DETROIT, Mich. — The Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly has decided to divest the denomination’s holdings in three corporations that do business with the Israeli military. The June 20 vote to divest from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions was a narrow 310-303. The three companies were targeted because their products—construction equipment, biometric scanners, and cell phones, respectively—are used by Israel in maintaining its military presence on the West Bank.
Within minutes of the assembly vote, reactions came from major Jewish organizations. “The PCUSA leadership is facilitating the delegitimization of Israel in the guise of helping Palestinians,” charged Rabbi Noam Marans of the American Jewish Committee. “It is a very sad day for Presbyterian-Jewish relations when church leaders from across the U.S. align with the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. This is an affront to all who are committed to a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
During committee and plenary discussions, the motion authorizing divestment was amended to soften the anticipated blow. One amendment insisted, “This action on divestment is not to be construed or represented by any organization of the PCUSA as divestment from the State of Israel, or an alignment with or endorsement of the global BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement.”
Another amendment reaffirmed “Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nation within secure and internationally recognized borders.” A third amendment reiterated “PCUSA’s commitment to interfaith dialog and partnerships with the American Jewish, Muslim friends and Palestinian Christians.”
Aiming to be ‘good stewards’
Stephen Choi from Newton Presbytery in New Jersey, moderator of the assembly’s Middle East Issues Committee, introduced the divestment motion. Choi stressed that it “is very holistic in its scope and nature, and divestment is only one of nine total recommendations.”
“The committee did not want the Presbyterian Church (USA) to be responsible for contributing to the devastating treatment of our [Palestinian] sisters and brothers,” according to Choi. “This is a matter of being good stewards of the gifts and money that God has entrusted to our care.” The committee moderator emphasized that “a recommendation for divestment is always the last resort following years of attempting to engage with these companies.”
Also addressing the assembly a day before it decided the matter was Ecumenical Advisory Delegate Rifat Kassis from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land. Kassis appealed to the assembly commissioners: “Palestinians and Israelis who love peace with justice struggle to maintain hope while the wall [Israeli separation barrier] snakes through the Palestinian homeland, destroying our hope for freedom and the possibility of the two-state solution.”
“Palestinian Christians have urged everyone interested in seeking peace with justice in Israel and Palestine to divest from the occupation,” Kassis said. “We need you to help us to keep hope alive.”
A choice between engagement and divestment
Invited to address the assembly at the same time was Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. Jacobs offered Presbyterians a choice: “You can choose partnership and engagement” with the Jewish community, “or you can choose separation and divestment.” He said, “We oppose divestment and BDS because it undermines the two-state solution we so desperately need.”
By way of partnership, Jacobs invited PCUSA moderator Heath Rada and Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons “to join me for a meeting I will arrange next week in Jerusalem with [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu to express our deeply shared concerns. “We are against settlements,” the rabbi stated. “We are for a two-state solution. But we can’t fight alone. We need each other, and if you choose partnership over divestment and BDS, together we can change the world.”
In later assembly debate, former PCUSA moderator Susan Andrews hailed Jacobs’ offer as “a game-changer,” “an unprecedented opportunity that could start a new chapter with the largest portion of the American Jewish community.” But Commissioner Greg Bolt from Homestead Presbytery in Nebraska was less sanguine. He told the moderator: “You going and speaking with any of those people [in Jerusalem] will not have any net effect on what is happening on the ground.” The assembly rejected an amendment that would have encouraged the moderator and stated clerk to make the trip.
Frank Allen from Central Florida Presbytery presented a minority report that would have eschewed divestment in favor of “dialogue and relationship-building” with both Jews and Palestinians. “God’s blood children are on all sides of this conflict,” Allen said, “and the world needs a reconciled and reconciling Presbyterian Church to face the challenges of our time.”
“Divestment pressures Israel to take action without expecting a Palestinian commitment to peace,” Allen argued. “It also disregards Israel’s legitimate security concerns.” He warned that “divestment will link us to a global divestment group that does not share the aims and goals of the Presbyterian Church.”
‘A prisoner in your own country’
Allen’s minority report was turned down on a 316-269 vote; however, the debate continued from the afternoon into the evening. Eva-Maria Barr of Beaver-Butler Presbytery in Pennsylvania recalled growing up in West Germany, where she had to go through checkpoints to visit relatives in East Germany. “I experienced exactly what the Palestinians are experiencing [today],” she said, “where there are soldiers with guns and dogs who intimidated and searched each and every one of us.” For Barr, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “an issue about one group of people oppressing another group of people.” She admitted “divestment is not going to make a giant statement, [but] I’m hoping and praying that divestment will lead to discussion about these issues and a peaceful solution.”
Paul Talarico of Palisades Presbytery in New Jersey remembered talking with a Palestinian shopkeeper in Bethlehem who lamented, “You don’t know how it feels to be a prisoner in your own country.”
Young Adult Advisory Delegate (YAAD) Emma Warman from Baltimore Presbytery shared her conviction that “our investment in these companies is inconsistent with our very Presbyterian values.” She added, “It hurts me to know that we invest in the tearing apart of Palestinian lives.”
“We cannot pray for peace and invest in violence,” contended Elizabeth Mitchell of St. Augustine Presbytery in Florida. We must make a prophetic statement that the PCUSA will not profit from violence against the Palestinian people.”
Andries Coetzee of Muskingum Valley Presbytery in Ohio spoke from his South African background: “Today I am here to thank you, my fellow Presbyterians, because through your action of divestment you put me on the road to gaining back my humanity.” PCUSA and other divestment against South Africa in the 1980s helped Coetzee and other Afrikaners “realize we were on the wrong path” with the apartheid system. “Today I ask you to do that again” in the case of Israel, he said.
Slaps in the face
Jeff Bridgeman of Santa Barbara Presbytery disagreed. Divestment “is not a means of Biblical reconciliation,” Bridgeman contended. “Divestment from Israel will become a slap in their face.” He pleaded with fellow commissioners: “Please, don’t divest. Invest. Invest in the way of Jesus. Invest in the way of reconciliation. That’s who we are.”
Ron Hawkins of Grand Canyon Presbytery expressed doubts about the justice of divesting only from Israel-connected companies. “Right now the spotlight is on Israel,” Hawkins commented, “but I wonder about other companies that sell to other countries whose governments violate human rights. Maybe we should look at a policy that deals with that instead of singling out one country.”
Monroe Swearingen of Trinity Presbytery in South Carolina considered divestment to be “a slap in the face to every employee” of Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions. Mike Fritz of Great Rivers Presbytery in Illinois, where Caterpillar has its headquarters, chimed in. He told of congregations in the presbytery that drew much of their leadership and financial support from Caterpillar workers. “Divestment has many churches thinking they would be more welcome in another denomination,” according to Fritz. Great Rivers had already lost one large congregation.
But divestment proponents thought commissioners should not let worries about hurt feelings stop them from acting. YAAD Ben Falter from Geneva Presbytery in New York noted that “many of those who have spoken against divestment have said this would alienate our Jewish brothers and sisters.” Falter regarded this notion as “an over-simplification.” While acknowledging that “there are many Jewish people who are against divestment,” Falter was confident that “there are also many Jewish people who are in favor of divestment.” He based this conclusion on having seen some demonstrators outside the assembly hall in t-shirts proclaiming, “Another Jew supporting divestment.”
A difficult decision
Other assembly actions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict included:
- approving a new study to reconsider the denomination’s support for a “two-state solution”;
- turning down an overture to classify Israeli practices as “apartheid”;
- rejecting a call to boycott all Hewlett-Packard products;
- approving a resolution for “equal rights for all inhabitants of Israel and Palestine”;
- adopting a resolution clarifying that the controversial Zionism Unsettled study “does not represent the views of the Presbyterian Church (USA)”;
- refusing to endorse a discussion paper on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict produced by Chicago Presbytery.
After the vote to divest had been taken, Moderator Heath Rada was asked at a press conference what message he wished the outside world to take from the assembly’s decision. Rada said he wanted “to make sure that the public understands that this was not a vote that was overwhelming in terms of the difference of numbers, and that represents the fact that there was a lot of conflict because Presbyterian people love their Jewish sisters and brothers as well as their Palestinian sisters and brothers and had a very difficult time making a decision that would have hurt either one of them.” Time will tell whether that is the message received.
20 Comments. Leave new
With all the horrible things that are happening to Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere, the Presbyterian Church is (of all things) taking action against Israel?!!! — Really!!!! — Where would Palestinians get medical care if Israel were not there to provide it? Is this what you call advancing the Gospel? — fanning the flames of animosity, bitterness and resentment? Any true Christian knows how Israel and the Jewish people continue to be such an important factor in God’s plan for salvation. How remarkably irrelevant is PC leadership!!!!
Talk is cheap. And there is none cheaper than the talk that comes from the PCUSA when they need some cover for a shameful deed. The “softening” amendments will accomplish nothing more than to make a few squeamish Commissioners feel a little better about themselves. Nothing this GA has done will be hidden or improved by pretty words.
The lamenting over the divestment decision seems to show an unbalanced view of Israel and the Middle East. The committee studied this partly because the Israeli-Palestinian issue has been a long-standing issue especially compared to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. In addition, defending Israel because it is a democracy seems to show a blind loyalty. Such ignores the sins of Israel as it focuses on the sins of the Palestinians.
In addition, there is Jewish support for BDS by both Israelis and other Jews, which is noted in the article, and there is Christian opposition to Modern Zionism. An example of such Christian opposition can be found in the article linked to here (http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/wdoor.html ). Thus, support for divestment can hardly be seen as anti-Jewish or against a Christian view in the Middle East. However, blind support for a nation or ethnicity indicates tribalism, an ism that embraces relative morality.
Finally, to support Israeli occupation and expansion is as much against the peace process as supporting Palestinian terrorism. To see evil in only one group shows an externalization of evil, something that should never be practiced by those who are sinners saved by grace.
I will leave the Presbyterian Church and erase all history of baptism and births. Shame on your divestment. Shame ion not supporting Israel, and its efforts to live peacefully. Who bombs this country daily and does not try to rise above its cruelty.
How would I find out the names of those who voted for this boycott? As a proud Jew I want to make sure I am boycotting their businesses?
The PC USA should seriously consider never meeting again in a General Assembly… Detroit was certainly an appropriate venue.
Have you noticed that Dr. David Duke has endorsed the PC(USA)’s divestment decision?
http://davidduke.com/victory-presbyerian-church-votes-israeli-disvestment/
Seems to me that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that sincerely welcomes Christians. Why would you poke a stick in the eye of your best friend? Try traveling to Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. You would want to be in armored vehicle and, by the way, don’t tell them you are a Christian because you probably would not be alive very long. Folks better be taking a look at some of the real problems that need to be dealt with instead of making our friends angry.
PCUSA is not immune to left wing fascists…
It is hard to believe how blind many of the PCUSA commissioners are in the marriage vote and the misguided vote against Israel. I just lead a tour to Israel and sadly walked though the Yad Vashem (holocaust museum)and the most asked question was “how could this have happened?” In this GA vote we can see how in this anti semetic action Jews, have suffered and are suffering from Jew haters around the world. The pcusa needs to repent on several counts but will probably continue in darkness!
“they are still the people(the Jews) HE loves” Romans 11:28 is not the pcusa opposing God?
The Christians in Israel are safer and have a better life then anywhere in the Middle East,,,,how blind can you be?
Dr. David Bybee, Pastor Community Presbyterian Church, Lake Havasu, Az.
When you look at the history of Europe, fascism is more associated with the joining of business and government. In contrast to that, the Left is more concerned with workers, not business.
Is it opposing God to insist that Israel treats Palestinians justly? Is it opposing God to insist that Israel should quit stealing land, quit humiliating and quit treating the Palestinians so brutally? Is it opposing God to insist on the principle of universality?
Yes, I would like to know that also and many would like to boycott them and their business and wish Gen. 12:3 upon them, which they don’t believe in anyway because they believe their Jew-hating church has replaced God’s covenant people Israel. I would sincerely urge any person or leader who does not agree with this action to leave before it is too late. Read the story of Korach for reference.
This is what I’ve found:
Ruling Elder Heath K. Rada
Moderator, 221st General Assembly (2014)
The Reverend Larissa Kwong Abazia
Vice Moderator, 221st General Assembly (2014)
The Reverend Gradye Parsons
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly
Ruling Elder Linda Bryant Valentine
Executive Director, Presbyterian
Mission Agency
Where was the pcusa when the Arab nations attacked Israel? The recent pcusa divestiture decision seems to be rather one sided let alone misguided.
I spent three weeks in Israel a few years back and never saw what PCUSA would like me to believe about that country.
Is it only the cynical side of me that wonders why PCUSA would divest from Caterpillar, but maintain a major investment in Cummins, manufacturer of the engines used in Caterpillar equipment? What is it I don’t understand?
Is there someone that can explain to me why PCUSA invests in Schlumberger, that until only a few months ago maintained offices in and did business in Iran even though the US had sanctions against such investment?
Why do we support those who would attack us as Christians but boycott those who are proven allies?
I have been following the actions in regards to the divestment issue which causes me to wonder if this action is religous or POLITICAL. If political, then there is the question, is the PC(USA) a tax Exempt organization?
I spent over 15 years working closely with IDF forces, and their only reason for action, is to save the Jewish homeland from the Arab incursion.
What’s “a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Rabbi Marans?
A conflict ends when one side puts down its arms and says, “I quit.” Can bullets change course and go back into the barrels from which they flew? Can Israeli warplanes retract the sonic booms that shatter the quiet of the Holy Land?
I got you, Rabbi. “Put down weapons.” But what if one of the sides doesn’t have weapons? 1 Sam. 17:50: “So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.”
Simply another of a long series of narrow minded decisions by PCUSA!
Seems it’s okeh with a lot of folks for Palestinian’s to lob mortar shells into
Israel, but let Israel do anything, and it’s considered a crime……….go
figure……..,
What an absurd comment. We’ve now had half a century of oppression and slaughter and military occupation by Israel. It was time for a response.