Presbyterians overwhelmingly approve controversial report on Middle East peacemaking

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 219th General Assembly, concluding its meeting this week in Minneapolis, voted approval for a controversial Middle East report that was amended to soften some recommendations that Jewish groups had scored as being one-sidedly anti-Israel.

The Middle East Study Committee (MESC) report, “Breaking Down the Walls,” was approved 558 to 119 by the commissioners in a plenary session today.

The MESC report still calls on the “U.S. government to exercise strategically its international influence, including making U.S. aid to Israel contingent upon Israel’s compliance with international law and peacemaking efforts.”

“The report was significantly revised to address many of the concerns expressed by friends of Israel and by the American Jewish community,” Ethan Felson, assistant executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), told the Jewish Week (New York). “Concerns remain, but much has been addressed; church leaders did tremendous work in listening to all sides, and they added extra time on the docket to hear from groups that had felt excluded.”

Rev. Susan Zencka, from the Winnebago Presbytery in Wisconsin, urged the commissioners assembled in the Minneapolis Convention Center to vote against the MESC report, which she said was opposed by many “longtime friends in the Jewish community.” She said that Presbyterian views have evolved over recent decades from support for Israel to the current view of “Palestine good, Israel bad.”

The MESC report does not encourage the Palestinian people to engage in peaceful dialogue, said Rev. Andrew Wilson, of the San Fernando Presbytery in California. He termed the report as a “one-sided diatribe against Israel.” With it’s passage, “Jews will see the PCUSA as anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic,” he said.

Prior to discussing and voting on the MESC report, the Presbyterian commissioners from across the United States, approved a report denouncing Caterpiller corporation for providing Israel with bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Caterpillar issued a statement in response saying that it did not “condone the illegal or immoral use of any Caterpillar equipment.”

During the plenary session debate, Julie Kasa, from the Presbytery of Great Rivers in Peoria, Ill., the headquarters of Caterpillar, spoke against divestment of Presbyterian church funds from Caterpillar, saying that such an action would be “akin to punishing 3M because the Taliban uses Post-it notes.”

— Mordecai Specktor