The Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church just voted to divest all holdings in three international corporations that profit from the Israeli occupation. The press release announcing the action says, "this action is in response to a plea by Palestinian Christians for action, not just words."
The conference is divesting from Caterpillar, General Electric and Terex. These companies are among 20 targeted by many UMC conferences across the country because they (1) have a presence on occupied land, (2) are involved with the physical settlements, checkpoints and the separation wall, or (3) support activities of the Israeli military in the occupied territories. The full list of 20 targeted corporations was compiled by the New England Conference Divestment Task Force. In addition to divesting, the conference is also sending the full list of companies to the nearly 400 local churches in Northern Illinois to encourage them to consider divesting from any of the corporations on the list.
Connie Baker, a leader in the effort to divest, put the vote in perspective, “We are resolute in our support of peace for both Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land and the rights of each to co-exist according to the principles set forth in the Geneva Conventions. It is a small step, but an important one.”
Your move, Clinton.
As a good Methodist, she believes that if the US donates white phosphorous to Israel to enable Ashkenazi Jews to cremate Semitic Palestinian Gazans (some of whom are Christians) from the air, it will be a sure path to heaven for Hillary Clinton. For her, melting sufficient numbers of Gazan men women and children, is a sure way to bring Hamas into line. Her racist reasoning justifies the New York Times for treating her as a representative white trash Christian.
This may be seen as collective punishment against Jews, and possibly an attempt to harm Jews, as most of the companies boycotted provide essential tools for Jews to defend themselves in Israel.
Complete drivel. Doesn’t prevent the country or its businesses trying to find alternative suppliers. The “essential tools for Jews to defend themselves in Israel” are almost invariably used for offensive purposes, and almost never in Israel.
Once again, you characterize boycotting products/companies that profit off of the illegal, brutal, military occupation of Palestinian territory as ‘collective punishment’ ‘against Jews’.
Let’s say this ridiculous equivocation was true, it would still pale in comparison to the blockade of Gaza which has been denounce by all mainstream human rights organizations.
The BDS movement is not targeting ‘Jews’ – it is targeting Brand Israel and companies who profit off of the Occupation. A 40+ year occupation, which has resulted in the suffering of an entire people, the denial of their humanity and rights – and the denial of their right to self-determination.
The notion that Jews are being ‘denied’ anything ‘essential’ is bogus as well. Israel receives billions a year from the US. It is granted political immunity to carry out it’s massacres and continued land-grab/colonization.
Furthermore, you define illegal Zionist settlers, vaguely, as ‘Jews’. That is not what defines them. It is simply your narrow perspective which denies the humanity of non-Zionists. We don’t have to accept your religious extremism – and we won’t.
Just stop defending the bad theological parctices.
This may be seen as collective punishment against Jews, and possibly an attempt to harm Jews
You certainly live up to your name.
Realistically, most commenters on this website don’t accept a Jewish state on any territory 67′ 48′ or otherwise, BDS is collective punishment against the Jewish state, just as the Gaza blockade is collective punishment against Gazans, they are morally and legally the exact same.
If you don’t believe the state of Israel should exist than say so directly, don’t hide behind saying collective punishment is needed because of the land Israel won in a defensive war in ’67, rather say collective punishment against Jews is needed in order to enforce the dissolution of the world’s only Jewish state and aboriginal homeland.
@ maximalistPropagandist(Narrative it is not)
Before you continue with the disinformation and twisting of facts, maybe you should spend some time reading the ten pages starting with:
link to foreignpolicyjournal.com
to find out just how mal-informed your statements are. That you have a right to your opinion is not in dispute. That you believe that you have a right to your own facts is disputed. Where your allegations are leading is to a place where a growing consensus is, founded upon the history of propaganda and lies, that the zionist state of israel has lost its claim to legitimacy and, as the old fella in Iran stated and subsequently quoted, needs be removed from the pages of history.
they are morally and legally the exact same.
The Israeli blockade and the BDS movement have just as much morality and legality in common as did the South African apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement.
I’m not even going to bother with the rest of your hasbara diatribe.
That paranoia is in your head. I wonder how one becomes so chicken s*** to the point he fears his own shadow.
Did you just call the former Mandate Palestine the Jewish “aboriginal homeland”? Is there a Zionist Theme Park inside your head, max?
maximalist:
“If you don’t believe the state of Israel should exist than say so directly”
It’s being said clear and loud every day, Dr. Goebbels.
Of course a racial supremacist state shouldn’t exist. Duh.
I disagree. BDS is a choice. You make a choice who you buy or not buy services from and what decide to invest in. A blockage is not a choice. But the good news is you recognize that the Gaza blockade is collective punishment.
That’s like saying if you choose to divest from tobacco stocks you are collectively punishing the tobacco industry.
Certainly you’ve received emails from Naomi Ragen stressing not to buy products from companies that support the Palestinians.
Now state YOUR case honestly. What do you propose to do with the inhabitants of land you won in a defensive war in 1967? If your plan is to build settlements and ethnically cleanse them from that land, why not just say so directly?
that funny sherbrsi, i was just thinking as a maximalist, why he didn’t say ‘will be seen’ instead of ‘may be seen’. he’s slipping.
>> This may be seen as collective punishment against Jews …
Given that Israel is a democracy comprised of citizens of various faiths, if one were to consider BDS to be “collective punishment”, the punishment would be “against Israelis”, not “against Jews”.
Anyone can go to the url provided by Adam; there you will see the targeted companies listed that especially provide material support for
the Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law and condemned by most states, including the USA. Those settlements, of course, are not located in Israel unless you believe whereever an Israeli
lays his or her hat is Israel. Is there another state in the world without
defined encompassing borders? If one wishes to recognize the state of Israel what map shows all its borders to be recognized? Just wondering. BTW, Hitler’s Germany, the Third Reich, had no defined borders either.
“against Jews”
“attempt to harm Jews”
Why not
“against Israelis”
“attempt to harm Israelis”?
It amazes me that you still use those mendacious tricks over and over again..
That’s not Methodism, that’s madness! Okay, you bastards wanna know something? I’ll tell you the way it is!
LIFE is a collective punishment against the Jews! You think I’m kidding? You should have felt the way my kiskas ached when I woke up, not to menti0on the night sweats and nightmares and nightscallions. Existence is on big concentration camp! And everyone else is a kapo, tightened around my neck, and forcing me off-key!
If you want all the Jews to die, you can say so quite easily! All you have to do is not send me money! You cheap anti-semites!
But if you love the Jews, there’s a pay-pal button on the left.
Simple, no? And if it’s less than a twenty, you know what, don’t bother, you Nazis!
“This may be seen as collective punishment against Jews, and possibly an attempt to harm Jews, as most of the companies boycotted provide essential tools for Jews to defend themselves in Israel.”
Okay, chump, go beat up a Methodist, if you’re not too goddam yellow, okay, pal? Go ahead, do it by Israeli law, pick an older methodist woman, and bring along a minyan. Don’t forget to spit.
Just remember, the Methodists gave us jobs and let us marry their daughters long before anybody else would.
maximal Bullshit:
“This may be seen as collective punishment against Jews”
How so? Honorable Jews do not participate in the Zionist crime.
“and possibly an attempt to harm Jews, as most of the companies boycotted provide essential tools for Jews to defend themselves in Israel.”
If by “Jews” you mean the Master-Race colonial invaders of Palestine, it’s about time that after a century of inflicting the Seve Plagues on the owners of the land they should finally start to defend themselves. Good. Those who do not participate in that crime, i.e. the deserters and a few others, have either left the Hellhole or are also calling for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.
Go Methodists. Hopefully, one day, when the Pope finally wakes up from his stupor, he’ll join these good Christians in their fight for human rights. Meanwhile, these Christians make the Pope look ‘unchristian’. I guess what I’m saying is, What Would Jesus Do?
“What Would Jesus Do?”
Jesus would practice safe love and free sex.
Safe love, eh?
Free sex, eh?
:)
This is just a display of what some main line denominations which are not encumbered by sick “fundamentalism” can accomplish if they try. Which proves that in some instances they can have a positive influence, and I am pleased that they have chosen to do this in the foray, and not several hundred years later (like some other issues).
“not several hundred years later”
If I’m not mistaken, the Methodists were activists in the case of South Africa, took an abolitionist stand during the slavery issue, and were involved in the Civil Rights struggle.
The only issues the Methodists are not all au courant on is free love and safe sex. And take it from me, kids, love is hardly ever free, and sex is never safe.
the Methodists were activists in the case of South Africa, took an abolitionist stand during the slavery issue, and were involved in the Civil Rights struggle.
this is certainly true, my great great uncle was a methodist minister (along w/his brothers and father and several others in my paternal line including my grandfather) who was hung in the civil war for being an abolishonist in fort worth texas. his name was anthony bewley and it was one of the incidences that sparked the civil war. upon my father’s death i came into possession of many family heirlooms including the hand written sermons of my relatives and also the speeches at the methodist conferences where many debates were taking place within the church such as if blacks should be afforded any rights in the courts and other pressing issues such as homelessness.
the methodists have a strong record of standing up for the rights of the oppressed.
ahh! bewley
That’s a family history to be very, very proud of!
thanks frances. i always related to it as some kind of legend until i actually came into possession of family archives. then it became more real to me. my grandparents were 50 when my dad was born. there’s 100 yr gap between my grandfather’s birth and my sisters. i suppose because of this i never felt very connected to them or their way of life. my grandparents came across the country on covered wagons. but reading my grandfathers passionate speeches, it really isn’t that different than civil rights workers today. i suppose members of the clergy were often times on the frontlines. i thought about them at the recent (amazing) sabeel conference i attended.
before radio people used to travel great distances to hear speakers and sermons. it certainly wasn’t limited to religion and very much centered around important social issues of the times, at least that’s what i can gather by the archives i’ve inherited.
My statement was not an indictment of the Methodist church, but the general pattern of the church in general of accepting an unacceptable status quo. For example, while perhaps the Methodist church questioned and rejected slavery, a great majority of the churches saw nothing wrong with slavery and in fact, quoted the bible as the source for the enslavement of certain people.
Or, whereas the Quakers, as an example, did not want to follow the pattern of the genocide of the indigenous people, others incessantly quoted same source saying that the than country was the “promised land” – the Puritans appealed to “ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession” – from which manifest destiny grew.
I mean, we could go back ages when the Roman church blessed the atrocities of the royal courts. Move a little farther forward where Martin Luther said to the nobles that they should hack to pieces the peasants because they wanted some form of life. The church in most instances has sided with the elite throughout the centuries as the gap between rich and poor yawned.
HISTORICALLY, FOR THE MOST PART
“i don’t need to be a global citizen
because I’m blessed by nationality
I’m member of a growing populace
we enforce our popularity
there are things that
seem to pull us under
and there are things
that drag us down
but there’s a power
and a vital presence
that’s lurking all around
we’ve got the American Jesus
see him on the interstate
we’ve got the American Jesus
he helped build the
president’s estate
i feel sorry
for the earth’s population
‘cuz so few
live in the U.S.A.
at least the foreigners
can copy our morality
they can visit but they cannot stay
only precious few
can garner the prosperity
it makes us walk
with renewed confidence
we’ve got a place to go when we die
and the architect resides right here
we’ve got the American Jesus
overwhelming millions every day
(exercising his authority)
he’s the farmers barren fields
the force the army wields
the expression in the faces
of the starving children
the power of the man
he’s the fuel that drives the clan
he’s the motive and conscience
of the murderer
he’s the preacher on t.v.
the false sincerity
the form letter that’s written
by the big computers
he’s the nuclear bombs
and the kids with no moms
and I’m fearful that
he’s inside me”