Overture 29

On Issues Affecting Israelis and Palestinians, and the 216th General Assembly Divestment Action—From the Presbytery of New Covenant.

The Presbytery of New Covenant overtures the 217th General Assembly (2006) to approve the following resolution and communicate its results as indicated herein:

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

1. Reaffirms its long-standing work for peace, security, dignity, and constructive cooperation among the nations, peoples, and faiths in the Middle East.

2. Reaffirms the long-standing principle that discipline and order should work always for building up and restoring constructive relationships of all of God’s peoples rather than approaches that would tear down or diminish them.

3. Recognizes and expresses deep concerns for Palestinian Christians, Palestinian Muslims, Jews, and other Israeli citizens and visitors who have been so deeply harmed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

4. Reaffirms the right of the State of Israel to exist; the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and establishment of a separate and sovereign state; and the right for both Israeli and Palestinian peoples to live in security and peace, to have economic viability, and to be afforded the dignity due all God’s people.

5. Reaffirms its condemnation of terrorism and any acts of destruction against innocent people—be they Israeli or Palestinian; be they Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or people of other faiths.

6. Acknowledges the recent progress toward peace and endorses the balanced approach to a lasting peace proposed by the Sharm el Sheikh Fact Finding Committee in The Mitchell Report (May 4, 2001). (See Item B.3. in “Rationale” below.)

7. Ceases those activities authorized by the alternate resolution to Item 12-01 of the 216th General Assembly (2004) that dealt with the issues of divestment as indicated below:

7. Refers to Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee (MRTI) with instructions to initiate a process of phased selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel, in accordance to General Assembly policy on social investing, and to make appropriate recommendations to the General Assembly Council for action. (Minutes, 2004, Part I, p. 66)

8. Instructs the Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee and the General Assembly Council to cease consideration of divestment that grew out of the 2004 action on the alternate resolution to Item 12-01, Recommendation 7; to focus its considerations on Palestinian and Israeli reinvestment for a positive, helpful, and peaceful future rather than punitive acts of divestment; and to consider criteria for future investments weighted toward those companies that are planning and/or carrying out economic benefits in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories through such items as (1) increasing job opportunities, (2) increasing social and health-care infrastructures, and/or (3) involving collaborative and cooperative ventures between currently or previously conflicted peoples.

9. Instructs the Stated Clerk to communicate Recommendations 1. through 8. above to the United States’ president, vice president, secretary of state, and members of Congress; to Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the Middle East; to the membership of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); to leadership of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith bodies and denominations in the United States and the Middle East with whom we are in communication.

Rationale

A. Basic Principles, Assumptions, and Related Actions

As Presbyterians, we have a long history of supporting the safety, security, and peaceful resolution to the complex issues that have divided peoples of the Middle East in general and the Israeli and Palestinian peoples in particular. We reaffirm that history and the following basic assumptions:

1. We have had a long-standing involvement in working for peace, security, dignity, and constructive cooperation among the nations, peoples, and faiths in the Middle East.

2. In our own governance we affirm a long-standing principle that discipline and order should always be used for building up and restoring constructive relationships of God’s people rather than working in ways that would tear down or diminish them. (See Book of Order, D-1.0000 through D-1.0103.)

3. We have affirmed the rights of both Israeli and Palestinian peoples to exist, to live in security and peace, to have economic viability, and to be afforded the dignity due to all God’s peoples—Jews, Muslims, and Christians. We agree with the Presbytery of Mississippi’s statement that it “subscribes to the goal of peacemaking reflected in the actions of the 216th General Assembly (2004), but cannot accept or support some of the means advocated by the General Assembly. We call on the great church of Jesus Christ to obey St. Paul’s exhortation, “Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Rom. 14:19).

4. We have condemned terrorism and any acts of destruction against innocent people—be they Israeli or Palestinian; and be they Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or people of other faiths. We agree with the November 22, 2004, statement of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago’s Session as follows: “We unequivocally condemn both death and other harm perpetrated against innocent Israeli citizens by Palestinian terrorist organizations and the death and other harm perpetrated against innocent Palestinian citizens by Israeli action.”

5. We have supported the current Israeli-Palestinian peace process and urged all governments and parties to continue their progress toward a state of lasting security, peace, and stability.

Those are significant principles and actions of our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)—ones that are in keeping with the basic tenets of our Christian faith. We affirm these principles with Recommendations 1 through 9 of the overture.

B. Reforming Past Actions

We believe that the intent of the 2004 alternate resolution to Item 12-01 was to promote peace and justice in the Middle East. However, in light of the subsequent, widespread response from Presbyterian and Jewish communities and in light of the current progress of Israel and Palestinians toward pursuing the roadmap to peace, we find that the 2004 alternate resolution to Item 12-01 needs to be readdressed and reformed for the following reasons.

1. During the 216th General Assembly (2004), the overture and alternate resolution to Item 12-01 was based on limited information with insufficient consideration of all the complexities and injustices from all sides of the conflict. It also served to intensify finger-pointing and more division rather than to promote reconciliation.

2. The approval of the alternate resolution to Item 12-01 (especially Recommendation 7, which called for a divestiture process that was focused solely on Israel) engendered significant, widespread, negative response after enactment within both our own Presbyterian denomination and Jewish communities. It resulted in our church’s being viewed as anti-Semitic by a wide range of Jewish voices and others with whom we previously had warm and cordial relationships.

3. Divestment does not help the plight of Palestinians affected by the conflict. And economic sanctions in Israel will also negatively affect the lives of Palestinians. The Mitchell Report of the 2001 Sharm el Sheikh Fact Finding Committee reviews the history of events that led to renewed violence in 2000, documents the failure of both parties to limit escalation of violence, and makes recommendations about how to proceed. (For the full seventeen-page report, see the U. S. State Department web site. The report states, “The Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority must act swiftly and decisively to halt the violence. Their immediate objectives then should be to rebuild confidence and resume negotiations.” It does not point the finger at either party, but calls for both parties to take steps to “END THE VIOLENCE,” “REBUILD CONFIDENCE,” and “RESUME NEGOTIATIONS.”

Since the change in leadership of the Palestinian Authority, these steps have begun in earnest. The Mitchell Report affirms that, “Given the high level of hostility and mistrust, the timing and sequence of these steps are obviously crucial. This can be decided only by the parties.” Only restoration of trust, an end to violence, and sincere negotiation will help the Palestinians.

4. We support the significant guiding principle of the Sharm el Sheikh Fact Finding Committee that they “should strive to steer clear of any step that will intensify mutual blame and finger pointing between the parties” and believe the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should endorse this principle in dealing with the delicate Middle East conflict. We must not become a divisive force, but rather a healing force. Divestment, if carried out, could be counterproductive in the State of Israel’s current withdrawal from Palestinian territories as well as counterproductive to the ongoing peace process. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) does not want to engender enmity and resistance on the part of Israel or on the part of the Palestinians in their path to peace.

5. In a complex and multilayered global economy in which interlocking companies constantly take over other companies and in which large corporations have subsidiaries all over the world, it is both naïve and uninformed to imagine that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) never unintentionally profits from or engages in corporate activities we would call sin. We own shares in companies that engage in salacious advertising and that promote sex and violence on American television. To expect the Israeli government or targeted corporations to be above reproach while neither our church nor our nation is above reproach is both hypocritical and un-Christian.

6. The General Assembly’s approach in Recommendation 7 of the 2004 alternate resolution to Item 12-01 is clearly outside our long-standing Presbyterian principle that discipline and order should work always for building up and restoring constructive relationships of all of God’s peoples rather than approaches that would tear down or diminish them.

For all these reasons, this 2006 overture (1) calls for abandoning the 2004 General Assembly action that ordered the divestment study and process related to the Israeli-Palestinian issues, and (2) instructs the Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee and the General Assembly Council to cease consideration of divestment that grew out of the 2004 alternate resolution to Item 12-01, Recommendation 7.

C. Supporting Long-Term Solutions

We strongly believe that we as American Christians have a responsibility to support long-term peaceful solutions to the issues that confront all peoples and nations of the Middle East as well as our world as a whole. We also believe that those responsibilities need to be acted out in ways that are consistent with building up rather than tearing down. That translates into using our resources of influence, expertise, time, energy and money in ways that will be positively productive (not punishing), investing (not divesting) for the peaceful future of both Israelis and Palestinians, and helping all affected move toward a future with peace, security, and dignity for all.

Helpful criteria for future investments could include weighted investment considerations for those companies that are planning and/or carrying out ventures in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories that would provide economic benefits such as (1) increased job opportunities, (2) increased social and health-care infrastructures, (3) rebuilt homes, farms and businesses, and/or (4) collaborative and cooperative ventures between currently or previously conflicted peoples.

This 2006 overture will hopefully enable use of our financial resources more in keeping with the basic practices of our faith.

And in order for all the actions of the 2006 overture to have an impact beyond our own investment activities, they need to be communicated to all parties indicated in Recommendation 9 of this overture.

To these ends we pledge our support and pray the larger church’s action.