In the first such divestment action by a major Christian denomination, the General Conference of The United Methodist Church has voted to divest from Israel bonds, and those of other countries carrying out prolonged military occupations.

The United Methodists of the U.S. said today they members passed a combined 23 resolutions supporting Palestinians, and some backed the right to organize boycotts against and divest from Israel: “Over the last 13 months, thousands of clergy and lay delegates representing over 1 million United Methodist Church members (based on data at www.umdata.org) have approved resolutions defending the right to boycott and divest: in 2017, the annual conferences of Minnesota, New England, Upper New York, Great Plains (Nebraska and Kansas), Desert Southwest (Arizona and Utah), Oregon-Idaho, and Florida; in June and July 2016, the California-Nevada Annual Conference and the Western Jurisdictional Conference, which represents United Methodists in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.”