PCUSA: Rescind Your Anti-Israel Resolutions

June 14, 2006

Dear Friend,

Ever since the infamous Durban UN Conference on the eve of 9/11, the international campaign to delegitimize and demonize Israel through one-sided and unfair resolutions by churches, academicians and by non-governmental organizations continues unabated.

Just last year, you joined our petition campaign protesting to the United Church of Christ (UCC) over the unfair and dangerous resolutions calling for the dismantling of Israel’s life-saving, security barrier.

Tragically, another important mainline Protestant group, the Presbyterian Church (USA) takes up its embrace of divestment against the Jewish State at its national gathering this weekend in Alabama.

Please follow this link to sign the protest to the four candidates for the position of Moderator of the PCUSA, one of whom will be chosen on the first day of the General Assembly.

Unfortunately, some of PCUSA’s leadership has also traveled to Lebanon and met with the Hezbollah terrorist organization.  Over the past two years, the PCUSA has fed its membership a diet of imbalanced and one-sided material harshly critical of Israel, so that members have only heard one side of a complex story.

On the other hand, we have just returned from Israel where we accompanied 11 Presbyterian leaders who are now in the forefront of trying to rescind divestment and other anti-Israel moves within their Church.

Photo: The delegation at the Jaffa Institute in Tel Aviv which distributes food to needy Jews and Muslims.


•The Wiesenthal Center has written to all 700 Presbyterian commissioners and advisory delegates urging them to rescind the unfair measure that was passed two years ago.

•The Wiesenthal Center is sponsoring the trip to PCUSA’s national convention in Birmingham, Alabama of activist Professor Judea Pearl, father of slain Wall St. Journal Daniel Pearl who was murdered in Pakistan because he was an American and a Jew. Dr. Pearl, who has publicly dialogued with Muslim leaders across North America, will keynote an interfaith gathering to urge people of all faiths to work together against the scourge of Islamist terrorism.

•Senior Wiesenthal officials will also travel to Birmingham to work with Presbyterian activists lobbying their co-religionists to adopt a fair, non-partisan stance that takes into account both the Palestinian and Israeli narratives.

Please add your voice and support to this pivotal effort to send an unequivocal message to PCUSA’s leadership: repeal the unfair anti-Israel resolutions that work against peace, embolden extremists who want to destroy Israel, and will damage relations between Jews and PCUSA. 

Famed human rights activist Natan Sharansky told Presbyterian leaders in Israel last month, “The divestment resolution is guilty of a double standard that unfairly singles out Israel in a world awash with crimes against humanity, mass murder, and serious human rights abuses. This resolution empowers the most extreme elements opposed to peace with any Jewish state, and may very well contribute to the loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives.”

We therefore urge the leaders of the Presbyterian Church USA to heed the call of the eleven Church leaders who traveled to Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank with us and upon their return announced “The Church’s current policy to divest their $7 billion pension fund against the State of Israel is flawed… [we call] on the PCUSA’s over 500 voting commissioners to rescind the policy… and replace it with a positive strategy to bring about genuine peace and justice for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”

Your help, your contribution and your solidarity in this time of urgent need is essential to the success of this campaign.  Please act today.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper
Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center

Please use this link to forward this to your friends, family, and colleagues immediately.