The photos of the wall from inside Palestine say it all. The Israel Palestine Mission Network is grateful to the Outlook for telling the truth in full color and with the passion of justice to bear witness to why selective divestment is the right and faithful path for the General Assembly.

We commend The Presbyterian Outlook for publishing Leslie Scanlon’s articulate and accurate writing about both the process of corporate engagement and the path by which the denomination’s Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) recommendations came to the General Assembly Mission Council. Your photos from your personal journey to the West Bank highlight the impact the three companies involved in the recommendations (Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions) have had in building the wall, continuing to violate human rights and promoting non-peaceful policies through providing technology and products to the state of Israel.

Scanlon fairly represented the concerns against the proposal raised by members of the GAMC during its deliberation. (There were only three such comments.) More importantly, she captured the excellent and salient points that MRTI’s chairperson, Brian Ellison, made throughout the discussion, including his affirmation that MRTI “tried to have dialogue with these three companies and do not see the likelihood of a productive outcome.” Thank you for making sure the wider church hears those words of truth.

The General Assembly Mission Council overwhelmingly voted to recommend this selective divestment to the 220th General Assembly. By publishing the story about this important step for justice and human rights, the Outlook serves the gospel well. The clarity of the writing on the vote and the photographs of the wall that creates conditions of apartheid in the occupied territories brought to a diverse audience in the PC(USA) a reality which we are called to confront and to protest.

Because MRTI has exhausted the appropriate channels along with the other religious partners using corporate engagement without any change in the policies of these three companies, it is now the time for the PC(USA) to move to selective divestment.

Grace and Peace,

Carol Hylkema, moderator

Katherine Cunningham,

vice moderator

Israel-Palestine Mission

Network of the PC(USA)