The Mission and Social Witness Working Group Recommends That the Presbytery Concur With

. The Mission and Social Witness Working Group recommends that the presbytery concur with the Synod of the Covenant on their overture to the 223rd General Assembly (2018) of the Presbyterian Church (USA), designated Ovt 020, to: 1. Confirm PCUSA support for the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the instrumentalities of the United Nations and the international justice system developed since then to make those rights realities in all countries; 2. Defend and advocate for the Constitutional protection under the First Amendment for all United States citizens, religious and civic organizations, companies and corporations that exercise their freedoms of speech, association, and other civil rights to support measures of economic witness (boycott, divestment, sanctions, or BDS policies and strategies) designed to bring those freedoms and rights to Palestinians and other persons living without full citizenship and under occupation; 3. Oppose specific U.S. legislation and efforts by agents of foreign governments to suppress those freedoms, such as “The Israel Anti-Boycott Act,” Senate Bill (S) 720 and House Resolution (H.R.) 1697 which seek to impose civil and criminal penalties for nonviolent BDS resistance against human rights violations in Israel and Palestine; 4. Advocate for the repeal of statutes of various states that seek to impose civil penalties or unconstitutional restrictions upon individuals and companies that support BDS policies and strategies and thereby violate the letter and spirit of the First Amendment. 5. In cases where litigation may be brought challenging state anti-BDS statutes on the First Amendment, due process, and other Constitutional grounds, instruct the Stated Clerk of the PCUSA to provide support by filing amicus curiae briefs in appropriate situations, in coalition with other justice, religious liberty, and human rights groups whenever possible; 6. Direct the Stated Clerk and appropriate Presbyterian Mission Agency program staff to develop resources and implement strategies for member education, interreligious dialogue, and public witness concerning the importance of the First Amendment freedoms of speech, association, press, and exercise of religion for all Americans, including the right to protest through boycott and divestment, and other nonviolent means. Rationale The First Amendment grants all of us free speech, association and pursuit of our religious beliefs. It states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof; or abridge the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peacefully assemble, and to petition the Government for redress of grievances”. The First Amendment also applies to state governments by the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Neither Congress nor the states may infringe upon these First Amendment guarantees. The United States Supreme Court has held in NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886 (1982) that peaceful boycotts fall within the protection of the First Amendment, even when, the purpose of the boycott is “… concededly to advise customers and prospective customers not to patronize a certain employer” In the case, blacks boycotted white merchants to achieve equality and racial justice. The Court approved that such a boycott is a lawful exercise of the First Amendment even if the purpose is to bring about political, social, or economic change. This overture is thus a needed application and extension of prior General Assembly action for justice: (3) The General Assembly affirms the traditional freedom of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other religious, civic, and private organizations in the United States to determine their own practices of investment or divestment, boycott or selective purchasing, in advocacy for peace and human rights, and therefore opposes efforts in state legislatures and elsewhere to limit or punish these exercises of freedom and nonviolent solidarity. This statement is found in the recommendations section of For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace, a careful report adopted by a strong majority of commissioners to the 222nd General Assembly (2016). See: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/resource/israel-palestine-human-values-absence-just-peace/ Senate Bill 720 would levy civil and criminal penalties upon United States’ citizens and companies that participate in BDS policies and strategies including fines of $250,000 up to $1,000,000 and a maximum of 20 years in prison for those who engage in BDS against Israel. The Senate Bill 720 has the support of over 42 Senators and the H.R. 1697 has the support of 247 House members (It takes 218 House members to pass the bill in the House). Senator Gillibrand of New York was a co-sponsor of the Senate Bill, but withdrew her support upon learning of the civil and criminal penalties solely because it violated freedom of speech. If the Bills pass the House and Senate, the penalties would discourage United States citizens, churches, colleges and universities, companies, corporations, and organizations from participating in BDS policies and strategies and give up their First Amendment rights. If passed, the law would apply to any BDS activity in the United States or in Israel or its “territories”, i.e. the West Bank. The Attorney General of the United States would have the authority to prosecute potential violations of the law against individuals or companies who boycott the products of Israel or settlements in the West Bank. In the case of PC(USA) policy established by the 220 th (2012) and 221 st (2014) General Assemblies, actions taken by our church to boycott products manufactured in illegal Israeli settlements (according to international law) in the West Bank (2012), and the divestment of PC(USA) holdings in Caterpillar, Inc., Hewlett- Packard, and Motorola Solutions (2014) for profiting from non-peaceful pursuits in the West Bank and Gaza would be considered illegal according the United States law. This not only violates free speech in the United States, it also violates the right of religious organizations to not participate in, or disinvest from activities that violate the religious conscience of Americans engaging in the practice of their religious faith. At least twenty state legislatures have passed anti-BDS statutes barring each such state from entering into state contracts with any individual or company that participates in BDS policies or strategies. The state statutes reject and denounce the international BDS movement and impose a civil penalty, which infringes upon First Amendment rights. On October 11 2017, The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the State of Kansas challenging its anti-BDS law as violating the First Amendment. To target BDS policies and strategies with Congressional and state anti-BDS laws that carry civil and criminal penalties in order to ban freedom of speech in the United States on one issue, namely the violation of human rights towards Palestinians in Israel/Palestine, is unconstitutional. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, supports freedom of speech. Article 19 of the UDHR states that “everyone shall have the right of freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of (his/her) choice”.