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http://www.petitiononline.com/presby2/petition.html
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Los Angeles Times Aug. 4, 2004
Presbyterians' Shameful Boycott
By Alan M. Dershowitz, Alan M. Dershowitz is a professor of law at
Harvard
and author of "America on Trial" (Warner, 2004).
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has committed a grievous
sin. The General
Assembly of that church has voted to divest from only one country in the
world. No,
it was not China, which has occupied Tibet for half a century and
continues
to deny basic human rights to its own citizens. No, it was not Iran,
which
threatens nuclear holocaust, executes dissenters and denies religious
freedom to
Christians and Jews. No, it was not North Korea, Libya, Russia, Sudan,
Cuba or
Belarus. It was - you guessed it - Israel, the only democracy in the
Middle
East and America's most reliable ally in a troubled part of the world.
The way it will work is simple: A blacklist will be prepared for the
church's
leaders, showing companies that earn more than $1 million annually from
investments in Israel or that invest more than $1 million a year in
Israel. The
Presbyterians plan to divest from any company on the list - with a
handful of
exemptions for companies that deal in education, social welfare programs
and
construction.
How did the church come to such a ludicrous, wrongheaded position? Just
look
at the resolution itself, which bursts with bigotry and ignorance.
It effectively blames the Israelis for Palestinian slaughter of
civilians by
asserting that the occupation is the "root" of terrorism. This canard
ignores
the reality that the Palestinian leadership opted for murder and
violence as
the tactic of choice well before there was any occupation, and that the
leaders
of Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad have vowed to continue murdering
Jews
after the occupation ends, as long as the Jewish state exists.
The Presbyterian resolution effectively calls for the end of Israel by
insisting on "the right of [Palestinian] refugees to return to their
homeland." This
is a well-known euphemism for turning Israel from a Jewish state into
another
state with a Palestinian majority. (Jordan is the other.)
The Presbyterian resolution also condemns Israel's military actions
taken in
defense of its civilians. It claims, without an iota of proof and
against all
the available evidence, that Israel commits "horrific acts of violence
and
deadly attacks on innocent people" when the truth is that Israel, like
the United
States, goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid killing innocent people.
It
equates Israel's targeting of terrorists with Palestinian targeting of
civilians.
The president of Harvard University, in a speech delivered in Harvard's
Memorial Church in 2002, included the singling out of Israel for
divestment as the
sort of "actions that are anti-Semitic in their effect, if not in their
intent." The one-sided actions of the Presbyterian Church fit into this
category.
Divestment also encourages the continued use of terrorism by Palestinian
leaders, who see that when Israel responds to their terrorism, it causes
an
important church to punish Israel.
I do not believe that a majority of the 2.5 million Presbyterians in the
U.S.
want their church used to support terrorism. But they are now on notice
that
their church has been hijacked and its name misused in the service of an
immoral tactic.
Balanced criticism of Israel and of specific policies of its government
is
proper and essential to democratic governance. But the Presbyterian
resolution
is so one-sided, so anti-Zionist in its rhetoric and so ignorant of the
realities on the ground that it can only be explained by the kind of
bigotry that the
Presbyterian Church itself condemned in 1987 when it promised "never
again to
participate in, to contribute to, or (insofar as we are able) to allow
the
persecution or denigration of Jews."
Unless the church rescinds this immoral, sinful and bigoted denigration
of
the Jewish state, it will be "participating in" and "contributing to"
anti-Jewish bigotry and the encouragement of terrorism.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-dershowitz4aug04,1,661727
3.story
Please sign and circulate the petition to rescind the divestment
decision:
http://www.petitiononline.com/presby2/petition.html
More info on the anti-Israel conduct of the Presbyterian Church will be
posted this weekend:
http://home.comcast.net/~jat.action/#PCUSA
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