Things I Saw at #ga221

Eva Spoke on the Floor of the General Assembly!

Friday, June 20, 2014

In a debate about issues in the Middle East, Beaver-Butler Presbytery ruling elder Eva-Maria Barr spoke on the floor of the General Assembly this evening.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Eva spoke about growing up in post-World War II Germany, where she was forced to go through checkpoints and searches by armed police and dogs. She resonated with stories of Palestinians whose lives are similarly disrupted.

From Mark's Perspective: Divestment Debate

Written by Mark

(Originally published HERE on 06/20/14)

After an afternoon and evening of deliberation, the GA narrowly voted to divest from Caterpillar, Hewlitt-Packard and Motorola Solutions. The motion passed by 7 votes (310-303).

That said, true divestment of these stocks may never happen, because the Board of Pensions and the Presbyterian Foundation have a fiduciary responsibility to make money on their investments; not sell stocks at a loss because the GA says to sell them.

The damage done by this vote is the loss of goodwill with our Jews worldwide and the misinterpretation of the vote. Even though the action of the GA is to divest of the stock in those three corporations, the media has already reported that this vote is to divest in Israel. That is simply not true. In fact, the GA went out of its way to affirm the peacemaking efforts in Israel and Palestine and to make sure that the media knew that this vote was not anti-Israel.

The View from GA