“Participating in boycotts, divestment, and sanctions [BDS] against Israeli occupation, colonization, and apartheid is not only a moral imperative and constitutional and human right, but also an international legal obligation.” So wrote Craig Mokhiber, former UN human rights official, this past summer, following the International Court of Justice’s authoritative ruling naming Israel’s occupation of the West Bank illegal.

Taking to heart this imperative and obligation, UCC PIN has launched a Divestment Team to ensure that our engagement in and support for BDS is as robust and rigorous as possible. The team has initiated on-going conversations with United Church Funds about its investment holdings and the human rights guidelines that inform its investment screens and divestment practices, specific to any companies and banks that support Israel’s occupation and apartheid.

Engaging in BDS is a strategy, more critical now than ever, to take action towards the national UCC’s and UCC PIN’s pledge to become apartheid-free. The American Friends Service Committee is an invaluable resource in this regard. For years UCC PIN has benefitted from, and our Divestment Team continues to draw on and commends to all, the research of AFSC. 

Does your congregation, or your conference, or your seminary have investments? And if so, do you want to know whether investments include companies that support Israel’s occupation?  We recommend to you the research tools created by Dov Baum and Noam Perry, staff at AFSC’s Action Center for Corporate Accountability:

• 
  AFSC list of companies that implicated in arming Israel’s #GazaGenocide. 
• AFSC Divesting for Palestinian Rights list of companies supporting Israel’s occupation
• AFSC Investigate database of companies enabling the occupation.
• WhoProfits database of corporations profiting from the ongoing Israeli occupation.

How, if you find holdings of companies that support Israel’s apartheid, might you take action to divest? Another resource that AFSC offers is weekly online divestment office hours. These offer the opportunity to confer in real time with Noam and Dov. To sign up for AFSC BDS office hours, go here

This excerpt is from the UCCPIN December 2024 E-Newsletter. To view the full newsletter, click here: 
UCCPIN December 2024 E-Newsletter.