A compromise satisfactory to the opponents of divestment from Israel seems to have emerged at the Presbyterian General Assembly in Birmingham, Alabama:
[T]he 60-member [peacemaking and international issues] committee crafted a new resolution Saturday night on Israel divestment that will come before the General Assembly for a vote on Wednesday.The tenets of the resolution include:
- calling on the church to restrict its investments that relate to Israel, Gaza, eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank to peaceful pursuits;
- regretting the pain caused to the Jewish community and within the Presbyterian community for flaws in the resolution’s initial process;
- urging peaceful cooperation among Israelis, Americans and Palestinians, and Jews, Muslims and Christians;
- calling for dismantling Israel's security barrier beyond its pre-1967 borders;
- and aiming to submit these proposals to U.S., Israeli and Palestinian politicians and religious leaders.While the new resolution does not rescind divestment, anti-divestment activists are pleased with the new language.
"Divestment has been stopped," said the Rev. James Young, an anti-divestment proponent from Virginia Beach, Va. Previously, divestment was a mandate, he said. Now, the "probability that they will recommend any sort of divestment is extremely remote."
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The Rev. William Evertsberg, of Greenwich, Conn. reflected a general sense of relief at the committee's move."We're going to be able to go back to our Jewish friends feeling pretty good about this, and I think we did justice to our Palestinian friends, too," he said.