February 15, 2005
by Evan Silverstein

WEST PALM BEACH, FL – After months of talking the beat goes on.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) explains why it's considering pulling investments from some companies doing business with Israel, and Jewish leaders dismiss the church's position as unfair and misguided.

"The problem with all of this is we are not talking with each other, we are talking at each other," said Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, director of interfaith affairs for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). "And we're not saying the things that facilitate dialogue."

The story was no different last Saturday when the Rev. Jay Rock, the PC(USA)'s interfaith relations coordinator, addressed ADL leaders to tell the church's side of the divestment story and to discuss interfaith relations.

The New York-based ADL is among a number of Jewish groups upset with the PC(USA) after the denomination's 216th General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in early July to begin to selectively divest stocks in its $8 billion portfolio from corporations that profit by supporting Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The ADL, which fights anti-Semitism and bigotry worldwide through information, education, legislation and advocacy, invited Rock to speak at its annual National Executive Committee meeting here.

"My aim this morning is to try to move us beyond the fog of misrepresentation that has characterized so many descriptions of what Presbyterians are doing," Rock told about 150 people attending the meeting at the prestigious Breakers resort. "And to provide you with a basic description of our actions and some information about the perspectives that lie behind them."

Rock said the church's Assembly has in the past approved numerous resolutions repeatedly affirming Israel's right to exist in safety within secure borders and has called on Arab nations to cease any conduct that might support terrorism.

He said the PC(USA) has long supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has condemned the killing of innocent civilians by both sides.

Nevertheless, as with previous talks between church and ADL leaders concerning the controversial divestment measure, there would be no meeting of the minds in West Palm Beach.

Instead, ADL leaders shrugged off Rock's comments, accusing the PC(USA) of siding with the Palestinians in its conflict with Israel and suggesting that the call for divestment was aimed at hurting Jews.

"When we hear ‘phased, selective divestiture,' the Jewish community hears economic boycott," Bretton-Granatoor said. "They should have been able to understand how the Jewish community was going to react."

Many Presbyterians opposed the move as well.

"I want to assure you that the Presbyterian Church did not take the actions of last summer out of a hatred or dislike of Jews," said Rock, whose father was Jewish and mother a Presbyterian. "In fact, many Presbyterians understand why most Jews are upset by the actions that we have taken."

Rock said that the 2004 General Assembly in Richmond, VA, also directed the church to re-examine and strengthen the relationships between Presbyterians and Jews.

He said the study grew out of serious and widespread concern among Presbyterians that "we not engage in deceptive forms of evangelism," and that the denomination understand its particular relationship with the Jewish people.

Rock added that "we are at the beginning of a process with the intent to build better understanding and stronger relationships with the Jewish community and to better inform our own practice of living as faithful Christians side by side with our spiritual siblings – you, our bothers and sisters in the Jewish community."

However, ADL leaders were not impressed.

Abraham Foxman, ADL national director, said divestment talk smacks of comparing Israel to apartheid-era South Africa. He accused the PC(USA) of playing up Israeli violence while playing down Palestinian terrorism – both of which charges Rock denied.

"What galls us is the moral hypocrisy," Foxman said.

The ADL director accused the PC(USA) of taking sides with the Palestinians, telling Rock that "you used the term several times that we need to hear and understand each other's narratives. I didn't know that the Palestinian narrative was the Presbyterian Church's narrative. Well, if that's the case we're in a different ballgame."

Foxman went on to condemn church plans for engaging certain corporations about its business practices with Israel.

"You have nothing else to do on the moral plane, on the spiritual plane?" Foxman asked. "It's beyond me. Either it's the ultimate naivety or it's bias. And you know what, we feel it's bias."

"You come here respectfully," Foxman said, "but you defend exactly the same things you defended when we first encountered" each other months ago.

Bretton-Granatoor blamed the PC(USA) action for reviving the divestment movement on American college campuses. He noted that other Protestant bodies also have begun considering divestment.

Rock adamantly refuted ADL claims that the PC(USA) does not pay attention to terrorism, saying the denomination views terrorism with "revulsion" and as a "particularly ugly" obstacle to peace.

"We join Christian leaders in Palestine and decent people everywhere in speaking out against suicide bombings and other acts of terror committed by Palestinians," Rock said.

He pointed out that last year's church Assembly also adopted a strongly worded statement condemning terrorism as immoral because it wrongfully and deliberately attacks innocent civilians.

"There is no justification for terror in any form," Rock said. "We as a church believe terrorism is one source of the lack of security and peace between Israel and Palestine." However, he said the PC(USA) also believes Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory is fueling the violence.

"Our view is that there is a moral problem with terrorism and that there is a moral problem with the occupation," Rock said. "So we need to talk about them both."

Meanwhile, the PC(USA)'s committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) is examining the church's holdings to decide which companies could potentially be targeted by divestment. The report is due to be submitted to the 217th General Assembly in 2006 in Birmingham, AL.

The MRTI committee drafted a set of divestment guidelines in early November to guide the process.

Rock said the divestment action does not, in fact, call for removing money from any corporation simply because it does business with Israel.

Nor is it a policy of blanket divestment, as some still believe. Rock said it "calls for engagement with corporations and the possible divestment from corporations because they are involved in activities that we think stand in the way of a peaceful resolution in this situation."

Speaking of Christian-Jewish relations, Rock said Reformed Christians view Christians and Jews as "bound together as two people in one covenant of grace . . . both ‘elected by God for witness to the world.'"

Rock said continued dialogue is important because it is "through such conversations that we can continue to engage with one another and together engage the many issues of injustice and violence that all of us face in today's world."

Rock said Christians and Jews should join forces as new political possibilities emerge in the Middle East "to provide politicians and statesmen the impetus they need to forge a lasting peace between Israel and Palestinians. A peace in which people of that region can sit secure beneath their vines and fig trees and no longer be afraid."

Presbyterian News Service