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Objections to Presbyterian Church Resolution

(San Antonio Express-News) 31 Signers - The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) recently passed a resolution "to initiate a process of phased selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel." By singling out companies doing business in Israel, and making no reference to the terrorism directed from Palestinian territory against Israelis, the resolution appears to depart from the PCUSA's longstanding policy of evenhandedly supporting both parties as they struggle toward peace amidst threat, fear, and retaliation. As Presbyterians, we cannot support a resolution that appears to focus blame on Israel alone. The fact that the PCUSA has taken the divestiture step only once previously, when it supported withdrawing investment from the apartheid regime of South Africa, has led some to conclude that the PCUSA equates the government and political system of free and democratic Israel with a regime that silenced all criticism through assassination, imprisonment, or forced exile. The cause of peace is not helped by perceptions, erroneous or not, that the PCUSA draws such a simplistic analogy.
2004-12-10 00:00:00
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