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Measure has been
little-noticed amid firestorm over divestment action
LOUISVILLE — Work teams are planning to implement a little-known
commissioner’s resolution from the 216th General Assembly calling
for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to support economic
development in Palestine.
The resolution was passed simultaneously with the Assembly’s
decision to use shareholder pressure against corporations whose
business practices contribute to violence in the Israeli-occupied
Palestinian territories through a process of phased, selective
divestment.
The measure recommends that the PC(USA):
Promote tourism by encouraging U.S. churchgoers to visit
Palestine and to spend money in Palestinian hotels, restaurants,
souvenir shops and other places of business; Build or lease
low-cost housing for members of partner churches, to help them
stay on their land, and hire Palestinian contractors to do the
work; Expand markets for Palestinian crafts and other products.
The General Assembly Council (GAC) will take up the
recommendations during its meeting here this week.
“This not an acquiescence to the fact of occupation and helping
Palestinians cope with an inevitable reality. But it is a … form
of resistance to the occupation — because enlightened, increased
travel will raise awareness of what the occupation is doing,”
said the Rev. Victor Makari, the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s
liaison to the Middle East. “I believe this proposal, when its
specifics are explored, will provide meaningful opportunities for
Presbyterians to engage in creative investment.”
Commissioner Resolution 04-19, urging “an intentional and
systematic effort of development and compassionate action in
Palestine,” was submitted by a pastor from Ohio Valley Presbytery
in southern Indiana. It called for a study to determine whether
such investment is feasible.
The three Palestinian bishops of Jerusalem, who represent the
Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, issued a letter
last spring asking churches worldwide to support community-based
education through Christian schools and institutions; stop
emigration of Christians through job creation; provide low-cost
housing; and strengthen Christian social institutions that serve
all members of Palestinian society.
The commissioner’s resolution was rewritten and approved by the
Peacemaking Committee, the same group that voted to use
divestment as leverage to “engage” U.S. corporations who do
business in Israel and Palestine.
The PC(USA) has targeted five multinational corporations,
including Caterpillar, a heavy-equipment firm whose bulldozers
have been used to raze Palestinian homes and to cut a path for
the Israelis’ so-called “separation wall.”
Other groups that have voted to take selective divestment action
include the United Church of Christ, the United Church of Canada,
and several conferences within the United Methodist Church. The
World Council of Churches also has affirmed the PC(USA) action.
The executive council of the Episcopalian church has asked for
corporate engagement and positive investment. The worldwide
Anglican Consultative Council has encouraged engagement with
shareholder companies and hasn’t ruled out selective divestment.
The Church of England voted on Feb. 6 to ask its investment
advisory board to consider divesting its $2.5 million holdings in
Caterpillar and to continue negotiating with the company about
the ethics of its sales to the Israeli army.
For the PC(USA), selective divestment means that churches will
meet with targeted multinationals to push for changes in business
practices, using shareholder resolutions as necessary. If church
and corporation cannot agree, the General Assembly can decide
whether to put the corporation on a divestment list. The process
is much like that of the Church of England.
A fact-finding trip to study the investment resolution was led by
Don Mead, of Glen Arbor, MI, a retired economics professor and
Presbyterian elder; the Rev. Marthame Sanders of Atlanta, a
former PC(USA) missionary in Palestine; and Douglas Dicks, a
longtime PC(USA) mission co-worker who works in Jerusalem.
Mead said he was initially uneasy about the resolution for fear
that it would be interpreted as an accommodation of the
occupation. “What’s really needed to develop Palestine is to end
the occupation,” he told the Presbyterian News Service, adding
that the occupation has made it hard for Palestinian suppliers
and producers to connect and restricted the flow of goods to and
from the occupied areas.
“There’s no question that economic stability deters violence,”
Mead said, noting that 40 percent of Palestinian workers are
unemployed.
In the early 1990s, Presbyterians took a similar approach in
violence-ridden Northern Ireland, working to attract investment —
hiring a consultant to approach U.S. corporations to urge them to
do business there, even underwriting some start-up operations.
“There are some distinct differences and some striking
similarities between the economy of Northern Ireland and …
Palestine,” said Joe Beeman, of Washington, DC, the Presbyterian
elder and former ambassador to New Zealand who headed up the
investment effort. “Palestinians don’t know day-to-day where
their borders are. …The need is more desperate in Palestine.”
Mead reported that the PC(USA)’s fact-finding delegation looked
at six areas: support for the Palestinian Christian church;
educational assistance; job-creation; craft and other product
marketing; housing (working with partner churches); and promotion
of tourism, especially pilgrimage-style tours.
The work teams will develop specific plans for presentation to
the GAC in April. Afif Safieh, who represents the Palestine
Liberation Organization mission in Washington, said: “I would
encourage churches and others to (consider) … ethical investment
in Palestine. One, it would help absorb unemployment; two, it
would be producing economic dividends for the society. And it is
badly needed.
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