Post by Daniel on Mar 10, 2016 11:26:00 GMT -5
Methodists Restarting BDS War Against Israel
by Susan Warner
March 8, 2016
On May 10, 2016, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) will gather at the Oregon Convention Center, hosting thousands of Methodist leaders, delegates and visitors.
This leading policy-making event meets once every four years to revise church law and adopt resolutions on current moral, social, public policy and economic issues. The conference also approves plans and budgets for church-wide programs.
This year, four new proposals in support of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement are being prepared for consideration of the general assembly during the 10-day event.
UMC is following in the footsteps of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ and the United Church of Canada, who all passed resolutions boycotting and divesting from the State of Israel. The Methodists, however, are not waiting for their General Conference to get the ball rolling. In January, the UMC pension fund, last valued in 2014 at $20.9 billion, voted in favor of divesting from five Israeli banks.
According to US News and World Report,
"The pension board's decision came at a time when divestment is gaining momentum among liberal Protestants as a tool to pressure Israel over its policies toward Palestinians. Last year, the United Church of Christ voted to divest from companies with business in the 'Israeli-occupied' territories. The Presbyterian Church (USA) took a similar vote in 2014."
UMC, which represents 13 million members worldwide, is marching to the tune of the BDS drummer, banging away at the same tired anti-Israel melodies that falsely target Israel as an "evil, colonialist, imperialist" empire whose "illegal occupation of Palestinian lands" and its "apartheid" discriminatory behavior is unjustly directed against the civil rights of the "suffering Palestinians."
The Methodists, along with influential and forceful factions, hope to satisfy their Palestinian and EU partners by censuring Israel. Further, in a sort of blundering naiveté, UMC is ignoring what is surely inevitable: the very divestment they ostensibly imagine will stop the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians may actually serve to exacerbate it.
The question then is raised: Is continuing the conflict in order to wound Israel what the Church actually wants? The answer, it appears, is a resounding yes. With the help of a well-oiled grassroots Methodist organization, the United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR), the BDS agenda is successfully being pushed through the Church.
UMKR borrows its name from the Kairos Palestine Document. Drafted in 2009, the document was created by a group of Christians who invoked God's name as part of their claim to His alleged favor in their war for "justice and peace" against Israel's "occupation of Palestinian land."
UMKR claims to be answering the calls of Palestinian Christians to "help end the Israeli occupation." They exploit the boycott as a justifiable and effective strategy to force Israel to stop what they call the "illegal occupation of Palestinian lands."
The Methodist organization publicly opposes anti-BDS legislation in the United States, stating that these legislative efforts "contradict the United Methodist Church's longstanding policies of supporting economic advocacy as well as calling for an end to the Israeli occupation."
The term "illegal occupation" is repeated so regularly by UMKR and other anti-Israel organizations that international media has used the phrase as an accepted term to describe the situation in Israel. A manifestation of "the big lie" against Israel, UMKR forcefully and repeatedly disseminates this false accusation. The entire UMKR website is peppered with references and claims of "illegal Israeli settlements."
However, the accusations don't stop there. Susanne Hoder, co-chair of UMKR, has gone on the record accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing against all non-Jews in Israel. In an editorial she wrote, Hoder characterizes Israel as "a society obsessed with the ethnic purity and intent on purging non-Jews from the region." In a second article, Hoder calls on "followers of Christ" to "unite against Israel's ethnic cleansing of Christians and Muslims."
continue reading
www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7563/methodist-church-bds-israel
by Susan Warner
March 8, 2016
On May 10, 2016, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) will gather at the Oregon Convention Center, hosting thousands of Methodist leaders, delegates and visitors.
This leading policy-making event meets once every four years to revise church law and adopt resolutions on current moral, social, public policy and economic issues. The conference also approves plans and budgets for church-wide programs.
This year, four new proposals in support of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement are being prepared for consideration of the general assembly during the 10-day event.
UMC is following in the footsteps of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ and the United Church of Canada, who all passed resolutions boycotting and divesting from the State of Israel. The Methodists, however, are not waiting for their General Conference to get the ball rolling. In January, the UMC pension fund, last valued in 2014 at $20.9 billion, voted in favor of divesting from five Israeli banks.
According to US News and World Report,
"The pension board's decision came at a time when divestment is gaining momentum among liberal Protestants as a tool to pressure Israel over its policies toward Palestinians. Last year, the United Church of Christ voted to divest from companies with business in the 'Israeli-occupied' territories. The Presbyterian Church (USA) took a similar vote in 2014."
UMC, which represents 13 million members worldwide, is marching to the tune of the BDS drummer, banging away at the same tired anti-Israel melodies that falsely target Israel as an "evil, colonialist, imperialist" empire whose "illegal occupation of Palestinian lands" and its "apartheid" discriminatory behavior is unjustly directed against the civil rights of the "suffering Palestinians."
The Methodists, along with influential and forceful factions, hope to satisfy their Palestinian and EU partners by censuring Israel. Further, in a sort of blundering naiveté, UMC is ignoring what is surely inevitable: the very divestment they ostensibly imagine will stop the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians may actually serve to exacerbate it.
The question then is raised: Is continuing the conflict in order to wound Israel what the Church actually wants? The answer, it appears, is a resounding yes. With the help of a well-oiled grassroots Methodist organization, the United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR), the BDS agenda is successfully being pushed through the Church.
UMKR borrows its name from the Kairos Palestine Document. Drafted in 2009, the document was created by a group of Christians who invoked God's name as part of their claim to His alleged favor in their war for "justice and peace" against Israel's "occupation of Palestinian land."
UMKR claims to be answering the calls of Palestinian Christians to "help end the Israeli occupation." They exploit the boycott as a justifiable and effective strategy to force Israel to stop what they call the "illegal occupation of Palestinian lands."
The Methodist organization publicly opposes anti-BDS legislation in the United States, stating that these legislative efforts "contradict the United Methodist Church's longstanding policies of supporting economic advocacy as well as calling for an end to the Israeli occupation."
The term "illegal occupation" is repeated so regularly by UMKR and other anti-Israel organizations that international media has used the phrase as an accepted term to describe the situation in Israel. A manifestation of "the big lie" against Israel, UMKR forcefully and repeatedly disseminates this false accusation. The entire UMKR website is peppered with references and claims of "illegal Israeli settlements."
However, the accusations don't stop there. Susanne Hoder, co-chair of UMKR, has gone on the record accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing against all non-Jews in Israel. In an editorial she wrote, Hoder characterizes Israel as "a society obsessed with the ethnic purity and intent on purging non-Jews from the region." In a second article, Hoder calls on "followers of Christ" to "unite against Israel's ethnic cleansing of Christians and Muslims."
continue reading
www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7563/methodist-church-bds-israel