(JTA) – At its 42nd annual gathering, the council of the United Church of Canada – the country’s largest church – voted last week in favor of promoting a boycott against institutions complicit in what it called the illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

Separately, in Europe the prominent Swiss Jewish filmmaker Stina Werenfels weighed in on a debate around funding by the Israeli Film Fund for Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival. In recent weeks, over 400 personalities from the film industry signed a petition titled “No Carte Blanche for Israeli apartheid” denouncing the collaboration. Organizers of the festival dropped Israel from the name of a program dedicated to Israeli cinema, calling it “First Look” instead.

The previous week, Israeli director Roy Zafrani said his submission of his film on children with disabilities was rejected from a Norwegian film festival because of what organizers called Israeli occupation.