On April 30th, the United Methodist Church (UMC) officially voted to divest from Israel because it is an occupier country, taking and occupying Palestinian land. The denomination also voted to divest from Turkey and Morocco for the same reasons.
This is the first divestment action by a major Christian denomination.
The official language called on boards and agencies within the United Methodist Church to “add to their human rights guidelines explicit language with regard to governmental debt so as to exclude those governments maintaining a prolonged military occupation that have been the subject of United Nations Security Council resolutions and/or International Court of Justice rulings…until the time when each government ends their military occupation.”
The UMC already had a global boycott of products made by Israeli companies occupying Palestinian land. The denomination has also refuses to invest in five Israeli banks, the Israeli company Shikun & Binui, and the international corporation G4S – all of which are connected with illegal Israeli settlements and violations of Palestinian human rights.
This newest action stops the UMC from investing in Israel’s sovereign debt. Around 0.12% of denominations total investments were in the sovereign debt of Israel, Morocco, and Turkey at the end of 2023.
Clearly, this divestment won’t have a huge impact on Israel (though it can if more organizations do the same).
Still, this is more than a symbolic gesture.
This is about divesting from violence and oppression.
This is about taking seriously where we invest our money because where our treasure is, our heart is found (Matthew 6:21).
This is about taking seriously Matthew 25 and that what we do to the “least of these” we do to Christ.
This is about loving our neighbors and refusing to help harm, bomb, starve, and kill them.
This is about being faithful followers of the way of Jesus.
We may not be able to change everything.
But we can change this.
And we can be faithful to our hearts, spirits, and how Christ calls us to live and love.
