We can no longer be silent on Israel’s genocide in Gaza: US Presbyterian Church
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The US’s Presbyterian Church has decided to divest from Palantir Technologies and General Electric Aerospace over their ties to Israel’s military and intelligence services after recognising Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a genocide.
The decision was taken by the denomination’s General Assembly, making the largest Presbyterian body in the United States one of the most prominent Christian organisations to adopt such a position.
According to Democracy Now!, the church also approved measures calling for the withdrawal of investments from the two companies because of their alleged links to Israel’s defence and intelligence apparatus.
Among those addressing the Assembly was the Reverend Fahed Abu Akel, a Palestinian American and former moderator of the church who survived the 1948 Nakba, the mass displacement of Palestinians following the establishment of Israel.
“We have been silent on the destruction of most of the schools, universities, hospitals, mosques and churches… all of which were done with our American-made weapons and dollars. Siblings in Christ, in the name of the living Christ, we cannot be silent on this matter any longer,” he said.
The decision was welcomed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the United States, which praised the church for what it described as a principled stand.
The Presbyterian Church has long advocated peace and justice in Palestine. Earlier this year, Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly and Executive Director of the Interim Unified Agency, said the conflict was “heartbreaking” and lamented the suffering of people “created in God’s image”.
Meanwhile, The Christian Century reported that the American Academy of Religion adopted a Resolution in Solidarity with Gaza on 23 June, condemning the Israeli government's conduct of the war and describing it as a genocide. The organisation also characterised the destruction of Palestinian educational institutions as a “scholasticide”, or a deliberate attempt to eradicate the Palestinian education system.