Google+
book-review-the-beast-and-the-crossBook Review: The Beast and the Cross
Paige M. McRight (reviewer)
new-translation-of-the-heidelberg-catechism-achieves-required-two-thirds-majority-of-presbyteriesNew translation of the Heidelberg Catechism achieves required two-thirds majority
Emily Enders Odom,Office of GA
church-development-on-parallel-tracksChurch development on parallel tracks
Tom Ehrich
placemat-curriculum-sets-the-table-for-young-peoples-bible-learning‘Placemat Curriculum’ sets the table for young people’s Bible learning
Patty Chapman
Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola Solutions cited for profiting from non-peaceful pursuits in Israel/Palestine
Written by Bethany Furkin   
Tuesday, 13 September 2011 18:16
Hewlett-Packard, Motorola Solutions also cited for business practices in Israel/Palestine

CHICAGO (Presbyterian News Service) After seven years of apparently futile engagement with Caterpillar over its business practices in Israel/Palestine, the Mission Responsibility Through Investment committee is recommending that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) add the company to its divestment list.
MRTI is also recommending that the 220th General Assembly (2012) add Motorola Solutions and Hewlett-Packard to the list.

The move toward divestment is the “logical conclusion to what the (General Assembly) asked us to do,” said the Rev. Brian Ellison, chairman of MRTI. The committee implements General Assembly policies on socially responsible investing by engaging corporations in which the church owns stock.

An 85-year-old company based in Peoria, Ill., Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The Israeli Defense Forces have used Caterpillar D9 bulldozers – with Israeli modifications – for military purposes, including the destruction of Palestinian homes.

In February 2006, the General Synod of the Church of England voted to divest from Caterpillar, and the United Methodist Church has weighed divestment from the company.

Caterpillar has claimed it does not "condone the illegal or immoral use of any Caterpillar equipment."

Ellison said the MRTI was telling Caterpillar that that its effort to engage the company had failed so far "and we don’t think it’s going to be successful."

At MRTI’s recommendation, the 219th General Assembly (2010) denounced Caterpillar for profiting from what the GA called "non-peaceful use" of its products in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

MRTI has been engaged with Motorola since 2005. The company split into two companies in 2010: Motorola Mobility, which markets cell phones in civilian markets, and Motorola Solutions, which conducts business with the Israeli government. Since the split, MRTI has been engaged with Motorola Solutions.

MRTI has also been engaged with Hewlett-Packard about its products' role in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. “The company sells hardware to the Israeli Navy that is used for its operational communications, logistics and planning including the ongoing naval blockade of the Gaza Strip,” reads MRTI’s report from its Sept. 9 meeting.

The committee discussed continuing engagement with Motorola Solutions and Hewlett-Packard, but ultimately voted to recommend adding those companies to the divestment list.

“I just think we need to take bold action,” said MRTI committee member Terry Dunning.

She added that focusing on two well-known consumer brands might alert people to their connections to human rights violations, and that she doesn’t believe further corporate engagement with the companies will be productive.

“What good did it do us to keep talking to Caterpillar for seven years?” she said.

Another MRTI committee member, Joanne Rodriguez, said that she would have supported continuing engagement if the companies were more open to communication, but they have shown total disregard.

According to MRTI’s report, Hewlett-Packard provided faith-based shareholders with “vague answers” in writing, repeatedly delayed conference calls and participated in unproductive dialogue. Motorola Solutions is “unresponsive to all efforts by religious shareholders to engage in serious discussions about its involvement in non-peaceful pursuits,” reads the report.

“You can’t bring about positive change if there’s no relationship, if there’s no communication — and there isn’t,” Rodriguez said.

The Rev. John Hougen, committee member, said that MRTI’s recommendations are a statement about the companies, not Israelis or Palestinians. Human rights violations should be opposed in any part of the world, but because the Middle East is a political hot button, MRTI’s recommendations could be taken the wrong way.

“I’m voting to divest because it’s the right idea, not — absolutely not — because of the people involved,” he said.

The Presbyterian Outlook's staff also contributed to this report.

* * *

Responses to the MRTI's divestment recommendation have begun to emerge from within and outside the PC(USA). The Outlook will post them as soon as quickly as possible. Here is one from Presbyterians for Middle East Peace:

 

Presbyterians for Middle East Peace

Media Release for Immediate Release

Re: PC(USA) MRTI recommendation to divest

September 12, 2011

We are saddened but not surprised that the Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment, PC(USA) has recommended that the General Assembly of the PC(USA) divest from three companies (Motorola, H-P and Caterpillar) because of their business practices related to Israel and Palestine. It is extremely important to remember that this is a recommendation by a committee. It is not policy of the PC(USA).

We are saddened because the recommendation will, no doubt, increase the divisions within the PC(USA) on how we can most effectively be peacemakers in the Middle East; it will surely offend and hurt our brothers and sisters in the Jewish community with whom we are in close dialogue;

it fails to acknowledge the 2008 action of the General Assembly that instructed Presbyterians not to over-identify with one side in this tragic struggle.

We are not surprised by the MRTI recommendation because there is a small group of activists within the PC(USA) that has relentlessly sought to punish Israel. Wanting to find one party at fault in a conflict where all parties have engaged in positive and negative actions, this small group believes that Israel is solely to blame for the current conflict. This attitude is embedded in the Kairos Palestine document currently being praised by pro-Palestinian activists within the denomination. This small number of activists have lobbied heavily for the denomination to divest from the three companies in question. Some of them have endorsed a much wider boycott and divestment from Israel reminiscent of the actions taken against South Africa’s apartheid regime. Despite their small size, these activists have consistently found a friendly ear within the MRTI.

Gratefully, there is no reason to believe that the General Assembly of the PC(USA) will respond positively to the MRTI recommendation. In the past, the GA has consistently rejected calls for divestment. Polling of Presbyterian lay people and clergy has consistently rejected suggestions for the PC(USA) to be an advocate for any one side in this multi-sided situation. Given the constantly changing dynamics within the Middle East today, it is hard to imagine the 2012 General Assembly radically departing from PC(USA) policies or turning its back on the will of PC(USA) members.

Presbyterians for Middle East Peace will work long and hard to make sure the 2012 General Assembly continues to play a positive rather than inflammatory peacemaking role in the Middle East. To that end, we welcome the help and support of all who oppose the MRTI recommendation.

If interested, please contact us at www.pfmep.org

 
 

Comments  

 
#7 Wylie Merrill 2011-09-21 18:29
MRTI seems to be surprised that Catepillar management ignores them. They opine that it has gotten them nowhere which is laughable. What in the world do they expect from these corporations? Unless you have a few billions of their stock in your portfolio they surely wont care. Publish them on the list that we will all ignore and go chase some other lost cause.
Quote
 
 
#6 Wylie Merrill 2011-09-21 18:20
I agree fully with Pete Bloss and Jan Armstrong. This has been (asked and answered) as the lawyers say. It is a stretch motivated by something other than logic. Another committee developing its own charter I guess. Maybe it served a purpose at one time.
Quote
 
 
#5 p.w. gregory 2011-09-15 12:15
For the last 3,000 years or so Jews, when they became an issue or a problem for the "powers that be" were presented three options.

-Quit being Jews: assimulate, convert
-Move: If voluntary, if not forced
-Die: For those two do not work, kill a few. Czarist Russia with its Progroms of 1885-1905 killed about 1 million, and of course they put Europe in the ovens and made lamp shades from their skins, and until 7 Dec 1941 we watched.

Sorry to inform the MRTI, PCUSA, and other religious liberals the Jews are done moving, done doing what others may wish them to do, and done dying or getting on rail cars or pushed to into the sea to appease your sense of injustice. Hamas, Iran, Hetzbulla has one aim, always has, kill as Jews as possible by any means possible. Giving away land, granting the terrorist statehood will not change that.

One postive effect of the MRTI is that I did add to my already established positions of both CAT and H/P and made 4% in the last three days. Good job MRTI

Quote
 
 
#4 Pete Bloss 2011-09-14 11:04
How tragically sad. I continue to be astounded that Israel, the only democracy in the region and the only country with freedom of religion, is being singled out. The political motivation is obvious. One need only look at the denomination's investment portfolio to see the millions upon millions of dollars being invested without question in companies doing business in China (with its terrible record on human rights and religious suppression), companies doing business with rogue nations and nations involved in state sponsored terrorism, or in companies actively working in cooperation with the Saudi government and other hard line fundamentalist Arab/Muslim governments who suppress their own people and deny religious freedom to all "infidels" and "non-believers."

This action, regardless of how predictable, speaks loudly of overt political motivation. Not only is it hurtful to our Jewish partners in peace and to the very cause of just peace, itself, it is outright wrong on too many levels to mention here.

But, even if the decision had ANY merit, until we Presbyterians get down on our knees and prayerfully sell our investments in the scores of other companies engaged in truly inappropriate actions in other parts of the world, we are the very hypocrites Jesus so strongly and appropriately lashed out against on multiple occasions. He had no problem whatsoever using the word "hypocrite." In this instance, nor do I.

Pete Bloss
Quote
 
 
#3 Jan Armstrong 2011-09-14 08:34
MRTI, you have let down the PCUSA and the people of the middle east again. Recommending divestment, when the GA has time and time again, told MRTI to not go this route, but engage in positive engagement in regards to companies doing business in Israel. Why, while the PCUSA is in the middle of chaotic management of the post 10a world, would you attempt to drive another wedge between the members of our congregations. This is the height of hubris and corporate irresponsibilit y. I think it might be time to recommend Divesting from the MRTI for the violence you do to others working for peace in the middle east. Dear MRTI: Why in the world would you slam the only country in the middle east that guarantees human rights. The human right to religious freedom, where Jews, Christians, Moslems and Bahaiis all have religious freedom and are protected. No other middle east country tolerates freedom of religion. Israel is a place where the rights of women are protected and women are not forced into second class status, prohibited from driving cars, talking with men, holding important jobs and even being the prime minister of the country. Israel shows incredible restraint as it is bombarded daily by rockets fired out of GAZA by Hamas. If this were the USA and Mexico, and people from Tijuana were firing rockets into San Diego, do you think the USA would not respond with draconian swiftness?? Where is MRTIs balanced recommendation to cut off funding or divest from countries and people who support the arming and murder generated from Gaza. My sense of watching MRTI for the past ten years is that you have become a one sided, unbalanced accuser of Israel, and a blind, partisan supporter of all causes Palestinian. I appreciate Dwyn Mongers final sentiment, that it would be good for the Palestinians to mold their new nation with a guarantee for peace to all. I have not seen that energy for peace exhibited by the Hamas Palestinians, and have seen many movements for peace initiated from Israel. What you are recommending is neither Biblical nor Reformed...it is anti-Israel poltics as usual.
Quote
 
 
#2 David McCann 2011-09-14 08:09
Well, I have mixed feelings about this decision. If you want to get a good picture of the situation with the Israelis and Palestinians, read The Lemon Tree. It's a great book. But onto this decision, I really struggle with it. Many companies manufacture products that, unfortunately, are misused. So why are the companies responsible for that? Some folks become addicted to prescription medicines, so should we divest and boycott all pharmaceutical companies? 10 years ago terrorists used passenger airplanes to destroy the World Trade Center, so should we divest and boycott all airlines and airplane manufacturers? If we truly decide to divest and boycott all companies whose products are misused thus bringing harm and injustices to others, we would not be able to invest in anything or buy anything. I think this decision is a rather simplistic reaction to a deep-seated complex issue. Returning to pre 1967 borders is not the solution either. Palestinians want to return to their homes in Palestine (Israel) and have a shared Palestinian-Israeli government. Israel is not willing to evict hundreds of thousands of Jews from their homes to return them to the Palestinian, nor are they willing to share their government with non-Jews. Until some compromise/solution is found to these two diametrically opposed positions, there will be ongoing violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Quote
 
 
#1 Dwyn Mounger 2011-09-13 20:11
A big Thank You, MRTI! This recommendation is fully in keeping with Biblical and Reformed theology, for it takes seriously both the depths of human evil, apart from the grace of God in Jesus Christ, and also Jesus' Parable of the Good Samaritan that severely condemns us if we just pass by and ignore evil done to our neighbors in the world. The Nazi Holocaust was horrifying, but it's sad to witness those who were persecuted continue, now, to persecute Palestinians themselves. What a beautiful gesture it would be if Netanyahu & company would not only respond positively to President Obama's call to make the pre-1967 & Six Day War borders into the boundaries between Israel and a new Palestinian state, embracing the West Bank and Gaza (with appropriate land swaps to make it feasible), but also respond positively to former President Ronald Reagan's call (to another oppressive occupying power): "Tear down this wall!" How glorious it would be if Israel would turn over to Palestinians some of the well-built settlements, that since 1967, Israelis have brazenly constructed on the West Bank and in Gaza! The whole world, including the U.N., should help the displaced Israelis build new settlements for Jews, but in Israel itself--perhaps in the Negev, using the latest techniques of irrigation/desalinization! And the whole world should contribute generously to the Palestinians to help them mold their new nation, with guarantees for peace to all.
Quote
 

Add comment


Security code
Refresh