If they had voted down four divestment resolutions, that would have been enough.
If they had told the press the resolutions “went down in flames,” that would have been enough.
But the United Methodists, after voting down four BDS resolutions at their quadrennial conference, and after telling the press the resolutions “went down in flames,” voted to “encourage church boards and agencies to end their affiliation with . . . the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.”
John Lomperis, the director of the Institute on Religion and Democracy’s United Methodist Action Program, commented,
The decision to encourage ending our denomination’s affiliation with the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is an appropriate rejection of a movement that simplistically ignores the numerous complexities of this troubled region while disturbingly singling out the world’s lone Jewish state for demonization.
Activists who seek to enroll the church in demonizing Israel serve neither peace nor justice for anybody.
I couldn’t have said it better.
It’s also worth reading this op-ed, written in opposition to the BDS motions at the Methodist Church, by Leon Jamaine Mithi. Mithi, who is from Zimbabwe and who says he grew up under South African apartheid, wrote,
I used to support the BDS movement, but I withdrew my support after I visited Israel and Palestine (the West Bank).
Having been there, having seen what the BDS movement calls “apartheid,” I have to say that calling Israel an apartheid state is an insult to black South Africans who suffered under the now defunct system of strict racial segregation.
And I feel a terrible loss of the true black South African apartheid narrative, because the term has been appropriated to wrongly label Israel when referring to conflict with Palestine.
It’s encouraging to see that people can still discern the truth about the dishonest BDS movement.
