Supporters of the resolution said those companies were involved with demolition and surveillance activities against Palestinians in the West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria.
Unfortunately this is not the first move of this type from the Presbyterian Church, in 2004 they voted 431 to 62 in July to initiate a process of phased selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel. In 2006 they softened the language, but still used the same approach.
From July 2012 to June 2014 there was a brief window of investment rather than divestment.
Other church bodies to pass divestment resolutions include the World Council of Churches, Mennonite Central Committee, Quaker American Friends Service Committee, United Church of Christ, the Church of England synod and the United Church of Canada in Toronto.
In addition to Protestant churches, the mother of all churches, the Catholic Church with 1.2 billion people headed by Pope Francis has now entered the fray.
During this one to 41,000 process in less than 2,000 years unfortunately the previously mentioned bloody and ugly moments has a root, it is called anti-Semitism. Whether it be the Catholic doctrine that the Jews were responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion or other doctrines from some (not all) of the “church fathers” saying they "hate the synagogue and hate the Jews1” or “their rabbis should be threatened with death if they continue to teach2” or “and your cities ruined by fire, that the fruits of you land be eaten by strangers before your very eyes; that not one of you be permitted to enter your city of Jerusalem3”, anti-Semitism has a long history.
In all fairness to say that the Jews didn’t persecute those who initially held close to their foundations but just with the belief that the Messiah had come would be one-sided. However with both sides responsible for some guilt, unfortunately the Jews have come out on the heavier hand being laid on them over the past two millennia.
This root as covered in our previous issue has revealed itself again in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. What has been mainly focused in areas of entertainment, commerce and education has now started to spread again in Christianity.
The news getting the most attention in the past month in this area is the U.S. Presbyterian Church’s 310-303 vote to divest from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions.