A committee of the Presbyterian Church in the United States on Tuesday adopted a resolution endorsing divestment from three American companies that allegedly “profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.”
The Middle East Issues Committee voted by 45:20 to divest from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions. The resolution likely will be voted on during a plenary session of the full assembly later this week. “A passionate discussion of divestment featuring voices in support and opposed” preceded the vote, according to a statement issued by the committee.
The text underwent significant changes before it was adopted. The original measure had rejected divestment. But a call for divestment was added in during discussion on the resolution, alongside a call for “positive investment” in the Palestinian economy.
At the 2012 assembly, church delegates narrowly rejected a divestment initiative. Jewish-Presbyterian relations already were strained following the publication in January of a study guide created by the church’s Israel/Palestine Mission Network. The document entitled 'Zionism unsettled' depicted Zionism as a false theology.
The Presbyterian Church (USA) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination and the largest Presbyterian denomination in America. It was established by the 1983 merger of the Presbyterian Church in the United States with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and today has around 1.7 million members.
