September 13, 2011 – New York – AJC declared a new Presbyterian Church (USA) initiative to divest from American companies doing business with Israel a misguided endeavor that will harm, rather than advance, efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.

“This renewed effort by some within the Presbyterian Church to penalize Israel does not advance peace,” said Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC Director of Intergroup and Interreligious Relations. “On the contrary, threatening divestment undermines those who are truly committed to Israeli-Palestinian peace.”

The Church’s Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) adopted yesterday a recommendation to divest from Caterpillar, Motorola and Hewlett Packard. The PCUSA General Assembly will vote on the recommendation when it meets in 2012.

“When the Palestinians have forsaken talks with Israel and decided to pursue a unilateral strategy at the UN is precisely the time to reaffirm support for resuming direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to achieve a solution to the conflict,” said Marans.

AJC remains committed to its longstanding relationship with PCUSA and is open to conversations with Church leadership in order to mitigate the impact of these resolutions on Presbyterian-Jewish relations.

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