i believe a part of our christian responsibility indeed our general assembly has policy statements that say because we have financial resources were to use them both to support mission and to advocate for justice in the world in june of two thousand and four the presbyterian church usa became the first major religious institution in america to take a step toward to vesting from companies that support the israeli occupation of the palestinian territories in an overwhelming four hundred thirty one to sixty two vote at their annual general assembly meeting the church approved a process called phased selective divestment first they would research and identify corporations that were deeply involved in the occupation then they would engage these companies in a dialogue to try to change their behavior and finally as a last resort they would take a vote to divest from their stock in these companies while the first opportunity to consider divest in from companies would not take place for another two years the backlash against the church was immediate after announcing the plan for phase selective divestment the presbyterian church usa received a great deal of criticism some even describe the church as anti semitic the church also found critics within its own ranks reverend charles henderson is a member of the steering committee of presbyterians concerned for jewish and christian relations i think that selective divestment is poorly conceived i think it's morally inconsistent and i think that above all it won't work it's ineffective because there isn't the same kind of consensus in this context as there was in the south africa case in the case of south africa divestment had the support many major universities and lots of church groups and in the case of divestment the presbyterian church is one of the only denominations that has come out in favor of divestment and also there is not one major university that has backed this policy so we presbyterians are standing pretty much alone in this anderson also believes that the policy only addresses one side of the conflict those who support the divestment policy focus almost exclusively upon the injustices allegedly committed by the israeli government against the innocent palestinian citizens the greatest injustice is the intentional targeting of civilians and that's part of what the palestinian terrorists are doing when they bomb school buses and set off high explosives in public places where they know that innocent people will be killed there is good and evil on both sides of the line and that's what makes it such a difficult and dangerous situation and also suggests that a policy of divestment that appears to be aiming at the israelis and almost forgetting about the palestinians is not going to be an effective policy outside of the church some went even further in their criticism after hearing about the decision to begin the divestment process rabbi ira you'd open wrote at what point does the p c usa cease being an authentic religious entity and become an apologist for demented killers who strap explosives to their bodies and go off to murder innocent men women and children on school buses or in pizza parlors who are gathered for passover seder commentators rabbi marc gellman and months in your thomas hartman also known as the god squad wrote hating the jewish state is no different from hating jews your church has become the first church body and indeed the first national body of any kind that is voted to kill israel for the crime of being a victim given the rather negative reaction that the decision of oaks it makes sense to look at the reasons that led the church to take this step this program will explore why the presbyterian church usa began this process  phased selective divestment what exactly the plan involves and what the church hopes it will accomplish we want not only our mission money but our money that is invested for pensions our money that is invested for future mission work to be invested in causes that are not doing great damage involving human rights abuses over the years we divest it from companies that are producing tobacco products we divest it from companies that are engaged in supporting gambling we divest it from country companies that are engaged in promoting and building weapons of mass destruction we've divesture from companies involved in human rights abuses in places like the sudan and now as we see those same abuses continue and being out in israel and palestine it seems that it is very important to apply that same commitment to socially responsible investment to this area of the world where our people who pursue what we believe god is pursuing in the world which is reconciliation justice peace and redemption so our involvement in israel and palestine and deed all of the middle east grows out of a commitment to what we call the body of christ  which is working with christians and other lands and under their guidance we have heard consistently from christians in the middle east that much of the middle east sees us foreign policy as christian foreign policy and such to the extent that that foreign policy ignores injustice in the region and particularly injustice to palestinian people then that is understood as a christian foreign policy this works very much to the detriment of the churches we work with in the middle east most americans are familiar with the injustice committed against the israeli people suicide bombings what is meant by injustice to the palestinian people many members of the presbyterian church usa have traveled to the palestinian territories these are the experiences that they brought back a few years ago i was there and was visiting with a palestinian family a fairly large family they had a number of acres of denham's as they call them in which they had crops growing they had a large olive grow they had been visited in the night two or three times by israeli soldiers who came in and grabbed up one or more of their sons for questioning but the thing that struck me most was was seeing olive trees that were huge and being told that those trees were two or three thousand years old it was a to me and and for this family the abuse had taken the form of the israelis coming in and confiscating part of their land with the result that they brought in a bulldozer with a bum on it hooked a chain around some of these huge trees and then pull them up out of the ground that tree represents generations of palestinian families of their livelihood it's more than just yanking up a tree for three and a half years my fame and i were serving as mission workers in a small palestinian christian village near the town of janine in the northern west bank most of my work is that as a teacher with students from first grade through eleventh grade there were times when my students couldn't make it to school because they were stuck at home under curfew or perhaps they weren't allowed to pass a checkpoint in order to get to classes that day some of my students have had bullets from israeli tanks pass through their bedrooms we've had students who have been huddled on the floor of their school bus as warning shots from israeli shoulder soldiers are fired around the school bus i have been privileged to visit israel and palestine a number of times there was one time when i was traveling to visit our christian partners in in palestine and i went to jerusalem during holy week after they suicide attack in  and i wanted to go and visit our friends in bethlehem at the crossing the road block between jerusalem and bethlehem the israeli soldier confronted me with his gun aimed at me and said go back i had at that point to be crossing on foot because cars were not allowed to go from on one side of the checkpoint to the other so i  waved my hand as a sign of peace and pulled out my united states passport and they said i am a u s citizen and i am going to bethlehem to visit christian friends he moved the gun and  reflection in the subsequent days i wondered about the daily experience of palestinians even when there would not have been such a horrible attack as what was experienced the night before well i've been to israel palestine a number of times and i have been haunted by a number of recollections but one in particular that struck me was a visit to gaza city we drove around i visited a number of health clinics the state of health of the niemi a of depression of results  not only of poverty but i think of oppression where so obvious while we were visiting there i have visited many parts of the world and i have seen worse poverty than i saw in gaza but i just don't think i've seen worse depression i have seen their lines form at the checkpoints i have seen them being delayed in blazing hot sunshine and have seen so many of them turned back about ten years ago in bethlehem in a christian community and spending time with a family whose home had been bulldozed and seeing the utter devastation of people that literally were homeless all of their possessions destroyed really their life made so much more difficult we have a number of stories from that time doctor friend of ours who was in an ambulance going to free wounded folk and an israeli tank shot the ambulance and exploded and he was killed another friend of ours whose cousin stuck his head out of the window to get better cell phone reception was shot through the head by an israeli sniper the stories like this and the danger to civilian life in the particularly arbitrary nature of that danger posed to civilian life are part of the ongoing thing that for me has raised not only the specter of a security risk to israelis but also the deep security risks to palestinian life as well mothers waiting with limp children in their arms to see so many men lined up on curbs sitting just waiting for someone from the larger economy to have some odd jobs for them to do it just spoke worlds to me of humiliation and of course humiliation fuels anger and leads to violence so there is a there was just a basic problem undergirding what seemed more like a prison camp than a city to me the disruption of life was one experience that i experienced first hand by that one single incident i can understand the cause for the road block and the prevention of passage on that day but when it takes place as a matter of routine every day i came to understand the impact of that occupation on the daily life of the palestinians consider the fact that more than six hundred palestinian children and one hundred israeli children have been killed in this conflict since it started in september of two thousand and six hundred palestinian children one hundred israeli children all victims of the file it said this conflict occupation is final it's violence against the bodies against the mines against the dignity of the occupied we're deeply concerned certainly since they have been internationally agreed upon boundaries for palestine as well as israel that palestinian territory has been expropriated for israeli settlements that much of the palestinian territory has now been taken over by israeli only roads that a basic separation barrier wall is being built the palestinian territory dividing palestinian communities from one another that houses are often being bulldozed and that people in general are being subjugated in what ought to be their own land in their own nation we are also aware of the resistance that the palestinians have put up over the years some of it has gone to extremes we realize but the general population of the palestinian people has been a peaceful people and they have resorted to peaceful resistance yet they have been helpless against the huge military occupation by the israeli government the interest of the presbyterian church usa and the israeli palestinian conflict is by no means new in fact the church has been calling for peace in the region since the creation of these really state p c usa has been calling for a just solution in the region since one nine hundred forty eight and that calling has been based on three consistent principles that the church has asserted year after year since then and that has been the right of israel to exist the right of palestinians to self determination and be in excuse ability and mess ability of violence as a means to achieve an end we have spoken if not a at least over and over again since that time in the wake of various outbreaks of violence the end of fathers the in the war of sixty seven seventy three there ha statements by a general assembly against the expansion of settlements the one nine hundred eighty three general assembly was very clear that the us government ought to cut off all funding to israel if they continued to expand the settlements obviously that did not happen in either case the settlements continue to expand the u s has continued to give huge amounts of money to israel a session in the presbyterian saying all this team has been concerned about these issues for a long time and aware that in spite of all of our advocacy in washington very little has happened to change the situation  said it's time to do something more concrete dr glenn dixon a pastor westminster presbyterian church in gainesville florida proposed to the presbyterian church usa the option of divestment as a strategy to help end the conflict back in the nonviolent in august two thousand and four the general assembly of the presbyterian church usa deliberated and passed a resolution supporting divestment however this resolution does not call for immediate blanket divestment from all corporations that do business in israel in the palestinian territories once the general assembly passed the resolution mission responsibility through investment committee began a process of establishing criteria by which we would engage companies and then a dinner find those companies i met in november of two thousand and four to decide on criteria the credit for this process and the criteria fall into four broad categories corporations involved in or facilitating violence against civilians the occupation settlements or the separation barrier after months of study m r t i met again in august of two thousand and five and named five companies based on those criteria we will begin a process of dialogue with  these shareholder resolutions and then finally as a last resort an action before our general assembly in two thousand and six foot i think the last resort in this process would be divest and that would only they happen if the mission responsibility through investment committee felt that they were at a dead end that there'd been no change that the concerns were still there and they would have we do not invest in those things that we believe are contributing to oppression and violence in communities it is our hope that by engaging these companies in corporate dialogue and consideration of their policies that we will be able to influence change without having to divest economic pressure is something that is i believe a part of our christian responsibility in data our general assembly has policy statements that say because we have financial resources were to use them both to support mission and to advocate for justice in the world if divestment must take place then it will be a message to the world that we are trying to follow the moral imperative of our own religious convictions not to participate in in actions from which we would profit which actions would be causing the suffering of other people innocent people in august two thousand and five the presbyterian church usa identified five companies with whom they would engage in this process caterpillar which is obviously building bulldozers that are being used to destroy palestinian homes to build a separation barrier to take take down olive trees to really disrupt the fabric of palestinian society it is not caterpillars and tant perhaps to sell those bulldozer specifically for that purpose but they do sell them and they are being used that way and so it is our hope that we can have a conversation with caterpillar they've also identified two communication companies  industries and motorola those products are being is by the israeli military to strengthen their control and occupation of palestinian territory the other thing is of concern there is that under the some of the agreements that have been made between the israelis and palestinians earlier it was agreed that licensing of cell phone providers in the occupied territories would have to be approved by the palestinian authority what apparently has happened is that there are cell phone towers which have been put up in some of the illegal settlements and therefore they are producing cell phone service that's not been licensed and makes it impossible for palestinian entrepreneurs to try to set up a system of their own they've identified citibank as a group to look into where funds might be being received in channeled to islamic charities that are reaching suicide bombers this is a bank group that with which the presbyterian church has had a very good working relationship in the past we've advocated with citi group over lending practices and other things and have had  found it very successful and it's been alleged that some of those banks were places where families of suicide bombers could go and pick up money in recompense for their lost loved one the fifth c it's united technologies which produces the helicopters which are often used by the israelis when they go into a place like gaza or other parts in the west bank where suspected terrorists are and fire rockets into buildings to try to kill them as discussed in the beginning of this program the church's plan for phased selective divestment received a great deal of criticism how do they i think simply say to all of those that we have tried and i think successfully carry out an effort that is concerned about injustice and human rights violations whether they're israelis or palestinians a fair a fair approach that is concern for the well being of both communities but a deep commitment that this reliance on occupation and violence is not the way to lasting peace and we do that with the utmost respect for the well being of jewish colleagues of muslim colleagues of christian colleagues of all people of faith and even people of no faith in the region the fact is that the general assembly has made very strong statements whoring anti semitism that go back to the days of the holocaust the first to step up and condemn those we have a concern about other fellow christians who really do not understand the profound dimensions of the impact of the occupation on the other children of abraham they seem to subscribe to some interpretations of christian theology that confuses the political entity that is the state and the government of israel with the fulfillment of biblical promises and understanding of god's covenant with being used in this way not all responses to the presbyterian church usa as decision have negative the churches are saved a lot of support for it stand liat one guard an american and israeli dual citizen and co director of the organization jewish voice for peace said quote we would not be having this conversation if the administration and congress had been doing their job and demanding that israel abide by basic human rights standards instead it has been left to people of conscience of all  economic power to pressure israel to do the right thing inspired by the presbyterian church usa a number of other religious groups are starting to take action i think there are several things that are happening one is that christians are beginning to talk with one another about where we are and what our different approaches are in addressing our concerns in the middle east we have historically had resolutions and statements that have been made by our denominations and by the ecumenical bodies of which we belong we're now beginning to say what is the next step the united church of christ this past summer took an action very similar to ours to move toward divestment the world helsel church a central committee meeting in february encouraged all of its members churches to take very seriously how our monies are invested in ways to support peace in the region and not violence the episcopal church usa i know is currently considering an action moving toward divestment and there are several conferences and other smaller ecumenical bodies that are also beginning to explore how they move forward of course very selective divestment is only a means to an end in the long run what is the president here in church usa hope to see happen in the israeli palestinian conflict what type of solution to the invasion p policy for a number of years has supported what is called two state solution and which the state of israel would live peaceful way and safely within the borders  and forty eight and that the palestinians would live within the remainder of that region with their own state we have from its very founding supported the right of the state of israel to exist in secure and peaceful boundaries but we also support a state of palestine that is able to exist without occupation and without oppression i don't think there would be anyone who would justify the violence that is occurring in the region that involve civilian children and women and innocent persons however i think where we differ and where the presbyterian church is really clear is that we cannot be silent about what we see as human rights abuses that we