Committee #15 Middle East and Peacemaking Issues
With a passionate, long
debate the General Assembly approved an “invest in Palestine” approach and
rejected a “divest from Israel” approach. This answer was hammered out in a
debate which took the Assembly until 10:30 at night and the recess of the
Thursday night session. Thus as Friday morning begins, the Assembly finds
itself more than three hours behind on the agenda. At one point the Moderator
acknowledged more than 40 people lined up at commissioner microphones seeking
to speak.
Committee #15 brought a
recommendation to approve an action of divestment from Caterpillar, Motorola
and HP. Immediately a Minority Report was brought as a substitute motion asking
for a policy of investment in Palestine. The committee’s majority report, after
long debate, was rejected by a vote of 333 to 331. Finally the minority report
was approved by a vote of 369 to 290.
Copied here are the
action items from the final action. (Item 5 here was added and approved as an
amendment during the debate):
Final Text:
1. call
for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to pursue a positive and creative course
of action with respect to the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict that will
make a difference in the lives of those who are most vulnerable on all sides
and that will preserve an effective witness to peace in the entire region;
2. call
for a process of engagement that will bring Jews, Christians, and Muslims from
the U.S. into effective partnering for study, travel, and social action;
3. advocate
for the development of educational programs that expose U.S. Christians, Jews,
and Muslims to the varied experiences of both Palestinians and Israelis;
4. devise
a plan of active investment in projects that will support collaboration among
Christians, Jews, and Muslims and help in the development of a viable
infrastructure for a future Palestinian state. We also encourage greater
denominational engagement with Christians in the West Bank around issues of job
creation and economic development.
5. instructs the
General Assembly Mission Council to create a process to raise funds to invest
in the West Bank, and the program will be inaugurated no later than the meeting
of the 221st General Assembly (2014).
