The largest U.S. Presbyterian church narrowly voted Friday to divest from three multinational corporations that it said supply Israel with products that promote violence in occupied Palestinian territories. 
 
 The divestment, vehemently opposed by many of the nation's prominent Jewish organizations, and hailed by many pro-Palestinian activists, passed by seven votes after hours of tense and complex debate. It means the Presbyterian Church (USA) will sell its shares of Motorola Solutions, Caterpillar and Hewlett Packard, worth about $21 million. 
 
 The vote at the church's biennial General Assembly, meeting this week in Detroit, was 310 to 303. It makes the 1.76-million member church the largest religious group to vote for divestment, an issue that has been fiercely debated in recent years among mainline Protestants. The Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America both have rejected divestment. Presbyterians have discussed divestment for a decade, and a similar vote was defeated by a slim margin two years ago at the last church assembly. 
 
 There was an audible gasp on the floor of the COBO Center in downtown Detroit after the motion passed. "In no way is this a reflection of our lack of love for our Jewish brothers and sisters," Heath Rada, the church assembly's moderator, told the assembly afterwards. 
 
 But opponents described it as exactly that. 
 
 "This decision will undoubtedly have a devastating impact on relations between mainstream Jewish groups and the national Presbyterian Church (USA)," said Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, whose organization was one of several major Jewish groups that had flown rabbis to Detroit to plead against divestment. Gutow, in a statement, described the vote as stemming from a "deep animus" in church leadership against "both the Jewish people and the State of Israel." 
 
 Supporters of the wider Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, described Presbyterian divestment as a victory, though the measure the church passed Friday evening separated itself from the movement. 
 
 Divesting from the three companies is "not to be construed or represented by any organization of the PC(USA) as divestment from the State of Israel, or an alignment with or endorsement of the global BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement," said the text of the Presbyterian's overture. 
 
 The vote, amended several times on the assembly floor, also supported interfaith cooperation, the right of Israel to exist, and a two-state solution. In addition, it said the church should strive for "positive investment" in nonviolent efforts that help everyday Israelis and Palestinians. An effort supporting "positive investment" was passed at the church assembly in 2012, and the church has since invested close to a $1 million in education, renewable energy and microfinance in the Palestinian territories, according to Elizabeth Dunning, moderator of the church Mission Responsibility Through Investment committee. 
 
 Dunning said the church singled out Caterpillar because its bulldozers have been used to demolish Palestinian homes. Motorola Solutions, she said, was selected because the Israeli Defense Force buys the company's communication technologies. She said the church targeted Hewlett-Packard because the Israeli Navy has used its products to coordinate the blockade of the Gaza Strip and because its biometric scanners are in place at checkpoints. 
 
 In a prior interviews and statements, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard representatives have defended their products and cited their safety and human rights protection measures. A Motorola Solutions spokeswoman said the company's checkpoint equipment helps "people to get to their place of work or to carry out their business in a faster and safer way." Caterpillar has said it doesn't sell its equipment directly to Israel, but to the U.S. government. 
 
 Pro-divestment speakers at the convention on Friday said the church has tried over the years to discuss its concerns with the companies, to no avail. 
 
 "These companies have failed to modify their behavior and continue to profit from Israeli human rights abuses and non-peaceful pursuits," said the Rev. Walt Davis, a professor emeritus of San Francisco Theological Seminary and member of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network. 
 
 The network, a strong divestment supporter made up of Presbyterians, came under intense criticism this week by Jewish and pro-Israel activists, who had attacked not only its position on divestment, but also "Zionism Unsettled," a booklet it published that was sold in the church's online store. It called Zionism a "false theology." 
 
 More than 1,700 rabbis signed a letter to the church asking it to oppose divestment and criticizing it for selling the network's literature. Major Jewish groups, including the Union for Reform Judaism and the Anti-Defamation League, came out against the pamphlet and divestment. Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director, said Friday that church leaders have "fomented an atmosphere of open hostility to Israel" and that the vote sent a "painful message" about Jewish-Presbyterian relations. 
 
 Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, twice addressed Presbyterians on the assembly floor to plead against divesting -- including offering to set up a meeting for church leaders with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if they voted it down. He said the church was not only choosing divestment, but "separation" from Israel and Jewish allies. "So be it," he added. 
 
 In one move that did align with pro-Israel groups' goals, but was largely overshadowed by divestment, the church voted down a proposal to boycott all Hewlett-Packard products. 
 
 The church is not the first religious group to divest, though it's the biggest and most influential. The Friends Fiduciary Corp., which coordinates investments for 250 Quaker groups, divested from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Veolia Environment in 2012. Last year, the Mennonite Central Committee decided to not "knowingly invest in companies that benefit from products or services used to perpetrate acts of violence against Palestinians [and] Israelis." Although the United Methodists voted against churchwide divestment in 2012, its General Board of Pension and Health Benefits decided last week to sell its stock in G4S, a prison and security services company, after members asked questions about its work in Israel and the Palestinian territories. 
 
 Not all Jews came out against the Presbyterian vote. Jewish Voice for Peace, a pro-divestment group based in Oakland, California, and Washington, D.C., sent several rabbis, many of the Reconstructionist denomination, to lobby in Detroit. 
 
 "We are grateful the church voted not to profit from the suffering of Palestinians under Israel's 47-year-old occupation," said Cecilie Surasky, the organization's deputy director. "Now that U.S.-backed peace talks have proven to be ineffective, we hope that others, including Jewish institutions, will follow suit. Divestment has become one of our best hopes for change." ||||| (RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) voted Friday (June 20) to divest church funds from three American companies it cited for profiting from the oppression of Palestinians within Israel’s occupied territories. 
 
 The 310-303 vote of the church’s General Assembly in Detroit marks a victory for divestment supporters both within and without the 1.8 million-member PCUSA, now the largest American church to embrace divestment as a strategy to pressure Israel to return its illegally held lands. 
 
 RNS photo courtesy Danny Bolin via PC(USA) 
 
 The divestment resolution targets companies that divestment supporters say supply electronic and earth-moving equipment that help Israel violate Palestinian rights. Presbyterians in support of the resolution described it as a long overdue stand on behalf of Palestinians suffering under the occupation, which began in 1967 when Israel pushed back attacks from neighboring countries. 
 
 The issue has roiled the church for the last decade, and during a more than three-hour debate, many lamented the divisiveness and noted how many around the world — in the U.S., Israel and the Palestinian territories — would be watching. 
 
 “After a decade of corporate engagement with Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions, these companies have failed to modify their behavior and continue to profit from Israeli human rights abuses and non-peaceful pursuits,” said the Rev. Walt Davis of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network, a pro-divestment group within the church. 
 
 “This is a historic vote and the culmination of a long and deliberate internal process within the church,” he said. 
 
 But the vote also bodes ill for Presbyterian-Jewish relations, which are particularly fragile since the publication in January of “Zionism Unsettled,” a booklet produced by the church-chartered IPMN and sold on the PCUSA website, which argues the right of a Jewish nation to exist in the Holy Land is based on bad theology. 
 
 Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest branch of Judaism in North America, spoke before the General Assembly Thursday, and warned that a divestment vote would be taken as a sign that the church has aligned itself with those in the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” movement who vilify Israel and even question its right to exist. 
 
 “It would be an attack on the Jewish community and religion,” especially in the wake of the publication of “Zionism Unsettled,” Jacobs said. “I don’t want the commissioners (assembly delegates) to think they can vote for divestment and be part of the global BDS movement and think that they can still stand with us.” 
 
 Jacobs offered to arrange a meeting in Jerusalem next week for Presbyterian leaders to talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu if they voted against divestment. Many who spoke against the measure said it was not worth the price of alienating the church’s Jewish friends and urged their fellow Presbyterians to accept Jacobs’ offer. 
 
 The authors of the divestment resolution seemed to take pains to distance the measure from the more strident critics of Israel inside and outside the church. The resolution affirmed the church’s support for a two-state solution and also stated that it does not mean an alignment with the overall strategy of the global BDS movement. 
 
 But Rabbi Noam Marans, director of interreligious relations at the American Jewish Committee, said in a statement after the vote: “This is an affront to all who are committed to a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The PCUSA decision is celebrated by those who believe they are one step closer to a Jew-free Middle East.” 
 
 Carol Hylkema, another IPMN member, said the vote puts the PCUSA on the right side of a moral question. 
 
 “Our denomination has been a leading voice in establishing the socially responsible investment movement that began in the early 1970s to end apartheid in South Africa,” she said. “This is a matter of stewardship and this decision brings our investments in line with our values.” 
 
 Leaders within the church’s divestment movement have struggled to get the General Assembly to back a divestment resolution for 10 years or more, missing the mark at the last assembly meeting, in 2012, by only two votes. The divestment movement, robust in many American universities and mainline Protestant churches, is particularly strong in the PCUSA. At their most recent national conference in 2012, the United Methodist Church rejected divestment as a tool to pressure Israel, but will likely revisit the issue at their next conference in 2016. 
 
 The vote Friday was proceeded by another momentous vote at the PCUSA on Thursday (June 19) when the General Assembly voted 61 to 39 percent to allow pastors to marry gay couples in places where gay marriage is legal. A change in the definition of marriage from man and woman to “two people” needs to be ratified by the church’s regional presbyteries. 
 
 KRE/AMB END MARKOE ||||| DETROIT (AP) — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Friday became the most prominent religious group in the United States to endorse divestment as a protest against Israeli policies toward Palestinians, voting to sell church stock in three companies whose products Israel uses in the occupied territories. 
 
 The General Assembly voted by a razor-thin margin — 310-303 — to sell stock in Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions. Two years ago, the General Assembly rejected a similar divestment proposal by two votes. 
 
 The American Jewish Committee, a policy and advocacy group based in New York, said the vote was "driven by hatred of Israel." But Heath Rada, moderator for the church meeting, said immediately after the vote that "in no way is this a reflection of our lack of love for our Jewish brothers and sisters." 
 
 The decision is expected to reverberate beyond the 1.8 million-member church. It comes amid discouragement over failed peace talks that have left activists desperate for some way to affect change and as the broader movement known as BDS — or boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel — has gained some momentum in the U.S., Israel's closest and most important ally. 
 
 Presbyterians who advocated for divestment insisted their action was not part of the broader boycott movement. Israeli officials, along with many American Jewish groups, denounced the campaign as an attempt to delegitimize the Jewish state. Separately, the assembly also voted to re-examine its support for a two-state solution. 
 
 The top Presbyterian legislative body has been considering divestment for a decade. Representatives of the Presbyterian socially responsible investment arm told the national meeting in Detroit that their efforts to lobby the three companies for change had failed. Carol Hylkema of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network, a Presbyterian group that advocates for Palestinians and spearheaded the drive for divestment, said their action was modeled on the divestment movement to end apartheid in South Africa. The 2012 assembly had endorsed a boycott of Israeli products made in the Palestinian territories. 
 
 "Because we are a historical peacemaking church, what we have done is, we have stood up for nonviolent means of resistance to oppression and we have sent a clear message to a struggling society that we support their efforts to resist in a nonviolent way the oppression being thrust upon them," said the Rev. Jeffrey DeYoe, of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network. 
 
 The vote was the subject of intense lobbying both from within and outside the church. Rabbis and other members of Jewish Voice for Peace, which advocates for Palestinians, lined the halls of the meeting and prayed in vigils outside the convention center wearing T-shirts that read, "Another Jew Supporting Divestment." Other rabbis and their Presbyterian supporters held panel discussions and sent letters to delegates urging them to vote no. 
 
 Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, which is the largest branch of American Judaism, addressed the delegates twice, urging them to reject divestment. After the vote, Jacobs said the denomination as a whole is no longer "a partner for joint work on Israel-Palestine peace issues." 
 
 In leading an effort to strike down the proposal, Frank Allen of the Central Florida Presbytery told delegates, "Divestment will create dissension. Dialogue and relationship building will lay the groundwork for true peace." 
 
 Bill Ward of the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest, based in Spokane, Washington, argued the proposal was not an attack on Israel. The measure adopted Friday reaffirms Israel's right to exist. "It is motivated by stewardship integrity, not partisan political advocacy," Ward said. 
 
 Two smaller U.S. religious groups have divested in protest of Israeli policies: the Friends Fiduciary Corp., which manages assets for U.S. Quakers, and the Mennonite Central Committee. Last week, the pension board of the United Methodist Church, the largest mainline Protestant group in the U.S., revealed plans to sell holdings worth about $110,000 in G4S, which provides security equipment and has contracts with Israel's prison system. However, the United Methodist Church had rejected church-wide divestment. 
 
 Motorola Solutions said in a statement that the company follows the law and its own policies that address human rights. Hewlett-Packard said its checkpoints for Palestinians were developed to expedite passage "in a secure environment, enabling people to get to their place of work or to carry out their business in a faster and safer way." Caterpillar has said it does not sell equipment to Israel, just to the U.S. government. 
 
 A church spokeswoman estimated the value of Presbyterian holdings in the companies at $21 million. 
 
 ____ 
 
 Zoll reported from New York.
– The biggest Presbyterian denomination in the US made headlines last night by voting to divest from three big companies it says help Israel oppress Palestinians, reports Religion News Service. Presbyterian Church USA will sell its stock in Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions because it says Israel uses their products in its occupied territories. "In no way is this a reflection of our lack of love for our Jewish brothers and sisters," Heath Rada, the church assembly's moderator, told the assembly after the 310-303 vote.. But the American Jewish Committee said it was "driven by hatred of Israel." The AP says the decision "is expected to reverberate beyond the 1.8 million-member church" and could give momentum to a larger divestment movement known as BDS, or boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. The measure that passed also affirms Israel's right to exist, but that did little to satisfy critics of the move, reports the Huffington Post. It makes Presbyterians the largest American church to back divestment as a way to pressure Israel.