The Presbyterian Church (USA), the largest Presbyterian denomination in America, has voted to divest its funds from Israel bonds and begin a process to encourage companies contributing to human rights abuses against Palestinians to change their practices. Alongside the financial decision, the church also passed a resolution condemning Christian Zionism, and thus rejecting the messianic ideology that views the takeover of Palestine to be part of a Biblical promise.
Votes were cast during the church’s General Assembly in Salt Lake City, Utah. The assembly, comprising 422 delegate commissioners and 82 advisory delegates, passed the resolutions as part of a broader package of legislation governing church activities.
The resolution to divest from Israel calls on the Presbyterian Foundation and Board of Pensions to divest from governmental debt held by countries maintaining prolonged military occupations and subject to UN resolutions. While this includes Turkey and Morocco, the focus has primarily been on Israel. The church, which has approximately 8,800 churches and 1 million members, has been sharply critical of Israel’s policies towards Palestinians for decades.
In addition to divestment, the church voted to begin a dialogue with General Electric and Palantir Technologies, encouraging them to end practices that harm Palestinians. The church contends that General Electric sells fighter jet engines used by Israel’s air force, while Palantir Technologies provides Israel with artificial intelligence technology for surveillance of Palestinians.
SEE HOW EASY IT IS, <insert university here>!!!
It may not actually be that easy. Many endowment funds are managed by third parties and the university itself has no direct control.
You’ll note it took the church this long to do it, too
No but I mean it didn’t take a fucking protest to convince them. They did what was right.
This only may have been easy because they didn’t actually have that much invested in Israel
Edit: I don’t know this for certain (can’t find the info anywhere), I’m just saying
If you aren’t giving them much, there’s no harm done in stopping. If you are giving them much, people have a right to condemn you for it. If you want to keep giving them much as leverage, this is the perfect time to exercise that leverage.
There are no excuses.