The Presbyterian Church (USA)'s Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment has recommended that the church divest from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions due to their relationship to Israeli human rights abuses in the occupied territories. This decision comes as the result of a corporate engagement process which began in 2004 and sought to influence corporate policy vis-a-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From a church press release:
“The General Assembly asked us to do everything we could to bring about change through dialogue, and we have done this, even asking the Assembly for more time over the years,” said committee chair the Rev. Brian Ellison, a pastor from Kansas City, Mo. “Today we are sadly reporting that these efforts have not produced any substantive change in company policies or practices, and that there is little reason for hope they will do so in the future. According to the Assembly’s prior directives and the church’s ordinary engagement process, we have little choice but to recommend divestment.”
The committee has been engaging several companies profiting from non-peaceful pursuits in the region, including activity connected with Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, since the 2004 General Assembly. MRTI’s recommendations will be presented in February 2012 to the General Assembly Mission Council and then, with the Council’s approval, to the General Assembly in July 2012.
“We have not made this decision lightly, but have undertaken it with prayer and great care,” Ellison said. “We have appreciated the witness of brothers and sisters around the church in our process, both from presbyteries where these corporations are located and from those who have called us to move more quickly in this direction. We continue to pray for employees of these companies and their congregations as they are affected by this decision. We also continue to pray that all companies and individuals in the region will redouble their efforts to seek a just peace and support for human rights for all Israeli and Palestinian people.”
The press release also included the following information about the companies in question:
Background on Companies
Caterpillar has profited from sales of its products to Israeli military and civilian authorities, including its D-9 bulldozers which are used to demolish Palestinian homes and construct settlements and Israeli-only roads on Palestinian land, acts deemed illegal under international law. The company has never accepted responsibility for how its products are used and has not responded to requests for dialogue since 2009 from MRTI or other religious groups.
Hewlett-Packard has profited from sales of specialized technology used in invasive and unjust biometric scanning processes at checkpoints in the separation wall constructed on Palestinian territory. It has also provided hardware used by the Israeli Navy in its internationally condemned blockade of the Gaza Strip and in the municipal governments of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, deemed illegal under international law. Discussions with the company have been unproductive, and the company has been unwilling to address serious issues of concern.
Motorola Solutions, one of two companies to emerge from a corporate reorganization of Motorola at the start of 2011, has profited from providing communications technology to the Israeli military used in operations in the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza, and has built and supported high-tech surveillance systems in the separation barrier and Israeli settlements built illegally on Palestinian land. The company has consistently declined to have dialogue with religious investors.
“The General Assembly asked us to do everything we could to bring about change through dialogue, and we have done this, even asking the Assembly for more time over the years,” said committee chair the Rev. Brian Ellison, a pastor from Kansas City, Mo. “Today we are sadly reporting that these efforts have not produced any substantive change in company policies or practices, and that there is little reason for hope they will do so in the future. ”
(Sigh,sigh,sigh)….” little reason for hope they will do so in the future. ”
Been saying that forever….you can’t appeal to people on moral grounds if they don’t have any morals. You won’t find much morality in corporate America these days, money trumps morals. Money trumps morals in government too.
Congratulations Presbyterians, you did the right thing.
The 10 major languages of the world usually include Arabic as do the main six languages of the UN. So, literature published by many manufacturers would usually include instructions in English, French, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese and Russian.
Recently, a friend asked me to help him set up his HP printer, one he received as a gift. I mentioned the boycott in passing and proceeded to connect the printer. Upon checking the instructions, I noticed that the instructions were available in English, French, Spanish and Hebrew.
So, apparently, as far as HP is concerned the number of Hebrew speakers in the world is equal to 300 to 400 million. I guess at HP headquarters, each Hebrew speaker counts 150 times the number of other speakers.
And most of those Hebrew speakers also speak English.
D.J. Hand: «On Wall Street, gain‐maximisation often leads to constrained optimisation problems moving ever closer to (*) the ethical boundary»
And it is far worse on JStreet
the YESHA settler project has strayed so far from Jewish ethics that nobody with any morals can stand with it.
For Seham, Taxi , Sumud,Rania, Inaana, Haytham and the rest of the sha’ab
When I read this :
link to haaretz.com
“These reports came after earlier Saturday, a senior Israeli source indicated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak attempted repeatedly to reach the head of Egypt’s Supreme Military Council, to no avail.”
It reminded me of a song I knew when I lived in umadunya ….
link to youtube.com
Baba Tantawi feen ;
baba Tantawi heen
heena hoe
oeloe meen
Oeloe hamoe Netanyahu
hamoe Netanyahu meen
a olo meen bikalimoe
Poor 3ammo Bibi!
Thanks for the memories seafoid!
seafoid ~ honoured as I am, I have to tell you I’m not Palestinian, just a white guy from Australia :-)
As I wrote here, I chose my handle as a gesture of solidarity, and because I *love* the concept of ‘sumud’ – especially the fact that it goes beyond the act of repression, and recognises the sociological agency of the oppressed.
BDS picking up steam … gonna steamroll right over you racist, apartheid murder-state ziocaine-addicted israel
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has a long history of missionary and educational work in the Middle East. Among colleges that descend from Presbyterian schools in the region are Robert College in Istanbul, the American University of Beirut, and the American University in Cairo.
3 cheers for the Presbyterians. It wasn’t only the American University of Beirut, there was also the Beirut College for Women that recently became the Lebanese American University as well as 20 elementary and secondary schools, and a hospital, a large community and conference centre and a school of theology that dates back to 1835.
As to its involvement with Palestinians and their cause, it backed the 2009 Kairos Palestine Document that in a nutshell called on all the world’s Christian churches to participate in non-violent opposition to the Israeli occupation by way of BDS. With this divestment move, its turning its promises to help the Palestinians into action.
Walid
There’s a big issue there around the Presbyterian view of what is moral. There was a big schism in the US mainstream Protestant churches in the 60s over Vietnam that led to tens of new churches breaking away from the Presbyterians and Anglicans and setting up their own theologies that saw Vietnam and American empire as the work of God and to hell with morality.
Israel was a huge beneficiary.
Sadly for Israel you have to play by the rules long term otherwise nobody loves you and you lose votes at the UN. God works in mysterious ways.
“… There was a big schism in the US mainstream Protestant churches in the 60s over Vietnam that led to tens of new churches breaking away from the Presbyterians and Anglicans and setting up their own theologies ”
It happened again as early as last year when the Methodists of Britain voted to boycott Israeli WB-produced products and a group split from the main body to form the “Methodist Friends of Israel” with website and all the trappings to express their displeasure with the boycott decision and their great love for Israel because God had given the land to the Jews and bla bla bla bla bla. After a year of disparaging the Methodists, this year the British Jews held a joint seder with them to patch things up but as far as I know, the boycott is still in effect.
The AJC site reports tonight: “AJC declared a new Presbyterian Church (USA) initiative to divest from American companies doing business with Israel a misguided endeavor that will harm, rather than advance, efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.”
I think most of us here would agree that the AJC is misguided–not the Presbyterians.
The Israel/Palestine Mission Network (IPMN), which is a PCUSA organization, informed and supported the church’s Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment position. IPMN’s FB page ( link to facebook.com ) was defamed by odious CAMERA yesterday even before the press release.
Since the death of Rachel Corrie, CAT stock went from $25 to $86 today. And it’s a dividend stock. The problem with your boycott is that CAT equipment is bought by farmers and construction companies, not college students and “freelance journalists”.
And Motorola doesn’t even make consumer products anymore.