SWC Hails Move By Presbyterian Leaders To Urge The Dropping Of Anti-Israel Divestment Resolution

May 30, 2006

WIESENTHAL CENTER HAILS CALL BY PRESBYTERIAN ACTIVISTS TO RESCIND ANTI-ISRAEL DIVESTMENT RESOLUTION AT CHURCH’S GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The Simon Wiesenthal Center hailed the call by eleven Presbyterian leaders urging the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) to drop its anti-Israel divestment resolution adopted by the major mainline Protestant group in 2004.

In a May 28th statement, the PCUSA leaders, who had just returned from a fact finding mission throughout Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, called on the Church’s 500 voting commissioners to rescind the divestment policy at the PCUSA General Assembly in Birmingham, Alabama on June 16th. The policy, adopted the 2004 General Assembly, called for a phased divestment by the Church’s $7 billion pension fund from companies conducting business in Israel as a way to address what they saw as unfair treatment of Palestinians.

However, following the 5-day mission in which they met with a broad cross section of religious, government, business and NGO figures, the Presbyterian delegation found that the divestment policy was in fact, flawed and ill-advised. “While adoption of the divestment policy in 2004 created an important focus on the struggle for achieving a solution to the Middle East conflict, it is now time to put aside this one-sided, negative and counter-productive policy that threatens to cause great harm to both Israel and the Palestinians while creating unnecessary polarization within our own denomination,” said Dr. John H. Cushman, a Presbyterian Pastor in Santa Rosa, CA and a member of the delegation.

Gary Green, Executive Director of End Divestment Now wants to see the divestment policy replaced with “positive, fair and balanced initiatives.” “I just don’t see how our Church can, in the face of an overwhelming negative response, maintain any credibility whatsoever without correcting this seriously ill-conceived policy, “Green said, adding, “I and the End Divestment Now- are absolutely committed to seeing the Church’s divestment policy rescinded.”

Wiesenthal Center officials, who have led efforts to reverse anti-Israel measures throughout the mainline Protestant communities, praised the Presbyterians for traveling to the Middle East to see the complex situation for themselves.   “We are especially encouraged that these leaders took the time to meet with Jews and Arabs, who themselves pointed to programs of economic and social services cooperation that bring real benefit to both peoples, rather than punitive measures that do nothing for peace,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Center and Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, the Center’s Director of Interfaith Affairs. Both rabbis plan to travel to the Birmingham Assembly to lobby delegates.

"We urge the entire Jewish community to express their solidarity and thanks to these leaders and hope that it will serve as a template for positive engagement with other churches concerned with the fate of the people of the Middle East, ” Cooper and Adlerstein concluded.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS and the Council of Europe. For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.