A Jerusalem-based Palestinian Christian organization is behind the campaign among Protestant churches in the US and other Western countries for divestment against companies doing business with Israel. This allegation is made by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), one of the main US groups combating anti-Semitism.
In a press release yesterday, the ADL said that the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, founded in 1990, was using lecturers and blueprints to urge Protestant sects to adopt a “moral” attitude towards investment. The Sabeel Center uses “moral” as a code word justifying financial measures against companies doing business with Israel.
”The Sabeel Center has long played a behind-the-scenes role in encouraging churches to adopt divestment as a tool to pressure Israel,” ADL national director Abraham Foxman said.
”Leaders of the mainline Protestant denominations have routinely welcomed Sabeel leaders as guests at conventions and national meetings, and the influence of Sabeel in advocating for divestment is indisputable, however out of sync their rhetoric is with the people in the pews.
”Sabeel is the engine that is driving the divestment campaign.”
In April 2005, the Sabeel Center published, “A Call for Morally Responsible Investment: A Nonviolent Response to the Occupation.” The document amounts to a guidebook for economic sanctions against companies linked to Israel, and lists practical ways of implementing such sanctions.
ADL director of Interfaith Affairs Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor harshly criticized the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), a Protestant sect. He said that Presbyterian leadership “has been hijacked by a radicalized” Palestinian Christian population that “represents a fraction of the Christian community in Israel.”
According to Presbyterian Church USA spokesman Barry Creech, the divestment issue emerged not from the national level but from a local Florida congregation through a regional body, or presbytery. The presbytery wanted to divest from companies making more than $1 million from business with Israel.
Creech added that in response, the Presbyterian General Assembly had approved a “phased, selective divestment” from companies profiting from Israel’s West Bank security fence or the Israeli presence in territories demanded by the Palestinians, and from any company that supports violence against innocent Jewish or Arab civilians.
After the Presbyterians endorsed this policy last year, other Protestant sects began adopting a similar approach against companies conducting business with Israel, but the Presbyterians’ policy was the harshest. In early August, the Presbyterian church named four US companies that support what the church describes as the “Israeli occupation,” including Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT). The church warned the companies that unless they changed their policy, it would consider selling its investments in them.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on August 24, 2005