is filled with activists.

“Let’s face it, we’re in Toronto. You can stand on the corner and hold a piece of paper and people will take it because we’re polite,” he said.

B’nai Brith Canada released a statement saying it became clear anti-Semitism was at the heart of the Toronto protest after its national vice-president, who declined to give his name to The CJN, was “harassed” in front of the store.

Spokesperson Sam Eskanasi said the B’nai Brith executive was handed a boycott card and then showed a protester that he had just purchased a SodaStream product.

The B’nai Brith executive engaged the person in a “pleasant but useless” conversation, then she called him a “stupid thief” and a “religious fanatic,” Eskenasi said.

Hildebrand said he was unaware of the incident, but that kind of confrontation goes against his organization’s guidelines.

“We ask people to be very respectful,” he said. “What we want to do is to engage people in a reasonable and straightforward conversation about the issues. We’re not interested in confrontation, and we’re not interested in acrimonious debate.”

Saber-Freedman said CIJA launched its “buycott” in response to UNJPPI’s efforts. The CIJA-affiliated website BuycottIsrael.com regularly urges readers to buy items being targeted by anti-Israel boycotts and encourages them to post pictures of themselves with the goods on Facebook and other social networking sites.

Saber-Freedman said SodaStream, which makes home soft-drink carbonation machines, is actually the model of what peace should look like, noting that around half of its employees are Palestinians who are treated and paid the same way as Jewish Israeli employees.

Although she called the Toronto press conference and boycott launch a failure, given the lack of attendance, she said it’s important for the pro-Israel community to have a clear understanding of what it’s dealing with.

“We’re not responding to… something that calls for yelling and screaming,” she said. “It’s something that calls for smart, thoughtful action, and we think that’s what a buycott is.”

In a statement, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies said it was “horrified to learn the United Church is intensifying its campaign against the Jewish People… in support of the ‘Unsettling Goods’ boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against the Jewish state.”