wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Divesting could harden Israel on Palestinian issue,

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Note #8515 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04445
October 6, 2004

Divesting could harden Israel on Palestinian issue, groups warn

by Michele Chabin
Religion News Service

JERUSALEM - If mainline Protestant church groups divest from businesses
operating in Israel, as they say they might, it could actually harden rather
than soften Israel's stance toward Palestinians, warn prominent
pro-Palestinian groups in Israel.

	Proponents of divestment say it would pressure Israeli and American
companies to change policies toward the Palestinians in the same way economic
pressure on South Africa led to an end of apartheid.

	But in Israel, even Israelis vehemently opposed to what they call
Israel's "occupation" of Palestinian land doubt whether such a divestment
strategy would work.

	Yariv Oppenheimer, the head of Peace Now, a left-wing organization
that has long fought for an end to Israeli military rule over the
Palestinians, said divestment would serve only to strengthen Israel's
self-image as a persecuted nation subjected to one-sided United Nations
resolutions and boycotts instigated by Arab countries.

	"We think divestment is not the right way to change the situation,"
said Oppenheimer. "If anything, it may have the opposite effect of the one
intended. Israelis feel the entire world is against them, so the immediate
response" to such measures "is always anger and mistrust," he said. "They
will not convince Israelis that the occupation is a bad thing."

	A drumbeat for divestment has been building among mainline Protestant
groups since the summer.

	Last week, top officials in the Episcopal Church said an investments
panel will recommend a 12-month study of whether the American denomination
should divest from companies operating in Israel. In September, members of
the Anglican Peace and Justice Network said that the worldwide Anglican
Communion should consider punitive measures against Israel.

	And in July, the Presbyterian Church (USA) made a similar
announcement, saying it may target companies harming Palestinians.

	"It happened in South Africa, and in South Africa the boycott had an
effect," Jenny Te Paa, leader of the Anglican Peace and Justice Network, told
the Guardian newspaper following a recent tour of the Palestinian
territories. "Everybody said it wouldn't work and it did work. So here we are
taking on one of most wealthy and incredibly powerful nations (Israel)
supported by the United States. That's the Christian call."

	Oppenheimer and other critics of divestment said such groups should
consider what happened from 1948 through the mid-1990s when the Arab world
maintained a worldwide boycott on companies that did business with Israel.
Although the boycott isolated Israel economically, making it impossible for
Israelis to obtain everything from Pepsi to Japanese cars, it had little or
no effect on the government's policies.

	For the churches to achieve their goals, Oppenheimer said, "they
should engage in dialogue, not sanctions. Israel is a democratic country and
if the majority of people vote to leave the territories, that will be the
policy."

	Even Uri Avnery, the outspoken leader of Gush Shalom - which Avnery
himself calls "the most radical Israeli peace organization" - is against
across-the-board divestment from Israel.

	"I feel that everyone should do what is right, but we believe that a
boycott of Israel in general is counterproductive because it pushes the
reasonable elements (in Israeli society) into the hands of the extremists. We
want to isolate the extremists."

	To accomplish this, Gush Shalom is spearheading a campaign to boycott
only Israeli products produced in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan
Heights, not those in "Israel proper."

	"We are publishing lists of products produced in the settlements and
widely distributing them. We are calling on Israeli households to check
whether the products they are buying come from the settlements and if so, to
boycott them. The EU is also following suit."

	In contrast, Josh Reinstein, the director of the Israeli government's
Christian Allies Caucus, a new coalition comprised of parliament members and
dozens of church representatives, said any punitive measures against Israel
are "unjust."

	"While we are definitely interested in opening a dialogue on the
subject with the churches, we are convinced there is another solution."

	Reinstein asserts that "divestment places the blame for the conflict
on the Israelis, who are the victims of the intifada (uprising). I do not see
a comparison between Israel and South Africa."

	If anything, Reinstein asserts, the churches "should put pressure on
the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian people are suffering under the
horrible dictatorship of Yasser Arafat and should be liberated from it."

	Protestant consideration of divestment is hardly universal.

	Some American Christians, particularly evangelicals, actively support
the Jewish state by financing everything from Israeli humanitarian aid
programs to the absorption of new immigrants. Their influence would partially
outweigh divestment activities by mainline Protestant denominations.

	Just this week, 4,000 evangelical supporters - the best known of whom
is televangelist Pat Robertson - gathered in Israel to participate in the
annual Feast of the Tabernacles organized by the International Christian
Embassy, a pro-Israel organization.

	Israel's Tourism Ministry estimated that the conference has pumped at
least $10 million into the Israeli economy at a time when tourism is just
beginning to rebound from four years of violence.

	"The New Testament confirms that God has promised to bring the land
and people of Israel back together for the purposes of world redemption,"
said David Parsons, media officer of the Christian Embassy. "We would hope
that we're reading the same Bible and same newspapers as the Presbyterian
Church (USA)."

	It's unclear what the economic impact of such divestment would be.

	"It is unlikely to have a major effect because I doubt they have very
much invested directly in Israel," said Asher Blass, an economist and senior
fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem think tank. "It would only make a
difference, as it did with South Africa, if many American investors in
capital funds and in high-tech companies were to pull out."

	But Abraham Foxman, national director of the New York-based
Anti-Defamation League, told RNS that even a small-scale divestment movement
is unwelcome.

	"It delegitimizes Israel and its right to defend itself against
terror," said Foxman in a telephone interview. "There could be a domino
effect that other churches might ultimately follow. It's a serious threat
that we take seriously."

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