By a narrow vote of 310 to 303, the General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted in June 2014 to divest about $21 million in
stock from Motorola, Caterpillar, and Hewlett Packard because their respective
products were being used by the Israeli Government in violent occupation of the
Palestinian territories. The Friends Fiduciary Corp, which manages investments
for 250 Quaker groups, had divested from Caterpillar, Motorola, and Veolia
Environment two years earlier, and in 2013 the Mennonite Central Committee
decided not to “knowingly invest in companies that benefit from products or
services used to perpetrate acts of violence against Palestinians [and]
Israelis.”[1]
This point brings up the ethical point of what to do about companies that sell
products used in violence by the Palestinians. To occupy is not like being
occupied, though violence is violence. Moreover, using divestment from holding
equity in a company may not be a very effective strategy, other than perhaps serving
as a symbol, though even in this respect the effort can fad without having
brought about the desired policy change.
1. Jaweed Kaleem, “Presbyterian
Church (USA) Makes Controversial Divestment Move Against Israel,” The
Huffington Post, June 20, 2014.
