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Israel Troubled By World Council of Churches Divestment Campaign

Posted: Wednesday February 23, 2005 5:23 PM EST

By Julie Stahl CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief

Jerusalem—Israel is expressing dismay over a recent World Council of Churches declaration that encourages member churches to avoid investing in companies that do business with Israel.

The declaration reportedly caught many people off-guard, because it comes at a time when Israeli-Palestinian relations are improving.

The Swiss-based World Council of Churches is an umbrella group for the modern ecumenical movement, whose goal is Christian unity.

It says it represents more than 340 churches, denominations and church fellowships in over 100 countries and territories throughout the world, including most of the world’s Orthodox churches and many Protestant denominations.

The WCC’s Central Committee said it wants member churches to give serious consideration to “economic measures” against Israel as a way to bring about peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The WCC Central Committee mentioned a similar campaign initiated last summer by the Presbyterian Church (USA), which launched a “phased, selective divestment from multinational corporations involved in the occupation.”

Although the WCC declaration does not list any companies by name, it says that multinational corporations have been involved in the demolition of Palestinian homes, in the building of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and in erecting Israel’s controversial security barrier.

(The Caterpillar company recently came under pressure for selling to Israel bulldozers and equipment that the army uses in counter-terror operations against the Palestinians.)

In its statement, the WCC Central Committee “reminds churches with investment funds that they have an opportunity to use those funds responsibly in support of peaceful solutions to conflict. Economic pressure, appropriately and openly applied, is one such means of action,” it said.

‘Troubling’

Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said on Wednesday that Israel was troubled by the WCC declaration, particularly at this time.

“At this time when there is a new momentum in the diplomatic process, when Israel and the Palestinians are [once again] talking together, with a hope to move forward we see this one-sided resolution as not helpful,” Regev said.

Although the WCC said its declaration was not “one-sided” or “anti-Semitic,” Regev said it is “clearly both.”

“Surely religious groups who claim to support peace and reconciliation should be doing just that and not adopting one-sided partisan attitudes,” he said.

Regev said that while Israel has an ongoing dialogue with various religious groups and doesn’t believe in cutting off those communications, “a group that adopts one-sided, anti-Israel resolutions is giving ammunition to those Israeli who claim that that group is fundamentally hostile to our country.”

But Jonathan Frerichs of the WCC’s international affairs unit disagreed.

“It’s not a one-sided effort,” Frerichs said in a telephone interview. It is intended to commend member churches to practice “justice stewardship” and examine their investments in groups that are linked to “illegal activities,” he said.

According to Frerichs, the WCC has strongly condemned Palestinian terrorism inside the state of Israel, although it has never tried to enforce some kind of plan that would stop the terrorism.

As for the timing of the declaration, Frerichs said that it has been “in progress for a long time”—just as Israel has been demolishing terrorists’ houses and building a security barrier for a long time, he noted.

Israel said last week that it would stop its policy of home-demolitions after deciding that they were not having the intended deterrent effect.

“It’s a hope we all share for a turn for the better,” Frerichs said. “The timing may look unusual today [but] there is every reason to take action now.”

Other objections

Jewish groups and some other Christians also expressed dismay over the WCC declaration.

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, said the WCC declaration showed an obvious “anti-Israel bias” that doesn’t reflect the “reality on the ground.”

“Such a step will in no way advance peace in the Middle East but will only contribute to growing suspicions of the true intentions of the World Council of Churches,” Zuroff said.

“One would assume that as Israel is making progress on the path to peace, bodies like the WCC would recognize those positive steps and not take any measures to try and punish Israel for taking actions to defend itself instead of continuing the assault on Israel,” he added.

Just last week the Simon Wiesenthal Center in California urged the Presbyterian Church USA to suspend its plan to divest itself of companies that do business with Israel, given “major positive developments” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Citing Israel’s commitment to dismantle settlements in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s release of 500 Palestinian security prisoners and the recent meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the letter said that pursuing the divestment policy now “could only be viewed as counterproductive and mean-spirited and unmistakably one-sided.”

The Anti-Defamation League also criticized the WCC move, saying it was “deeply dismayed” by the WCC’s endorsement of a divestment policy against Israel.

“The Council’s call for divestment is based on a biased, one-sided interpretation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that unfairly portrays Israel as the perpetrator of alleged violations of international law, while failing to acknowledge myriad other factors in the conflict, not least the sustained campaign of Palestinian terror that is at the root of Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza,” ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman and ADL Director of Interfaith Affairs Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor said in a statement.

“Divestment policies are counterproductive and a detriment to the newly revived peace initiative between the Israelis and Palestinians, and fundamentally flawed as a mechanism for resolving the conflict. Divestment hurts not only Israel, but has economic impact on Palestinians as well,” they said.

Spiritually flawed

David Parsons, the media officer of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, said the declaration is obviously trying to punish Israel and he questioned the WCC’s interpretation of the Bible.

The ICEJ is a Christian Zionist organization that believes the modern state of Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy to restore the Jewish people to their homeland.

Parsons said that such divestment campaigns are “non-conducive to peace, morally imbalanced and indefensible in light of Scripture.”

“I find their reference to the “things that make for peace"”...a bit disturbing since it comes within the context of Jesus pronouncing a violent uprooting of the Jews from Jerusalem” Parsons said. “There seems to be something very deliberate about this lone Scripture reference.”

Parsons said in other parts of the New Testament, Jesus prophesied a return of the Jewish people to their homeland, which the Bible defines as Judea and Samaria - or the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“It seems the WCC is steadily divesting itself from the move and purpose of God in our day,” he said.

But Frerichs insisted that the WCC stand was “completely consistent with the Gospel for the rights of both people… They’re all God’s children. They’re all the children of Abraham.”

In an earlier statement, the ICEJ said it believes Christians can promote peace in the Holy Land by standing up for Israel’s right to live in peace and security in the land—while allowing Israel to work out future borders with its Palestinian and Arab neighbors.

“The ICEJ joins with other Christians who sympathize with the plight of many destitute Palestinians, but insists that this should not lead churches to resort to the shameful anti-Semitic attitudes and positions of the past,” it said.

The WCC declaration is the latest in a series of attempts over the past four years to urge churches, universities and cities to divest themselves from Israeli companies or companies that do business with Israel.

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