The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the The United Church of Christ’s (UCC) decision to divest from companies operating beyond the Green Line “immoral” in a statement released by a spokesman.
“People of faith and religion should work to facilitate peace and not try to hurt the side [Israel] aspiring for peace,” said the spokesman.
The UCC, a liberal Protestant group numbering around 1 million, announced its intention Tuesday to adopt a resolution calling for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions of “companies deemed supportive of Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories.”
“The United Church of Christ Palestine-Israel Network (UCC PIN) is pleased to announce that…the plenary of the 30th General Synod taking place in Cleveland passed Resolution #4, calling for boycotts and divestment from companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands,” the UCC said in a statement.
Two more US churches are expected to vote on the resolution by Wednesday.
Members of the Episcopal Church of Salt Lake City and of the Menonnites’ in Kansis City are set to follow in suit of the UCC with a similar vote.
The Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, also known as BDS, aims to penalize Israel through economic pressure over the Palestinian issue – lobbying companies, governments and organizations to rescind financial agreements or enforce sanctions against the Jewish State.
Israel and its advocates consider BDS a pretext for anti-Semitism and an excuse to delegitimize the Jewish State.\
NGO Monitor Statement on NGOs and the United Church of Christ Vote for BDS
Jerusalem – In the wake of the vote by the United Church of Christ (UCC) to support divestment, the Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor issued the following statement:
The vote in favor of divestment by the United Church of Christ at its General Synod is a blow to morality and peacemaking in the Middle East.
The divestment resolutions were pressed on the UCC delegates by political advocacy NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and other supporters of international anti-Israel BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions) campaigns. The vote shows that most delegates either failed to recognize that BDS seeks to end the existence of Israel, or did understand and supported the resolution nonetheless.
BDS is anti-peace as it promotes the destruction of Israel and opposes dialogue, cooperation, and developing peaceful ties between Israelis and Palestinians. The church’s decision has made the UCC a participant in the conflict, the opposite of peacemakers.
The vote was driven by a vocal minority of anti-Israel activists in the church, and bolstered by enablers such as Jewish Voice for Peace. The resolutions put before the delegates overwhelmingly relied on “evidence” and materials provided by a narrow group of NGOs. The consequence was a highly distorted approach in UCC deliberations on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that resulted in today’s misguided vote.
NGO Monitor produced a fact sheet “United Church of Christ: How Missing Facts and Half-Truths are Informing the 30th General Synod’s Resolutions on Israel” that documents this dynamic.
Yitzhak Santis, Chief Programs Officer, is available for comment and background. He is the director of NGO Monitor’s BDS in the Pews project.
@ Eric R.:
I am in total agreement with you. Anyone belonging to any of these churches or organizations should be barred from entering Israel. Keep them out of Israeli soil.
If they have a visa confiscate their passports and send them home. Who are they to criticize or judge Israel without having walked in the Israelis’ shoes?
The world is dividing into to distinct camps. The sane and the insane, the pro-Israel and the anti-Israel. Of course Jews as well as Christians and some Muslims too can be found in both camps. When the world has finished dividing it will be time for divine Judgement.
Is that “untied”? That would sound proper to me… 🙂
They can go KBNMT.
Israel needs to ban their clergy, alongs with those of the Presbyterian Church USA, from entering Israel.
Having said that, this communist front organization posing as a church is losing members so fast that it will basically cease to exist in 15 years.