UCC Urged to Resist Forces Pushing for Divestment from Israel
by Jim Brown
July 1, 2005
(AgapePress) - The United Church of Christ is being discouraged from joining the growing number of mainline Protestant churches that are divesting from companies that do business with Israel.
This weekend the UCC will vote on three anti-Israel resolutions at its national convention in Atlanta. Two of the resolutions recommend an economic boycott of the Jewish state, and another condemns Israel's security fence. One of the boycott-related resolutions specifically names Caterpillar, Inc., as a candidate for divestment, saying that company's machines have "enabled ... the Israeli Defense Force to destroy increasingly more Palestinian homes and olive orchards," thereby allowing the heavy equipment manufacturer to profit from the violence in the Middle East.
As for the security fence, the UCC resolution calls for dismantling of the barrier as well as reparations for those who have been displaced by its construction.
George Mamo, executive director of the "Stand for Israel" campaign -- a project of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) -- says the "so-called religious leaders who are driving divestment" need to be exposed as "hateful anti-Semites."
"Somehow they're able to say Israel is the ultimate 'bad guy' out there [and] not look at what's going on in Sudan or China or Zimbabwe," Mamo states. "[W]e're asking them to look at Genesis 12, and remember that God said we'll be blessed when we bless Israel, and that His purpose for Israel was to bless the whole world. So we're asking them to change their mind, to turn around -- to do the right thing."
In an attempt to bring about that change of heart, the IFCJ has launched a media campaign exposing the UCC's move to divest as a form of racism. "Somehow the Palestinians have managed to not only hijack the David and Goliath story, but to flip the players," he offers. "Israel is being portrayed as Goliath, and the Arab population is being portrayed as this poor, downtrodden little David -- and unfortunately some of our mainline Christian brothers are buying into this story."
The IFCJ has taken out two full-page ads in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in hopes of reminding the UCC of the United Nations resolution passed 30 years ago that equated Zionism with racism. Mamo says the IFCJ is also asking evangelicals to stop being "latent supporters" of Israel and become "blatant supporters" of the Jewish nation.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
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