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United Methodists reject divestment from Israel
By Linda Bloom

United Methodists have rejected attempts to have the denomination endorse divestment from Israel as a way of addressing the Israel-Palestine conflict. The actions occurred during General Conference, the church’s top legislative body, meeting April 23-May 2 at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

A number of petitions, including five from U.S. annual (regional) conferences, were folded into one petition on “divestment” that called on the denomination’s pension board and finance agency “to review and identify companies that profit from sales of products or services that cause harm to Palestinians and Israelis and begin phased selective divestment from these companies.” That petition was rejected May 2 by General Conference delegates as they voted on a special consent calendar.

A divestment petition from the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA), “Promoting Peace through Ethical Investment,” also was rejected on the same consent calendar. The petition had called upon a number of United Methodist entities to undertake a “phased, selective divestment from companies that support the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and other violations of human rights in Palestine/Israel.”

MFSA had been successful in appealing to the General Conference Petitions Committee to remove its petition from an omnibus divestment petition and have it considered separately by a Financial Administration subcommittee.

General Conference did adopt a petition on the Middle East conflict that calls for the church to continue “to advocate for a peaceful settlement of the conflict … through negotiation and diplomacy rather than through methods of violence and coercion.”

The week before General Conference began, officials of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society withdrew a petition calling for divestment from Caterpillar Inc. because of charges that the company profits from illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and contributes to the occupation by supplying Israeli Defense Forces with heavy equipment.

The officials said talks with Caterpillar have resulted in the company issuing a statement denouncing immoral use of its equipment and agreeing to continue dialogue.

Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society in Washington, thanked the Rev. Tim Bias, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church of Peoria, Illinois, where Caterpillar is based, for his role in opening the dialogue. “Tim is the pastor to important Caterpillar executives and graciously arranged meetings between us,” Winkler said.

“I got involved because there had been no conversation between the General Board of Church and Society and Caterpillar prior to the filing of the divestment resolution,” Bias said. “One of the values we hold as United Methodists is holy conferencing. If we are to bring transformation to the world, we will do it by building and gaining trust with persons of differing perspectives. We don’t do it by going toe to toe; we do it hand in hand.

“When we sit down and find common ground, we begin a conversation,” Bias continued. Through the conversations between the board and Caterpillar, “we have raised the consciousness of the issue of peace in the Middle East and we have found a way to address it together.”

Church and Society will report to the 2012 General Conference on the progress of the discussions with Caterpillar. About $5 million of the denomination’s estimated $17 billion pension portfolio is invested in Caterpillar stock.

 

Linda Bloom is a United Methodist News Service writer based in New York. Additional reporting to this story came from other United Methodist News Service stories.



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