Published by Americans for The Link Middle East Understanding, Inc. Volume 39, Issue 3 Link Archives: www.ameu.org August-September 2006 Why Divestment? And Why Now? By David Wildman “The crisis was intensifying in the country, as more and more people were killed, maimed and imprisoned, as one town after another revolted against the apartheid regime, as the people refused to be oppressed or to co-operate with oppressors, facing death by the day… As the apartheid army moved into the towns to rule by the barrel of the gun, a number of [people of faith sought] to determine what response by the Church and by all Christians would be most appropriate.” —Continued on Page 2 The Link Page 2 AMEU Board —Continued from Page 1 of Directors Jane Adas (Vice President) Mapping Apartheid Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr. In its June 22, 2006 edition, The My friend showed me a map in He- Atwater, Bradley & Partners, Inc. New York Times reported that the brew that the Israeli military had given Elizabeth D. Barlow Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), at its him. It outlined the planned route that the general assembly in Birmingham, Ala., hafrada, or separation, barrier would take Edward Dillon voted to back off from a 2004 decision near his small village of Aboud on the John Goelet it had made to divest from companies West Bank. His family has 500 olive trees that profit from Israel’s involvement in Richard Hobson, Jr. the Palestinian territories. which have been in the family for centu- Vice President, Olayan America Corp. ries. Passed on from generation to genera- Anne R. Joyce David Wildman, our feature writer, tion, the trees were in small fields scat- disagrees. The delegates, in fact, tered here and there in the hillsides Robert V. Keeley voted to continue to follow their invest- Former U.S. Ambassador around Aboud. ment guidelines which specify divest- Kendall Landis (Treasurer) ment as the appropriate last resort in “If they build the wall as they plan, I challenging corporations. will be cut off from more than 200 of our Robert L. Norberg (President) trees. Some other families will lose even Hon. Edward L. Peck Former U.S. Ambassador The “spin” on reporting the vote more. How will we survive?” he said. “If highlights the controversy surrounding this wall is really about Israeli security— Lachlan Reed this subject. In this issue we look at President, Lachlan International even the security for illegal settlers—then divestiture as a nonviolent, moral strat- Donald L. Snook egy, and we address the claim that they could build the wall much closer to divesting from corporations doing busi- the settlement on the hill and let us keep James M. Wall more of our trees.” ness with Israel is anti-Semitic. AMEU National Council Each week Palestinians from Aboud go From 1976 to 1994, David Wildman to argue with Israeli military officials Hon. James E. Akins was active in the South African anti- Isabelle Bacon apartheid movement. Since 2001, he about the route of the wall to save a few William R. Chandler has served on the U.S. Campaign to trees. They also hold weekly nonviolent David S. Dodge End the Israeli Occupation steering demonstrations on Fridays to protest Paul Findley committee (www.endtheoccupation.org). where the wall is being constructed. “The Dr. Cornelius B. Houk Currently he serves as Executive Sec- Israelis have a powerful military with Cynthia Infantino retary, Human Rights & Racial Justice, O. Kelly Ingram guns, bulldozers and helicopters. We have with the General Board of Ministries, our trees. To us they are like family. To Moorhead Kennedy United Methodist Church. uproot them is killing a part of us. We Ann Kerr David Nes We are saddened to report the have no power to stop the soldiers. What Mary Norton death of Ambassador Talcott Seelye. else can we do?” he sighed. Marie Petersen For 24 years we have been honored to That same week in January 2006, acting Dr. John C. Trever have his name listed with the directors Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made his first Don W. Wagner in the adjacent column. A former am- Miriam Ward, RSM bassador to Tunisia and Syria, he foreign policy speech at the Herzliya Con- ference. “We must create a clear boundary Executive Director was considered, according to The Washington Post, “one of the State as soon as possible, one which will reflect John F. Mahoney Department’s most experienced Mid- the demographic reality on the ground. dle East hands in the 1970s and Israel will maintain control over the secu- AMEU (ISSN 0024-4007) grants 1980s.” He surely was one of our most rity zones, the Jewish settlement blocs, permission to reproduce material knowledgeable and supportive board and...first and foremost a united Jerusalem from The Link in part or in whole. members. We send our deepest con- under Israeli sovereignty. This is the path AMEU must be credited and one dolences to his family. copy forwarded to our office at 475 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced Riverside Drive, Room 245, New several years ago.” York, New York 10115-0245. Tel. John F. Mahoney 212-870-2053; Fax 212-870-2050; Executive Director In December 2005, B’Tselem, an Israeli E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.ameu.org. The Link Page 3 Human Rights group, and Bimkom–Planners for Planning against Israel. Rights, issued a report entitled, “Under the Guise of Secu- Today’s divestment movement—like the anti- rity: Routing the Separation Barrier to Enable the Expan- apartheid movement before—broadens the base of people sion of Israeli Settlements in the West Bank.” It documents and institutions involved in decisions and actions based how the Israelis are routing the wall to grab as much land on equal rights for all—Palestinians and Israelis. Through as possible to expand settlements by separating Palestini- boycott and divestment campaigns, a much wider range ans from their lands and their water—all in violation of of actors—churches, students, trade unions—now seek international law. nonviolent means to end Israel’s military occupation and Now I want to return to that quote on the front page. systematic denial of Palestinian human rights. It comes from “The Kairos Document,” issued in Septem- To be clear, morally responsible investing, divestment, ber 1985 by South African Christians as a challenge to boycotts and sanctions are nonviolent, moral, economic churches to take a more active stance against apartheid. measures that seek to change the bad behavior of corpora- The call from Palestinian Christians and hundreds of Pal- tions and of governments for moral reasons. While non- estinian civil society grassroots organizations for violent, moral, economic campaigns often generate fierce “boycotts, divestment, and sanctions” (BDS) echoes the opposition from those in power, it is crucial to note that call by churches, trade unions and other organizations in divestment and other forms of Morally Responsible In- South Africa more than 20 years ago. This quote captures vesting (MRI) seek to end unjust, oppressive policies, not the urgency and desperation many church members feel get rid of corporations or states. The same applies to MRI regarding the escalating oppression and violence of Is- pressures on Israel and corporations that profit from occu- rael’s longstanding military occupation and Palestinian pation: they should end their oppressive practices. resistance, especially in the last few years. The infrastruc- ture of Israel’s illegal and immoral occupation— When Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the settlements, bypass roads, checkpoints, closures, the di- Black community in Montgomery, Alabama mobilized a bus boycott, it was not to eliminate buses or the bus com- viding wall—give visible evidence of Israel’s de facto apartheid policies aimed at unilaterally segregating by pany. It was to end Jim Crow policies of segregation that force not only Israelis from Palestinians but also Palestini- the bus company refused to give up. The community chose a nonviolent form of protest to galvanize public and ans from one another, and more importantly, Palestinians from more and more of their land. economic pressure to end an unjust system. In May 2002, in response to the urgent crisis on the With the Oslo so-called peace process in tatters, Pales- tinian nonviolent activists called for international support ground, hundreds of U.S. Christians gathered in Washing- in the form of an International Solidarity Movement ton, D.C. for Ecumenical Middle East Advocacy Days. A National Council of Churches (N.C.C.) delegation had just (I.S.M.). The goal was to provide some measure of inter- national protection to Palestinians suffering under occu- returned from the region. Some of the delegates were pation. For years the international community has failed among the first internationals allowed into the Jenin refu- gee camp by the Israeli military after Israel had leveled to do this, due largely to repeated U.S. vetoes of U.N. Se- curity Council resolutions calling for peacekeepers or in- much of the camp, using U.S.-made and U.S.-provided ternational monitors. In the past six years, there have been Caterpillar bulldozers, Apache helicopters and F-16 fighter jets on a largely civilian population. eight vetoes in the U.N. Security Council, seven of which were cast by the United States in order to keep the U.N. The N.C.C. delegation shared a statement they had from criticizing Israel. issued following the trip on the urgent situation in Pales- tine/Israel and their hopes for peace. It was a clear articu- When Words Fail: The Road to Divestment lation of principles of international law and human rights The growing “boycotts, divestment, and sanctions” that called on full compliance with U.N.