[Peace-discuss] Presby Church Debates Divestment from Israeli Occupation Today

[Robert Naiman]

At this very hour, apparently. A very interesting political development,
well worth paying attention to.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation <
uscampaign at mail.democracyinaction.org>
Date: Jun 21, 2006 12:45 PM
Subject: The US Campaign Supports the Presbyterian Church USA Stand on
Divestment and Update from the Ground
To: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com



**

* *

*The US Campaign Supports the Presbyterian Church USA Stand on Divestment*

*Background on the Resolution*

In July 2004, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, USA [PC
(USA)] passed a resolution that called for the corporate witness office of
the PC (USA) to begin gathering data to support a phased, selective
divestment of holdings in multinational corporations doing business in
Israel/Palestine that contribute to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian
territories in violation of international law. By identifying Caterpillar,
Inc., ITT, United Technologies, Citigroup, and Motorola as the primary
targets, the Presbyterians sent the message loud and clear to corporate
officers and stockholders that their complicity in human rights abuses will
not be tolerated.

This resolution marks one of the most significant victories to date for the
divestment movement in as well as the growing civil society campaign to stop
sales of CAT bulldozers to Israel. Churches represent a significant sector
of the American population and its moral consciousness. During the
divestment campaign from Apartheid South Africa, churches led the way in
exercising their moral conscience by divesting in corporations and banks
that profited from Apartheid. By maintaining its legacy of morally
responsible investment, the PC (USA) has inspired other churches like the
Church of England as well as institutions like the Ontario branch of  the
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)  to take positions on divestment
from Israel. Unlike elected representatives who are swayed and restricted by
campaign financing interests, Churches can exercise their moral conscience
unfettered by such considerations.

The vote was 431 to 62 to have the church's Mission Responsibility Through
Investment Committee (MRTI) study the matter and make recommendations to the
General Assembly Council (GAC). The MRTI has since declared that it will not
make any recommendations to the GAC in 2006 but will instead continue to do
research until 2008. Despite the lack of a recommendation, the GAC will
still vote in 2006 on the issue of divestment from multinational
corporations doing business in Israel/Palestine.

*Attempts to Overturn the Resolution*

Pro-Israeli forces have made a concerted effort to reverse the 2004
resolution by characterizing the vote to divest as anti-Semitic. This
characterization has been dismissed by social justice advocates within and
without the Church. Among the voices that reject labeling the PC (USA)'s
resolution as anti-Semitic is Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a nation-wide
organization established in 1996.  JVP stated, "the Israeli government is a
government like any other, and condemnation of its state power, as many of
its own citizens do quite vigorously, is in no way the same as attacking
Jewish people." However, some voting delegates to the PC (USA) General
Assembly Council are taking the criticism of the resolution seriously.

There are currently over a dozen overtures on the issue to rescind, to
affirm, or to amend the resolution. The ultimate vote will be made by
approximately 500 voting delegates, or commissioners, selected by each
Presbytery to attend the 217th General Assembly Conference from June
15th-22nd in Birmingham, Alabama. Each commissioner will vote their own
conscience.

*Supporting Voices of Conscience*

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a nationwide coalition of
over 200 organizations and groups, has taken a formal decision not to
intervene in internal Church affairs, but to support the PC(USA) in its
brave stance on divestment. The US Campaign (USC) has provided such support
in a number of ways over the past several months.:

   1. Providing evidence of the extent of grassroots support of this
   moral opposition to a military occupation that has violated international
   law for 39 years this month.  The members of dozens of groups and
   organizations in Washington, DC; New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Dearborn,
   MI; Chicago, IL; Philadelphia, PA; and Bethlehem, Occupied West Bank wrote
   to the PC (USA) commissioners thanking them for their vote to divest and
   urging them to maintain the resolution at the 217th GAC.
   2. Drawing public attention to the morality and appropriateness of the
   resolution. The US Campaign worked with Hilton Obenzinger of Stanford
   University and the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding locate in
   Oakland, CA to place an op-ed in the Birmingham News on Sunday June 11th
   only 4 days before the GAC convenes. To read the op-ed please click
   here<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=141845383&url_num=1&url=http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/opinion/115001794326020.xml?birminghamnews?oedit&coll=2>.

   3. Providing materials to support deliberations of the issue. Working
   with the Israel/Palestine Network of the PC (USA), the US Campaign has
   helped to produce documents supporting the GAC resolution, including a
   booklet comprised of letters sent to the PC (USA) in favor of divestment
   from across the globe.
   4. Making space for powerful voices of conscience. Working with the
   "Rachel's Words" committee in NY, the US Campaign helped produce a reading
   of "Rachel's Words" in Birmingham, AL during the GAC. Rachel Corrie is the
   Olympia, Seattle, university student slain by an Israeli-driven Caterpillar
   bulldozer in Gaza in 2003 while she was trying to non-violently protect the
   home of a Palestinian pharmacist from demolition. The reading featured local
   Birmingham artists and readers; speakers from the MRTI and the Israeli
   Committee Against Home Demolitions; and footage of Rachel at 10 and 23 years
   old. The reading took place on Sunday June 18th from 4-5:30 PM at the First
   Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.
   5. Being available as a resource during the GAC. Member groups of the
   US Campaign - Jewish Voice for Peace, the American Friends Service
   Committee, and the Michigan Palestine Office – as well as US Campaign staff
   have been at the GAC in Birmingham since June 15th to distribute literature,
   show power point presentations, and speak in favor of the GAC's moral
   stance, alongside the PC (USA)'s Israel/Palestine Network.

*Update from the ground as of June 21st*

The Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly will engage in its final
debate re: its July 2004 resolution to divest from corporations profiting
from Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem
today Wednesday June 21st beginning at 1 PM EST. To watch the deliberations
as they happen, please click
here<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=141845383&url_num=2&url=http://www.pcusa.org/ga217/>
.

The peacemaking committee completed its final recommendation for revising
the 2004 resolution on Sunday night—the final recommendation was approved by
53 positive votes, 6 votes against, and 3 abstentions.

The final committee resolution begins with an acknowledgement that its 2004
resolution caused intense controversy. It reads:

"We acknowledge that the actions of the 216th General Assembly caused hurt
and misunderstanding among many members of the Jewish community and within
our Presbyterian communion. We are grieved by the pain that this has caused,
accept responsibility for the flaws in our process, and ask for a new season
of mutual understanding and dialogue."

Although this seems somewhat of a setback for our cause, essentially
entertaining the argument that divestment from Israel is anti-Semitic—it is
a lot better than its original version. When the committee first began its
revision process this paragraph was not an acknowledgement, it was literally
an apology to the pro-Israeli forces. Moreover, whereas the language here
reads that the Committee accepts "responsibility for the flaws in our
process," Presbyterian Commissioners (voting delegates) who support
divestment will point out that such a statement undermines the integrity of
the 216th General Assembly commissioners who did not abrogate the GAC
process in 2004.

The most significant piece of the new resolution is its revision of the 2004
language. They write:

"…we replace the instructions expressed in Item 12-01 (Minutes, 2004 Part I,
pp. 64-66) item 7 which reads:

'7. Refers to Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee (MRTI)
with instructions to initiate a process of phased selective divestment in
multinational corporations operating in Israel, in accordance to General
Assembly policy on social investing, and to make appropriate recommendations
to the General Assembly Council for action.'

With the following:

To urge that financial investments of the Presbyterian Churhc (U.S.A), as
they pertain to Israel, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, be invested
in only peaceful pursuits, and affirm that the customary corporate
engagement processes of the Committee on Mission Responsibility Through
Investments of our denomination is the proper vehicle for achieving this
goal."

Essentially, the Committee recommended that the language be changed from
"divestment" to "corporate engagement." This could mean 1 of 2 things:

   1. That the MRTI continue its research into phased, selective
   divestment of CAT, ITT, United Technologies, Motorola, and Citigroup and
   make a recommendation for or against divestment from these corporations in
   the 2008 GAC; or
   2. It means that the MRTI will cease its present engagement with the
   aforementioned corporations and instead begin doing research into those
   corporations that promote "peace" in Palestine/Israel.

The actual interpretation is a subject of debate even to the Committee
members.


"This document, were it to be adopted, allows MRTI to continue its process
of corporate engagement" with regard to Israel/Palestine, said the Rev. Mark
Davidson of New Hope Presbytery. He was a member of the writing group that
drafted the recommendation. "It doesn't prevent that from happening,"
Davidson said. "We all understand that … there could be a recommendation of
divestment."


Others on the committee, however, felt the recommendation in fact stopped
the process MRTI was charged with by the 216th GA.

Committee member Nabeel Saoud of San Fernando Presbytery countered.
"My understanding is that it did stop it," he said, referring to the phased,
selective divestment process. "No action related to divestment will be done
by this process."

To read the entire article, please click
here<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=141845383&url_num=3&url=http://www.pcusa.org/ga217/newsandphotos/ga06072.htm>.


Again, much of this will be debated on the General Assembly Floor today
Wednesday June 21st, beginning at 1 PM EST and there our pro-divestment
commissioners will push for the former interpretation. To watch the debate
unfold and the final resolution come into being on the web by clicking
here<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=141845383&url_num=4&url=http://www.pcusa.org/ga217/>
.



-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
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