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As Presbyterians across America gear up for their biennial assembly next month, the legacy of the last such meeting is still roiling the Jewish community and the church’s own members. Two years ago, the Presbyterian Church USA passed a resolution calling for “phased, selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel.” Those who long have followed Jewish-Protestant relations weren’t surprised. “It was the culmination of decades - not years, but decades - of hostility toward Israel and Zionism, not by the rank-and-file members of these churches, but by some of the leadership,” said Rabbi A. James Rudin, senior interreligious adviser...

LOUISVILLE, KY—The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Council (GAC) approved a four-page document offering its "comment and advice" to the 2006 General Assembly on the sensitive issue of divestment from Israel. If the 2006 Assembly follows the advice adopted here on April 28, it would leave intact the controversial 2004 Assembly decision to pursue "a process of phased selective divestment in multinational corporations doing business in Israel." The denomination's Mission Responsibility through Investment (MRTI) Committee would remain free to recommend divestment from specific corporations in 2008 or beyond. (MRTI has indicated that it will make no divestment recommendations this year.)...

This past September, ten days after the last Israeli soldier left the Gaza Strip as part of Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, an unusual meeting took place in East Jerusalem. Seventeen representatives from various American Jewish organizations and from several American Protestant denominations filed in to the headquarters of Sabeel--a Palestinian "liberation theology center" headed by Palestinian Christian activist Rev. Naim Ateek, whose activities had become a source of intense controversy among his guests. Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor of the Anti-Defamation League confronted Ateek on his position that he did not accept Israel's right to exist. Ateek refused to repudiate it, quoting...

Two resolutions on the Israel/Palestine conflict were also offered in the Blue Book. Strangely, however, they seem to offer contradictory approaches to the peace process. The first resolution, A011, would affirm a two-state solution to the conflict, seek an end to violence, and call for all parties to return to the negotiating table rather than resort to unilateral action. Strangely enough, however, the resolution also demands that Israel withdraw from all its West Bank settlements-which would appear to be a unilateral action. There is no specific reciprocal concession asked of the Palestinian Authority. The second resolution, A012, is nothing but...

Coming up in June, the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be holding its 217th General Assembly. On the agenda will of course be the highly contentious decision from the last General Assembly to explore divestment against corporations perceived to be aiding in Israel's "occupation." I'll let the Presbyterian News Service take it from here: Commissioners, GA business to be divided among 15 committees Committee leaders for the eight-day Assembly, which starts on June 15 in Birmingham, AL, also were named this week by OGA [Office of the General Assembly] and Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase. Each committee will have elected commissioners as moderator...

Land Day: A Call for Divestment from IsraelBy Fayyad Sbaihat-Guest Columnist-Updated Mar 28, 2006, 05:46 pm Refer this article Print page March 30, 2006 is the Palestinian Solidarity Movement's national day of divestment action Israeli Apartheid - Time for the South African Treatment (Info Clearing House 02-02-2006) Fayyad Sbaihat On March 30th, 1976, Palestinians in the occupied Galilee rose up against the Israeli military in defense of their lands that were being expropriated and cleansed from their native Palestinian population. The army was confiscating land as part of a plan set forth by one of its generals known as the "Allon...

Liberal Jews do find a common language with liberal Christians on a host of social issues but when it comes to Israel they often part ways. American Evangelist Pat Robertson's pronouncement that Ariel Sharon's stroke was an act of Divine retribution for his abandonment of the Gaza settlements - though he subsequently apologized - was a frightening reminder of how extreme the views of those on the religious Right can be. Sadly, Robertson has something in common with some on the religious Right in Israel who have expressed similar sentiments. Yet, even as the Israeli Right can draw support from...

There is some really good news regarding the struggle against the divestment charade. A group of US Presbyterians have formed the Committee to End Divestment Now which features a forthright and systematic analysis of the larger issues, and a micro-analysis of church politics and procedural issues, with extensive details regarding the fallacies and errors involved. They conclude: These resolutions have shattered our interfaith relations with our Jewish friends. These resolutions have undone a half-century of positive efforts to improve interfaith relations, following our denomination’s less-than-impressive response to the Holocaust. Isolating Israel for punitive action, while not condemning terror-sponsoring states, means...

Diana Appelbaum has an important article in The American Thinker about the Presbyterian Church, USA (PCUSA). It is important because of the timing. The General Assembly of the PCUSA is scheduled to convene June 15-22, 2006. It will be an opportunity to undo its notorious divestment resolution, which supporters and detractors are debating whether it is merely anti-Israel or truly anti-Semitic. The surprising thing, to many outside the PCUSA, is that the overwhelming majority of Presbyterians are not even anti-Israel. The surprising thing, to many inside, is how remarkably anti-Semitic their leadership is. Most Presbyterians, indeed, most Christians, would be...

With the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA scheduled to convene in June for the first time since the 2004 GA passed a notorious anti-Israel divestment resolution, supporters and detractors of divestment are discussing whether the Church’s decision was anti-Semitic, or – somehow - anti-Israel without being anti-Semitic. Curiously, despite the storm caused by the divestment vote, most Presbyterians remain unaware of the extent to which the PCUSA leadership has involved itself in old-fashioned theological anti-Semitism. The anti-Semitic alliances undertaken by the national church are particularly surprising in light of the well-known open-minded and unbiased attitudes of the overwhelming...

Los Angeles -- The University of California Regents, citing the continuing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, voted unanimously Thursday to divest UC of tens of millions of dollars of securities from nine foreign companies doing business in that troubled African nation. The regents' decision represents a significant step beyond divestment actions taken by other colleges, UC officials said, because the university plans to shed both its direct and indirect holdings in the nine publicly traded firms. ...University officials refused Thursday to indicate the approximate dollar amount of the investments to be shed or what percentage of the university's...

It’s been two weeks since the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) held its Fifth Annual Divestment Conference at Georgetown University.  A few articles have briefly discussed some of the seminars at the conference and what outwardly occurred there. But the major thing missing in all these reports -- that this article will reveal -- was the importance of what occurred behind the scenes just before, after and during the Georgetown divestment conference that really shows the current state of the ISM as a movement on US campuses. But before doing that, a little history is in order: Three years ago, I went...

Divestment activists in the UK were handed a defeat today after the Church of England’s financial advisors voted unanimously to reject the Church’s call to divest from Caterpillar Inc. The Ethical Investment Advisory Group [EIAG] voted unanimously on March 7 not to divest from Caterpillar, and said it would review the issue “if there are new sales of Caterpillar equipment to the Israeli Defense Forces for use in the demolition of Palestinian houses”. The recommendation repudiates a February 6 vote by the General Synod, the Church’s parliament, to divest from Caterpillar and other companies whose products are used by the...

Divestment activists in the UK were handed a defeat today after the Church of England's financial advisors voted unanimously to reject the Church's call to divest from Caterpillar Inc. The Ethical Investment Advisory Group [EIAG] voted unanimously on March 7 not to divest from Caterpillar, and said it would review the issue "if there are new sales of Caterpillar equipment to the Israeli Defense Forces for use in the demolition of Palestinian houses". The recommendation repudiates a February 6 vote by the General Synod, the Church's parliament, to divest from Caterpillar and other companies whose products are used by the...

WATERVILLE -- Mainers should push the Maine State Retirement System to divest $50 million of its investments in international companies operating in war-torn Sudan, a group of activists said Friday. A bill currently in the Statehouse to force the divestment, L.D. 1758, hangs in the balance, said Wells Staley-Mays, an adviser to the Fur Cultural Revival. He was speaking at a Colby College event alongside three Sudanese refugees. "Fur" refers to a major non-Arab tribe in the Sudanese region of Darfur -- an area the size of Texas, whose name literally means "home of the Furs" -- now threatened with...

The anti-Israel, mainline denominations (the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Episcopal Church USA, the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the United Church of Christ) have 18 million members and are declining. The pro-Israel evangelicals have twice as many members and are growing. Some would say this fact alone is worth noting. Some would say those who bless Israel are blessed, and those who curse Israel - even if they convince themselves that they are not really cursing Israel, but acting out of a noble desire to be pro-Palestinian, even if that means enabling a little terror...

Last week in England, the Cartoon Jihad was not all the rage. There was time aplenty to smear Israel. In truth, judging by the surge of anti-Israel rhetoric, one could almost be misled into thinking that it was not about Danish cartoons that Muslim mobs were burning European embassies and stoning European peace-keepers. First, the Church of England's Synod voted to divest from Israel, proving - if any further proof were needed - that the Anglican Church has morphed into the liberal-democrats' party conference assembled in prayer. Not to be outdone by their spiritual leaders, students hosted anti-Israel events: at...

The Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) victory in the Palestinian elections may have given pause to anti-Israel Mainline church officials in the U.S. But do not expect these officials to criticize the new radical Palestinian regime, even though Hamas’ brand of radical Islam is hostile, and sometimes deadly, to Christians. The 3.2 million member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has especially pushed hard against Israel, having endorsed divestment in firms doing business with Israel. And the 1.3 million member United Church of Christ has similarly endorsed “economic leverage” against Israel. Some officials of the 8.2. million member United Methodist Church are also pondering...

Remember that old adage: “when all else fails, read the manual”? Well, Arab enemies of Israel have turned that concept into a reality. Thanks to a “Divestment Manual”, recently published on an Arab website (see footnote #5), we can now read a step-by-step instruction booklet educating divestment supporters as to how they can literally franchise divestment movements across the USA and abroad. And that is exactly what divestment supporters seem to have done. Acting as a hitherto unrecognized fifth column, insinuating themselves deeply into our society, divestment activists have initiated a series of divestment movements that pretend to be grassroots...

PORTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL - "If your church's money is in companies that profit from the oppression of Palestinians, then you have a moral responsibility" to question that situation. That was the message brought by the Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek, canon of the Anglican cathedral in Jerusalem The Palestinian Anglican canon specifically praised the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for the decision of its 2004 General Assembly to move toward divestment from selected companies doing business with Israel. He encouraged other denominations to follow suit. "We have a responsibility to stand with our Palestinian brothers and sisters who are oppressed," Ateek argued. Ateek...