“What does the Lord require of you? To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
This is what inspires the work of the PC (U.S.A.)’s investment policy committee, Mission Responsibility Through Investing (MRTI). MRTI’s record in its mission has been successful in changing corporate behavior in areas such as human trafficking, child labor, environmental justice, and unjust foreclosures. To this list, many Presbyterians hope to add MRTI’s latest report regarding investment in American companies doing business in Israel/Palestine.
In September 2011 MRTI published a report on its seven-year history of engagement with five U.S. companies that profit from activities deemed to be “obstacles to a just peace in Israel and Palestine” and which are illegal under international and humanitarian law. In the report, MRTI relates a detailed history of its and its ecumenical partners’ engagements and their inability to make any change in corporate behavior regarding profiting from the military occupation of the Palestinian territories. As a result, MRTI will be bringing a recommendation to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) next July to divest from three companies, Caterpillar, Inc., Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions, all of which profit from non-peaceful uses of their products by the Israeli armed forces in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Caterpillar products, the report notes, are “used, contrary to international humanitarian law, by the Israeli military and civilian authorities to demolish Palestinian homes and construct settlements and Israeli-only roads on Palestinian land.” The most notorious of these products are the D-9 weaponized bulldozers. I have seen the results of demolitions of Palestinian homes and infrastructure by the Caterpillar D-9 weaponized bulldozer and have spoken with some of its victims. The experience is heart-wrenching and I am certain it is much more painful to those who experience the onslaught personally.
Hewlett-Packard products are used in “invasive and unjust biometric scanning processes of Palestinians at checkpoints in the separation wall constructed on Palestinian territory” in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Notably, the wall almost always separates occupied Palestinian territory from occupied Palestinian territory, rather than Israeli territory. I have personally endured and frequently observed the humiliation that Palestinians routinely experience at checkpoints and deplore the involvement of Hewlett-Packard in this practice.
Furthermore, Hewlett-Packard’s products are 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.”
Motorola Solutions profits “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.”
I have seen the separation barrier and all the equipment mounted on the barrier (which is a 27- foot high wall in some areas and an extensive electrified fence installation in others with cameras and sensors). Since I learned about this equipment and about Motorola Solutions’ involvement in the Gaza Blockade, I have not and will not purchase any Motorola device of any kind.
Divestment is a proven and peaceful tool to effect change in violations of human rights by governments, corporations, and individuals. It enables individuals of conscience to take concrete action against injustice of any kind and was vital in building momentum to overturn apartheid in South Africa.
As a Palestinian-American whose family was displaced by the creation of the state of Israel, I am heartened by my Church’s stand to “love kindness and do justice” with its investments.
To those Presbyterians who are working for the human rights of the people of both Israel and Palestine, I say “thank you.” Despite being attacked for your principled stance, you have remained steadfast. You have my utmost respect and gratitude for your selfless efforts toward justice and kindness.
Nahida Halaby Gordon is Professor of Biostatistics, Elder at Westminster Presbyterian Church, moderator of the National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus, Treasurer and member of the Steering Committee of the PCUSA’s Israel/Palestine Mission network, and president of the Interfaith Council for Middle East Peace.
Big ups to the Presbyterians. Come join the Occupation(s) – This needs to be VOICED at the General Assemblies!
Kudos to the Presbyterians for their honorable position and courage to maintain it in the face of overwhelming pressure and attacks.
Now all we need to do is get the zionism loving evangelists to do the same. Though I fear they may be a lost cause considering they are almost indistinguishable from Israeli zionists at this point.
Kudos indeed to my fellow Presbyterians. A big shout out to the Presbyterians’ Israel Palestine Mission Network’s FB page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel-Palestine-Mission-Network/272792099024
This is good news. As readers may not know, the United Methodist Church passed a resolution at its General Assembly in 2000 opposing the occupation. Though I am an atheist, I was raised by an ordained Methodist minister and remained within the church through my teenage years. With this as an introduction at the largest Methodist church in the area, I thought it might be interesting to find out why I had seen nothing in the news in the 11 years since that resolution was passed indicating any action on it.
A letter to the senior pastor at the church brought silence. A phone call to the same person brought no response. Not easily deterred, I attended a Sunday service, being well familiar with the greeting of the congregation afterward. Upon shaking the man’s hand to whom I had written and on whose voice-mail I had left a message, I identified myself. He apologized, said he would have replied but I had not included a return address. I could only think to myself “Help me, Jesus!” to keep my cool. What a silly excuse to hide behind for someone who heads a congregation claiming to follow a moral course and who suggests to so many how they might follow moral lives. I gave him my phone number and he said he would call. He did not.
I can only conclude the 2000 resolution of the United Methodist Church General Assembly is meaningless. Kudos to the Presbyterian Church for actions taken.