An expanding movement speaks to Israel and the US government. Churches are in the forefront. QPI

Friday, 02 December 2011

An Unusual Advocate in Call for Divestment

Written by John Wagner

The United Methodist Portal - Jim Beck, a United Methodist layperson and commercial banker from Cincinnati, Ohio, is as unlikely an activist as you could expect to meet. I met Jim in 2009 when his pastor asked him to serve on a West Ohio Conference task force I was helping to chair. Our job was to investigate whether the conference’s stock holdings should be withdrawn from companies like Caterpillar, which manufactures bulldozers sold to the Israeli military.

Thousands of Palestinian homes and farms have been demolished by these weaponized bulldozers to make way for new Israeli-only settlements. Jim agreed to join the task force, but made it clear he had to be convinced on two fronts: as a responsible banker he generally frowns on economic activism of any kind; as a self-described conservative evangelical he did not relish the idea of opposing Israel.

Even so, he chose to test his convictions. In February of 2010 he accompanied 12 leaders from several Christian denominations on an investigative tour of the West Bank.

“Very early into the trip I was perceived to be the most conservative of our group,” Jim says of his visit to the Holy Land, “and I personally agreed with our government’s support of Israel, both its right to exist and the importance of security to that continued existence. Even after the trip, I can still say that I am supportive of Israel and our country’s involvement in assuring its security.”

David Wildman, on staff at the General Board of Global Ministries, was one of the organizers of the trip, and agrees Jim urged the group to view the situation from as many angles as possible. Jim pushed for meeting with an Israeli settler who lives on occupied Palestinian land to get an alternative point of view. This was arranged. He also wanted assurances that church executives had engaged in good faith negotiation with any companies targeted for divestment. Evidence was given of many meetings, letters and shareholder resolutions over the years.

A great turning point came when Jim met Daoud Nassar, a Palestinian Christian whose family has been persecuted, orchards destroyed and buildings demolished even as he and others have tried to bring Israelis and Palestinians together through personal diplomacy.

The Nassars are among 2,500 Palestinian Christians who have signed the Kairos Palestine Document, calling on global churches to take action toward ending the occupation of their land. After meeting other Palestinian Christians, seeing how they live and hearing their testimonies, Jim had this to say to his annual conference in June of 2010:

“I now believe we must draw the line if our support overlooks serious human rights violations. In my opinion, Israel has already crossed that line in the form of home demolitions, illegal settlement activity and inhumane checkpoints throughout the West Bank, all of which we witnessed firsthand, beyond what the average tourist might see.”

Jim believes he is now only doing what his brothers and sisters in Christ have asked him to do:

“While I am considered a social and political conservative, my hope is that I am first considered a Christian. I do not see the Israel-Palestine conflict as a conservative versus liberal issue, but rather as a humanitarian issue. As United Methodists, we must seriously consider whether we want to continue being invested in companies that are complicit in and profit from Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank.”

In October of 2010 Jim, the Rev. Doug Johns (chair of the West Ohio Board of Pensions and Health Benefits) and I traveled to Chicago to meet with United Methodist clergy and laity from 10 other conferences. Together we helped create “United Methodist Kairos Response,” a grassroots organization now encouraging the United Methodist Church to divest from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett Packard.

By July of 2011 seven annual conferences had voted to endorse variations on the General Board of Church and Society resolution entitled, “Aligning United Methodist Church Investments with Resolutions on Israel-Palestine.” West Ohio was one of three conferences to have begun the divestment process, starting with their own funds. New York and Northern Illinois have also taken this step.

It was in March of this year that the GBCS submitted its resolution to General Conference requesting the United Methodist Church divest all general agency funds from three companies currently helping to sustain the occupation of the West Bank in Palestine, and giving as its reason the need to align the denomination’s actual investment practices with long-held United Methodist positions found in the Book of Resolutions. On Oct. 12, the General Board of Global Ministries likewise voted to endorse the resolution.

Jim Beck and I disagree on a number of key issues facing the church, but on this we are together. Palestinian Christians have asked for our help, and, as Jim put it so simply it in his address to the annual conference, “We have an obligation to support our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

The Rev. Wagner is pastor of Aldersgate UMC, Huber Heights, Ohio, and a member of the steering committee of United Methodist Kairos Response. Its website and the General Conference resolution can be found at www.kairosresponse.org.

http://www.councilforthenationalinterest.org/news/opinion-a-analysis/item/1224-an-unusual-advocate-in-call-for-divestment?tmpl=component&print=1