The vote was close but the GA did vote to get out of the business of financing military occupation.
The vote to divest from three companies, Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions, was a political contest between Presbyterian delegates who favored the divestment resolution and pro-Israel delegates and their Jewish Zionist-oriented observers, who opposed divestment.
One Jewish observer tried a tactic that smacked of good old fashioned U.S. political horse trading.
That observor, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, offered to guarantee the delegates a personal meeting between the PCUSA General Assembly moderator, Heath Rada, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, if the delegates would vote down the divestment resolution. That ploy failed.
Rada (shown here) maintained a good spirit during the debates. As votes were tallied, he had to respond to efforts to halt the voting through procedural maneuvers.
As each maneuver was tried, he said it looked like he might be packing his bags to fly to Tel Avi. When the maneuvers were rejected, he joked that he would have to unpack his bags.
During the Assembly, an attempt was made by the pro-Israel contingent in the GA to ban sales of the study book, Zionism Unsettled, from the denomination's book stores. That effort was defeated by assembly delegates.
The Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) web site gives the history of that parliamentary maneuver:
"At the 221st GA, in the commissioners' resolution that was overwhelmingly approved in the plenary as part of the consent agenda, the GA clarified that the publication [Zionism Unsettled] 'does not represent the views of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)' and directed 'all Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) entities to express this statement in all future catalogs, print or online resources.'"
Zionism Unsettled is, of course, a study guide that did not claim to be church doctrine. It was a guide designed by IPMN to explain the mysterious hold that a 19th century political ideology called Zionism holds over contemporary 21st Protestant church leaders.
Well after the General Assembly adjourned and the delegates returned home, IPMN received an unexpected shock.
The PCUSA executive committee announced that "since Zionism Unsettled was not in keeping with current church doctrine, it would not be sold from the denomination's book stores or on the denomination's website.
In short, despite the defeat of that action by the GA delegates, the defeated action became official church policy.
Despite this setback, IPMN reports that it will continue to distribute ZU through its web site.
The U.S-based United Methodist Church will meet during the summer of 2016. A battle over divestment is expected
Delegates for that 2016 General Conference are already being elected in regional conferences. Predictions vary, but the Methodists are expected to be as divided on the issue of divestment as their Presbyterian colleagues.
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