Note #9104 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06062 Feb. 7, 2006
Resolution urges PC(USA) to invest in economic development in Palestine
Measure has been little-noticed amid firestorm over divestment action
by Alexa Smith
LOUISVILLE - Work teams are planning to implement a little-known commissioner's resolution from the 216th General Assembly calling for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to support economic development in Palestine.
The resolution was passed simultaneously with the Assembly's decision to use shareholder pressure against corporations whose business practices contribute to violence in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories through a process of phased, selective divestment.
The measure recommends that the PC(USA):
Promote tourism by encouraging U.S. churchgoers to visit Palestine and to spend money in Palestinian hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops and other places of business;
Build or lease low-cost housing for members of partner churches, to help them stay on their land, and hire Palestinian contractors to do the work;
Expand markets for Palestinian crafts and other products.
The General Assembly Council (GAC) will take up the recommendations during its meeting here this week.
"This not an acquiescence to the fact of occupation and helping Palestinians cope with an inevitable reality. But it is a ... form of resistance to the occupation - because enlightened, increased travel will raise awareness of what the occupation is doing," said the Rev. Victor Makari, the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s liaison to the Middle East. "I believe this proposal, when its specifics are explored, will provide meaningful opportunities for Presbyterians to engage in creative investment."
Commissioner Resolution 04-19, urging "an intentional and systematic effort of development and compassionate action in Palestine," was submitted by a pastor from Ohio Valley Presbytery in southern Indiana. It called for a study to determine whether such investment is feasible.
The three Palestinian bishops of Jerusalem, who represent the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, issued a letter last spring asking churches worldwide to support community-based education through Christian schools and institutions; stop emigration of Christians through job creation; provide low-cost housing; and strengthen Christian social institutions that serve all members of Palestinian society.
The commissioner's resolution was re-written and approved by the Peacemaking Committee, the same group that voted to use divestment as leverage to "engage" U.S. corporations who do business in Israel and Palestine.
The PC(USA) has targeted five multinational corporations, including Caterpillar, a heavy-equipment firm whose bulldozers have been used to raze Palestinian homes and to cut a path for the Israelis' so-called "separation wall."
Other groups that have voted to take selective divestment action include the United Church of Christ, the United Church of Canada, and several conferences within the United Methodist Church. The World Council of Churches also has affirmed the PC(USA) action.
The executive council of the Episcopalian church has asked for corporate engagement and positive investment. The worldwide Anglican Consultative Council has encouraged engagement with shareholder companies and hasn't ruled out selective divestment.
The Church of England voted on Feb. 6 to ask its investment advisory board to consider divesting its $2.5 million holdings in Caterpillar and to continue negotiating with the company about the ethics of its sales to the Israeli army.
For the PC(USA), selective divestment means that churches will meet with targeted multinationals to push for changes in business practices, using shareholder resolutions as necessary. If church and corporation cannot agree, the General Assembly can decide whether to put the corporation on a divestment list. The process is much like that of the Church of England.
A fact-finding trip to study the investment resolution was led by Don Mead, of Glen Arbor, MI, a retired economics professor and Presbyterian elder; the Rev. Marthame Sanders of Atlanta, a former PC(USA) missionary in Palestine; and Douglas Dicks, a longtime PC(USA) mission co-worker who works in Jerusalem.
Mead said he was initially uneasy about the resolution for fear that it would be interpreted as an accommodation of the occupation. "What's really needed to develop Palestine is to end the occupation," he told the Presbyterian News Service, adding that the occupation has made it hard for Palestinian suppliers and producers to connect and restricted the flow of goods to and from the occupied areas.
"There's no question that economic stability deters violence," Mead said, noting that 40 percent of Palestinian workers are unemployed.
In the early 1990s, Presbyterians took a similar approach in violence-ridden Northern Ireland, working to attract investment - hiring a consultant to approach U.S. corporations to urge them to do business there, even underwriting some start-up operations.
"There are some distinct differences and some striking similarities between the economy of Northern Ireland and ... Palestine," said Joe Beeman, of Washington, DC, the Presbyterian elder and former ambassador to New Zealand who headed up the investment effort. "Palestinians don't know day-to-day where their borders are. ... The need is more desperate in Palestine."
Mead reported that the PC(USA)'s fact-finding delegation looked at six areas: support for the Palestinian Christian church; educational assistance; job-creation; craft and other product marketing; housing (working with partner churches); and promotion of tourism, especially pilgrimage-style tours.
The work teams will develop specific plans for presentation to the GAC in April.
Afif Safieh, who represents the Palestine Liberation Organization mission in Washington, said: "I would encourage churches and others to (consider) ... ethical investment in Palestine. One, it would help absorb unemployment; two, it would be producing economic dividends for the society. And it is badly needed."
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