The BDS movement

Do you know about the

worldwide BDS movement? (“BDS” stands for “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” — against one country, Israel.)

The latest group to join the BDS movement in the Presbyterian Church USA, which has 1.9 million members. PCUSA is the largest Presbyterian denomination, with about 1.9 million members.

There is a conservative alternative: the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Go here to see how they differ from PCUSA.

The PCUSA voted in their general assembly to sell stock in Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions, because they do business with Israel in Palestine.

Haaretz and The Associated Press report:

Two smaller U.S. religious groups have divested in protest of Israeli policies: the Friends Fiduciary Corp., which manages assets for U.S. Quakers, and the Mennonite Central Committee. Last week, the pension board of the United Methodist Church, the largest mainline Protestant group in the U.S., revealed plans to sell holdings worth about $110,000 in G4S, which provides security equipment and has contracts with Israel's prison system. However, the United Methodist Church had rejected church-wide divestment.

Motorola Solutions said in a statement that the company follows the law and its own policies that address human rights. Hewlett-Packard said its checkpoints for Palestinians were developed to expedite passage "in a secure environment, enabling people to get to their place of work or to carry out their business in a faster and safer way." Caterpillar has said it does not sell equipment to Israel, just to the U.S. government.

A church spokeswoman estimated the value of the Presbyterian holdings in the companies at $21 million.

Please read more here.

The editors of National Review point out that

If Israel did not exist, the United Nations might not have much to do. Last year the General Assembly adopted 25 resolutions against particular countries. Twenty-one of those resolutions were against Israel; the other four were against Syria, Iran, North Korea, and Burma. Not since the apartheid regime in South Africa has a country been so stigmatized by the world. And foes of Israel, of course, promote the lie that Israel is an “apartheid state.”

Read more here.