Presbyterians Consider Divesting From Select Companies In Israel

A major body within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted Friday to recommend that the church vote to stop investing in three companies "until they have ceased profiting from non-peaceful activities in Israel-Palestine.”

The vote proposed by the General Assembly Mission Council on whether to continue investing in the corporations -- Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett-Packard -- will happen at the church's General Assembly, a national meeting of church leaders that will take place in late June and early July in Pittsburgh. The assembly meets every two years.

“We have run out of hope that these companies are willing to change their corporate practices [in Israel-Palestine],” said the Rev. Brian Ellison, a pastor from Kansas City who is chair of the national church's Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee. “We have made diligent effort to engage in conversation. We’d like to do more, to make progress, but substantial change does not seem possible.” Ellison said the denomination has "significant" investments in the corporations.

He said his committee is targeting Caterpillar because their bulldozers have been used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and in the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier. The group wants divestment from Motorola Solutions because it says the company's communication technologies are used by Israeli forces, while it recommends divestment from Hewlett-Packard because it says the company's products have been used by the Israeli Navy to coordinate its blockage of the Gaza Strip. Ellison said HP also provides biometric scanners used at checkpoints.

The committee's job is to implement the two million-member church's policies on socially responsible giving. A document on the church's website indicates the denomination currently has rules against investing in dozens of companies that are involved in military-related products, tobacco or human rights violations.

Caterpillar representatives have said previously that its bulldozers are given to Israel in accordance with U.S. government policy through the federal Foreign Military Sales program.

Tama McWhinney, a spokeswoman for Motorola Solutions, would not directly address the allegations against the company, but told The Huffington Post that it has "a comprehensive set of policies and procedures that address human rights" to "ensure that our operations worldwide are conducted using the highest standards of integrity and ethical business conduct."

A Hewlett-Packard representative did not reply to a request for comment.

The move by the Presbyterian committee has attracted strong criticism from Jewish groups, such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the Israel Action Network, an effort of the The Jewish Federations of North America.

“We are profoundly disappointed by the General Assembly Mission Council’s decision to recommend this report,” Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said in a statement. “Neither peace nor the long friendship between our two communities is served by this action. It is tragic that national Presbyterian leaders are making the delegitimization of Israel a public witness of their church. Once again, we turn to our friends who will gather in the church’s General Assembly this summer to find a path towards peace rather than dissension. The proposed resolution drives a wedge between our two communities, frustrates interfaith cooperation and undermines our joint efforts to pursue social justice.”

The United Methodist Church will also vote at its General Conference, which happens in late April and early May in Tampa, on divesting for similar reasons from the three corporations. The move by Presbyterians and Methodists follow discussions in other Protestant denominations, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church, regarding investments in businesses they believe profit from the occupation of Palestinian territories.

This article has been updated to reflect updated data about the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s amount of investments and its position regarding Israeli divestment campaigns.

Comments

[Harleyotter53]

04:07 PM on 07/03/2012

Awesome! It's great to see churches actually following Christ's teachings. Divesting in war profiteering, racism, theft, and slavery is definitely the moral thing to do.

[Harleyotter53]

04:06 PM on 07/03/2012

Awesome! I almost never get to see churches actually behaving like Christians, as in following the teachings of Christ. Divesting from war/slavery profiteers is definitely the moral thing to do. Bravo!

[Alicia Westberry]

02:35 PM on 05/08/2012

It's a shame that it had to come to this, but the Presbyterians don't seem to have had a real choice. Religions should strive for peace.

[andromadextra]

11:13 PM on 02/22/2012

Investments of Protestants in Israel? Seems they've been distracted from what they are supposed to be attending to. What hypocrisy. This all sounds like self-righteous pontification to me.

[Bar Kokhba]

04:33 PM on 02/22/2012

"BDS'ers' and their affiliate projects are a great lie, taking on the characteristics of a cult". Every Arab apologists and terror supporters favorite, Norman Finklestein. So even the "Pied Piper" of moral inversion, cognitive dissonance, Israel hate, and advocate for some of the most repressive regimes in the world has denounced this vile form of protest.
The Presbyterian Church, as a whole, does not endorse this purely cosmetic proclamation.It is expected, in the months to come that the rank and file will soundly defeat this most outrageous sanction.

[Json]

02:21 PM on 02/22/2012

"Noting that the PC(USA) has consistently condemned violence by both sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict and since 1948 has called for a “two-state solution” with secure borders for both Israel and Palestine, Ellison said, “We are trying to engage both sides. Our sole goal is a just peace.” "

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know of anything they have done to engage the Palestinians?

[erehwon2]

12:00 PM on 02/22/2012

The effects of BDS over the past decade:

"An Israeli stock index, when adjusted for risk, produced better returns than all other developed stock markets in the past decade, according to the Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking. Bloomberg said Israel’s economy, which emphasizes growing technology companies and start-ups, has attracted global investors. The Tel Aviv TA-25 Index returned 7.6 percent in the 10 years ended Sunday, after adjusting for volatility, the highest among 24 developed-nation benchmark indexes."

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/20/3440589/business-in-brief-israeli-stock.html#storylink=cpy

[Hally]

11:50 AM on 02/22/2012

The Presbyterians deserve praise for their bold move. Hopefully others will follow.

[Freedom John]

05:23 PM on 02/22/2012

If you take the time to read the Bible you might discover that G-d doesn't appear to think this way. Therefore, I'll side with Him instead of you.

[stewart mark]

11:41 PM on 02/22/2012

gee maybe they should be boycotting the companies the U.S uses in killing innocent civilians in Iraq and afghanistan. why go to israel when you can start in your own backyard.

[Hally]

07:30 AM on 02/23/2012

Maybe they already have. It's their money. They can start wherever they please.

[PermanentVacancy]

10:50 AM on 02/22/2012

It is just one of several reports coming out of a complaint filed by Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) about the Civil Administration. Indeed, had the RHR not intervened with the State Prosecutor’s Office, they say the administration was planning to bulldoze the entire village, despite the court order.

[PermanentVacancy]

10:49 AM on 02/22/2012

It was a dark and stormy night in the village of Tha’lah. Israeli “civil administration” officials arrive at the hut of a local shepherd, ordering the entire family to vacate their house within one minute.

But wait, the owner has official documentation from the Israeli High Court of Justice, an interim order requiring the civil administration to halt the demolition. The officer from the decidedly uncivil Administration tore up the court order, and slapped the home’s owner across the face. Within moments, the house was demolished, the water cisterns sealed. Even the sheep pen was bulldozed, several sheep dying in the process

[Gui Montag]

11:37 AM on 02/22/2012

The perpetrators waited an hour and entered the Fogels' house at around 10:30 pm According to the indictment, the two entered the children's room, told eleven year old Yoav, who had been awakened by their entry not to be afraid, then took him to a nearby room, slashed his throat, and stabbed him in the chest. Hakim Awad then strangled four-year-old Elad with Amjad Awad stabbing him twice in the chest. The two next entered the parents' room, and turned on the light, waking them up. The parents then struggled with the attackers. Ehud Fogel was repeatedly stabbed in the neck, and Ruth Fogel was stabbed in the neck and back and then shot when the suspects saw that she was not dead. The suspects then left the house. Amjad then re-entered the Fogel home. When 3-month old Hadas began crying, Amjad stabbed her, fearing the cries would attract attention. According to several accounts, the infant was decapitated, though one source says that although her throat was deeply slit, she was only "nearly decapitated". The attackers did not notice two other children asleep in the house at the time. In their confessions they said and that they would not have hesitated to kill them if they had noticed them. The perpetrators also stole Ehud's M-16 rifle. They left the settlement without being detected.

[PermanentVacancy]

02:16 PM on 02/22/2012

Wow. So you agree that officers for the state of Israel engage in the exact same reprehensible criminal activities as the murderers of the Fogel family..... :) Terrorists are terrorists no matter their race or religion....whether they are Palestinian arab or Israeli jew they are known by their actions!

[Catriona]

03:31 PM on 02/22/2012

Just days before the Itamar killings, local settlers tried to burn a Palestinian family alive in their home. Action and reaction.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8378061/Israeli-settler-family-murdered-Palestinians-accused.html

"A week earlier police and settlers clashed as officers moved in to remove illegal structures erected in a settlement outpost west of Nablus.
That prompted settlers to firebomb a Palestinian house, in a so-called "price tag" attack, and two children were hospitalised for smoke inhalation.
They also smashed shops and cars in the southern city of Hebron and cut down 500 olive trees planted at a former settlement outpost.
Settlers routinely stage "price tag" attacks after police and soldiers demolish illegal structures they have built, taking it out on the Palestinians for what they consider "anti-settler" activity by the government."
-----
Note: The Telegraph is Britain's conservative paper of record

[DeuxExMachina]

04:48 AM on 02/22/2012

Good call if implemented and about time. Ethnically clensing Palestinian Arabs (Christian and Muslim) from Israel proper for 60+ years and now from from East Jerusalem and the West Bank and walling them in to form the biggest ghetto/prison in the world deserves opprobrium.

[Neil cadman]

12:14 AM on 02/22/2012

As a Presbyterian I would like to remind the Church in U.S.A that the Lutheran Church in Nazi Germany had not a few anti-Semitic preachers and the Church of Rome had for centuries preached that the Jews were "God killers" The USA church is following their lead but they do not speak for Christ. For God says of Israel in these last days;
“And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance. And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague. And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. Zec 14:14-17 If there are Christians still left in the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A, they should sack their sanctimonious leaders and start afresh.

[Hally]

11:52 AM on 02/22/2012

How is divesting one's self of interest in companies that supply goods used to oppress and ethnically cleanse a people from their lands bigoted?

[PermanentVacancy]

05:11 PM on 02/22/2012

Would that be the OLD testament yon Presbyterian is quoting? LOL

[Tiger70]

09:32 PM on 02/21/2012

The people who are advocating divestment are not only anti-Israel, but also anti-Semitic. They wish to destroy the State of Israel and to murder all Jews. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Israel is the only country in that part of the world that provides for freedom of religion. About 20 percent of Israel's population are Arab, and there are 12 members of the Israeli Parliament who are Moslem as well as one member of Israel's Supreme Court. There are 56 Moslem dominated countries int he wold and only one Jewish one. There are 122 Christian-majority countries in the world. Israel has been the Jewish homeland for over 3,000 years.

[accelerando]

12:18 PM on 02/22/2012

People forget that the Arabs are also Semites.

[Catriona]

03:33 PM on 02/22/2012

Hasbara, hysteria and slander.

"The people who are advocating divestment are not only anti-Israel, but also anti-Semitic. They wish to destroy the State of Israel and to murder all Jews."

How do the mods let this through?

[PermanentVacancy]

05:12 PM on 02/22/2012

but our posts that call them on their obvious bigotry and double standards NEVER make it through... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm .?

[broadview1944]

06:57 PM on 02/21/2012

Stupid beyond belief, this effort at moral self-justification has no chance of bringing us closer to peace. Cat won't care and will continue to sell to Israel. End of story, except for the offended Presbyterians who must now suffer the abuse of the people whose salaries they pay. Stupid beyond belief.

[PermanentVacancy]

05:15 PM on 02/22/2012

It may be beyond your belief because you probably don't care about the people getting hurt by the products these companies make.. People like you with hollow souls are very abundant these days.

[the grange gorman]

02:24 PM on 02/21/2012

The idf used a caterpillar bulldozer to kill US peace activist Rachel Corrie , I support divestment in these companies especially caterpillar.

[hmp49]

07:42 AM on 06/23/2012

Rachel Corrie was a case of suicide by stupidity.

A ten year old child should know better than to get dangerously close to heavy machinery.