2024 — 226th General Assembly (Salt Lake City/Online)

Three overtures and one commissioner’s resolution regarding Palestine were on the docket for the 226th General Assembly. All four of them passed nearly unanimously in committee and they were all passed on the consent agenda in plenary. They are:

• [INT-05] Overture on Confessing our Complicity in Christian Zionism

• [INT-06] Educational Resources for Seeking Ways to End Israeli Apartheid

• [FIN-01] On Engagement with General Electric and Palantir Technologies, Inc. for Possible Divestment Recommendations

• [FIN-15] Divest from Governmental Debt Held by Countries Maintaining a Prolonged Military Occupation

The passed of these overtures and the commissioner’s resolution garnered international attention. Here is an article published by the Religion News Service that was also republished by a number of local new stations. We were also featured on social media by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions national committee account, as well as in the Middle East Monitor. Looking to the 227th General Assembly, we aim to divest from General Electric and Palantir Technologies.

2022 — 225th General Assembly (Louisville/Online)

Two overtures regarding Israel-Palestine were on the agenda for the 2022 PC(USA) General Assembly. Each one had over 6 presbyteries concurred on them and we are excited to share that they both passed. They were:

• A Call for Ending the Siege of Gaza and Collective Punishment

• Recognition that Israel’s Laws, Policies, and Practices Constitute Apartheid Against the Palestinian People

2020 — 224th General Assembly (Baltimore/Online)

The historic 224th General Assembly (2020) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) took place over four days in June of 2020. The scaled-down assembly gathering was the first to be held totally online with commissioners and advisory delegates participating via Zoom, while the Stated Clerk, Co-Moderators, parliamentarians, and technical personnel worked out of the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Commissioners passed a resolution entitled “Responding to the Sin of Racism and a Call to Action.” Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, the Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association, and the Assembly Committee on Business Referral worked jointly on the motion that provides for the following:

• PC(USA) churches and presbyteries would approve antiracism policies.

• PC(USA) agencies are to review business items to be referred to the 225th General Assembly (2022) to ensure coverage under social witness policy.

• A response to the COVID-19 pandemic was approved, seeking compassion and justice for the most vulnerable for the disease, including BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) individuals as well as LGBTQ+ and persons with HIV.

An eight minute and 46 second silent vigil was held before the end of the assembly to acknowledge the time George Floyd was pinned at the neck by a Minneapolis police officer.

Along with most justice and peacemaking work, assembly overtures around Israel/Palestine were referred to the 225th assembly.

2018 — 223rd General Assembly (St. Louis)

After spirited debate in the Assembly Committee on Middle East Issues, the assembly raced through the committee’s report in just thirty-five minutes on June 22—the shortest review of the Middle East Committee in PC(USA) history! Among its actions, the assembly:

• Asked RE/MAX, LLC, to end its sale and rental of property on occupied, disputed land in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The vote was 393-55.

• Voiced support for all efforts to bring Palestinians and Israelis together peacefully.

• Asked the state of Israel to fully comply with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in order to stop discriminatory practices and called on the U.S. government to rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council.

• Condemned the recent violence along the border between Israel and Gaza.

At the 222nd General Assembly in 2016, the Presbyterian Church (USA) adopted recommendations for action on the Doctrine of Discovery: It calls the church to “confess its complicity and repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery, and direct the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Office of the General Assembly, in consultation with ACREC (Advisory Committee on Racial Ethnic Concerns), to initiate a process of review of the Doctrine of Discovery.” From that came our study guide at this assembly; learn more and read it here.

2016 — 222nd General Assembly (Portland)

This assembly 1) advocated for the safety and well-being of children in Palestine and Israel, 2) commended RE/MAX for taking measures to not profit from sales in the illegal Israel settlements and called for continued dialogue in that regard, 3) Passed: “For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace” report on the status of the 2 state solution, 4) Called for a prayerful study of BDS by the church, 5) Affirmed nonviolent means of resistance against oppression (the historic BDS actions of the PCUSA), and 6) Defeated an attempt to sever PC(USA) ties with the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation.

2014 — 221st General Assembly (Detroit)

The 2014 assembly was a liberating one! This assembly:

• Called for a review of General Assembly policy on the 2 state solution.

• Voted to divest from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and Hewlett Packard.

• Called Presbyterians to witness for Palestinian rights and for ending the occupation.

• Affirmed occupation-free investing in Palestine.

• Declared that the PJN publication, “Zionism Unsettled” does not represent the views of PC(USA) - but GA voted NOT to censor it from the PCUSA store. Weeks later, it was taken out of the store by national PC(USA) staff, against the will of the GA. It has since been restored to the store.

• Called attention to the Tent of Nations tragedy.

• Reaffirmed the PC(USA) stance on the rights of children in Israel/Palestine.

2012 — 220th General Assembly (Pittsburgh)

At the 220th General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church (USA) approved a boycott of all Israeli products from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The language of the overture, approved by 71% vote of plenary, included:

• Call upon all nations to prohibit the import of products made by enterprises in Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

• Call for the boycott of all Israeli products coming from the occupied Palestinian Territories, including AHAVA Dead Sea Laboratories Beauty Products and all date products of Hadiklaim, The Israel Date Growers Co-Operative Ltd, often marked by the brand names: King Solomon Dates and Jordan River (not Israeli products from Israel.)

• Direct the Stated Clerk to communicate this action to all other PC (USA) councils and entities and invite and strongly encourage those groups and organizations to endorse this boycott until significant progress toward Palestinian rights and independence can be reported to the General Assembly or General Assembly Mission Council.

• Direct the Stated Clerk to inform our ecumenical partners of this action, both nationally and globally, and call upon them to join in the boycott of these companies.”

Never had a vote to boycott anything been approved by the denomination the first time it was presented to an Assembly. An incredible amount of resources were developed to aid in our prophetic work at this assembly. Doing your own divestment work? Visit our BDS resource page and adapt for yourself.

2010 — 219th General Assembly (Minneapolis)

The 219th General Assembly was a big one for actions taken around the Middle East. The committee appointed at the previous assembly heard and approved the Middle East Study Committee (MESC) report entitled: “Breaking Down the Walls,” the most comprehensive PC(USA) report ever written about the facts on the ground in Israel/Palestine.

The report:

• Acknowledged Israeli human rights violations of Palestinians

• Called for the cessation of violence on both sides of conflict

• Called for the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine

• Called for the relocation of the separation barrier to 1967 line

• Called for the withholding of U.S. Government aid to the State of Israel as long as Israel persists in settlement construction

• Called for shared status of Jerusalem

• Called for equal rights for Palestinian citizens

• Called for cessation of the systematic violation of the human rights of Palestinians through detention, collective punishment, torture, home demolitions and deportation

• Called for the resumption of negotiations for a 2 state solution

• Commended to the church for study, “A Moment of Truth” (The Kairos Palestine Document).

• Appointed a Middle East Monitoring Group to:

  • Oversee and insure that report directives were being carried out by denominational offices.

  • Write a study guide to “A Moment of Truth” for the whole church

  • Collect and edit a resource made up of narratives by at least 4 Palestinian and Israeli peacemakers seeking to end conflict.

• Rather than recommend divestment in 2010, in an effort to give CAT more time, MRTI took an unprecedented step and “strongly denounced” them instead, hoping this public statement would bring them to the table wanting to make changes in their policies.

You may view additional parts of the committees report, not approved by the GA, here:

Part III, Section 1:  A Zionist Narrative
Part III, Section 2:  A Palestinian Narrative
Part III, Section 3-Maps

2008 — 218th General Assembly (San Jose)

The 2008 assembly affirmed the obligation of the church to speak to governments when it sees violations of God’s commandments, and endorsed the Amman Call for action, issued by the World Council of Churches which included the following imperative from Palestinian Christians:

“Enough is enough. No more words without deeds. It is time for action.”

The assembly also called for the church to provide resources explaining the PC(USA)’s historic concern for justice and peace in Israel and Palestine, appointing a Middle East Study Committee to examine and report on the situation in I/P to the 219th General Assembly with recommendations for whole church. The assembly commended the nonviolent witness of Christians in Palestine and Israel who advocate for fair treatment for them and for their neighbor Encouraged pilgrimages and trips to I/P in harmony with PC(USA) principles, including witnessing conditions in the occupied territories, helping to sustain isolated and impoverished local economies, and engaging with Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers.

IPMN provided an 8-page brochure introducing the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) to the Gospel mandate for peacemaking and to the IPMN and its mission; the resources also includes "Looking at the Conflict through a Human Rights Lens" by Jeff Halper as well as a Keynote Address by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, delivered at the Sabeel Conference in Boston in 2007. This 8-page brochure was sent to all commissioners. You can read that brochure here.

2006 — 217th General Assembly (Birmingham)

The 2006 assembly called upon appropriate General Assembly offices to identify affirmative investment opportunities in Palestine. The assembly clarified the condemnation of the security wall by the 216th General Assembly by saying that the PC(USA) does not presume to dictate to sovereign nations about their national defense, but…supports fair criticism of the security wall insofar as it illegally encroaches into Palestinian territory and is not on the 1967 border (known as “the green line”). The NY Times reported the outcome of the 2006 GA as the denomination walking back its position on divestment. In reality, the MRTI process was only in its infancy; that year the GA changed the language, not the process. A process that would lead to divestment in the assemblies to come!

2004 — 216th General Assembly (Richmond)

Where it all began! Beginning with an overture from a church in Gainesville, Florida, which called upon Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee (MRTI) to gather data to support selective divestment of our holdings in corporations profiting from the Israeli occupation (431-62 vote), the assembly then condemned Israel’s construction of the “security wall,” condemned Christian Zionism as a heretical theology, called for studying possible sponsorship of economic development in Palestine, and finally, established a new mission network to advocate for Palestinian rights (the inception of IPMN).