United Methodists are responding to Kairos Palestine: A Moment of Truth ,a statement of faith and urgent call to action from Christians in Palestine. UMKR seeks, through nonviolent means and in partnership with Palestinian Christians, freedom, justice and equality for all Palestinians and Israelis.
🔸= Something New or Recently Updated
(GBCS) "OPPOSITION TO ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS IN
PALESTINIAN LAND"
"ADDRESSING ISRAELI
DETENTION OF CHILDREN"
"EXCLUDE GOVERNMENT
DEBT OF COUNTRIES INVOLVED IN PROLONGED MILITARY OCCUPATIONS"
UMKR has submitted groundbreaking legislation to General Conference with a resolution and a petition that make the moral and legal connections between Israel's occupation and illegal colonization of Palestinian territory and two other international situations that involve similarly egregious violations of international law and human rights. The proposed amendment to the UMC Book of Discipline would direct church investors to apply a consistent standard to our global investments, one that recognizes Israel is not alone in its violations of human rights through occupation and colonization.
We note that Wespath, the UMC's Pensions board, has submitted legislation with similar language but without specifying prolonged military occupation. It does encourage investors to engage with governments to create positive change and hold them accountable for their actions, while also excluding those who don't act responsibly.
UMKR believes that engaging with a government is very likely to prove futile. We believe the church should not buy sovereign debt of countries acting irresponsibly. We prefer the more restrictive wording in Petition 20267 (see the summary and link for full text below). However, if either of the amendments to Paragraph 717 is adopted by the General Conference, UMKR will consider it to be a significant step forward for our denomination's global leadership in faith-based investing.
Did you know? The United Methodist Church has the world's largest reported pension fund for a faith-based institution.
SUMMARY: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child mean little in many countries where children are imprisoned and abused.
In this resolution, the UMC formally endorses the application of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as it relates to incarcerated children. The church charges GBCS, in consultation with GBGM and UMW, to formulate recommendations for United Methodists to engage in education and action on this important issue.
To see the full text on our website, download the resolution,
and LEARN MORE with resources on this subject:CLICK HERE
The UMC General Conference 2024
(postponed from 2020):
Legislation & Resources on Israel/Palestine
PETITION #20267
Amend ¶717 in the UMC Book of Discipline: "Sustainable and Socially Responsible Investment"
LEGISLATION SUBMITTED BY THE UMC GENERAL BOARD OF GLOBAL MINISTRIES (GBGM) AND GENERAL BOARD OF CHURCH AND SOCIETY (GBCS)
Endorsed and supported by UMKR
The United Methodist General Boards GBGM and GBCS have submitted three important resolutions pertaining to Palestine/Israel to the 2024 General Conference. These resolutions uphold long-standing positions of the UMC that support a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land. These are renewals – with a few amendments – of current UMC resolutions due to expire in 2024. (UMC General Conference resolutions expire after eight years unless renewed.)
(GBGM)
"HOLY LAND TOURS"
(GBCS) "UNITED NATIONS
RESOLUTIONS ON THE
ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT"
The ADCA for GC 2024
The Advance Daily
Christian Advocate collects
all the legislation submitted
to General Conference,
along with a great deal of
other information about the
event. It is published in the
four official languages of
General Conference: English, French, Kiswahili, and Portuguese.
The legislative numbers we refer to on our site are found in the ADCA.
Volume 2, Section 1 has a lot of the legislation in UMKR's legislative slate. However, Petition #20267, to amend ¶717 in the Book of Discipline, can be found in Volume 2, Section 2.
Volume 3, the Supplement:
Because General Conference was postponed for
several years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, new legislation was accepted for submission in 2023.
As a result, a Supplement to the ADCA has been published in 2024. It also has several important pieces of legislation pertaining to Palestine/Israel.
Download all parts of the ADCA
SUMMARY: This resolution pertains to three prolonged military occupations that are in violation of international law: Turkey's occupation of Northern Cyprus, Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara, and Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory. All of these occupations involve illegal colonization of the occupied territory, all deny the occupied population their right to self-determination, and the United Nations has called for all three to end.
The resolution calls for United Methodist boards, agencies and investment managers to exclude investment in the government bonds of these three occupying powers.
Petition #20267 supports the above resolution. It calls for amendment of Paragraph 717 in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, which is titled Sustainable and Socially Responsible Investment. Paragraph 717 lays out some of the UMC's major investment policies. Petition #20267 would add the following text to that paragraph: "United Methodist institutions should similarly not hold sovereign or government debt in states conducting prolonged military occupations as they violate international law and human rights standards."
To see full text on our website, download the resolution and petition,
and LEARN MORE on this subject:CLICK HERE
________________________________________________________________________________
SUMMARY: This resolution is another that would expire this year, if not renewed by the General Conference. It draws upon on the core principles of international law and U.N. resolutions as the basis for equality and just peace for all in Israel/Palestine.
In this resolution, the church calls upon “the United States and all permanent members of the UN Security Council, to accept the authority of Security Council resolutions, to refrain from vetoing resolutions, and abide by Security Council Resolutions 242, 338, and 2334, as well as all other relevant UN resolutions and International Court of Justice rulings, that provide a framework for bringing this conflict to a just and permanent end.”
To see the full text on our website, download the resolution,
and LEARN MORE with resources about this subject:CLICK HERE
SUMMARY: This seminal resolution of the UMC is due to expire this year unless renewed by the General Conference. It describes the conditions of the Israeli occupation and states the UMC position:
“The United Methodist Church opposes continued military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and also the Syrian Golan Heights, the con fiscation of Palestinian land and water resources, the destruction of Palestinian homes, the continued blockade of Gaza where over half the residents are children, the military detention of Palestinian children—often without trial—the continued building of illegal Jewish settlements, and any vision of a “Greater Israel” that includes the occupied territories and the whole of Jerusalem and its surroundings.”
The actions that this resolution calls for include: a global ban on importing products from Israeli settlements, an end to all arms sales to the region and all arms purchases from there, a redistribution of the large military aid given to Israel and Egypt to fund humanitarian work such as UNRWA’s, and all companies to stop any business activities that support ongoing military occupation.
To see the full text on our website, download the resolution,
and LEARN MORE with resources on this subject:CLICK HERE
LEGISLATION SUBMITTED BY UMKR, MFSA, LYNC, AND PARTNERS
These three resolutions have been submitted to the United Methodist General Conference by UMKR, and our partners: Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA), the Executive Committee of the Love Your Neighbor Coalition (LYNC),
and several regional task forces in the United States.
UMKR BROCHURE ON
GC 2020 LEGISLATION for the
PRE-CONFERENCE BRIEFING
January 2020, Nashville, TN
Summaries of our slate of legislation for GC 2024
The same summaries found on our GC 2024 page and with
the endorsement forms,
in one 4-page file.
Download it, share it:
"PROTECTING THE RIGHT
TO PEACEFULLY ADDRESS INJUSTICE"
LEGISLATION SUBMITTED BY UMKR
SUMMARY: Every year, hundreds of Palestinian children are detained by Israeli military forces, taken out of occupied territory into Israel, interrogated without any adult to help them, and physically abused. This treatment of Palestinian children has been documented over decades by world-respected organizations.
The United States is the only member of the United Nations that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In recent years, legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Congress to prevent US military aid from financing Israeli military abuse of Palestinian children.
This resolution calls on the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), in consultation with Global Ministries (GBGM) and United Methodist Women (UMW), to formulate recommendations for how United Methodists can take action on this issue, and in particular, how to advocate with lawmakers and leaders worldwide and especially in the United States.
To see the full text on our website, download the resolution,
and LEARN MOREwith resources on this subject:CLICK HERE
SUMMARY: Boycotts have been useful tools for social change, used by the UMC and other religious communities. Boycott campaigns are an expression of our political beliefs and are a protected form of speech in the US and many other nations. Today, that right to free speech is under attack. Laws are being adopted that would impose penalties on individuals and businesses for engaging in boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns that pertain to Israel or Israeli policies.
The United Methodist Church has called for a global ban on products from Israeli settlements in occupied territory. Wespath, the church’s Board of Pensions, has put five Israeli banks on a ‘No Buy’ list, due to violations of Palestinians human rights (supporting the illegal Israeli settlements.)
In this resolution, the UMC “opposes any interference by any local, regional, or national government in our right to address injustice through nonviolent economic means.” The church also urges all members and church bodies to contact local and national government leaders to advocate against this suppression of our rights.
To see the full text on our website, download the resolution,
and LEARN MORE with resources on this subject:CLICK HERE
FIND RESOURCES ON SPECIFIC TOPICS in each piece of legislation, at these pages:
• Addressing Israeli Detention of Children
• Child Incarceration
• Protecting the Right to Peacefully Address Injustice
• Opposition to Israeli Settlements in Palestinian Land
• United Nations Resolutions...Israel-Palestine Conflict
• Exclude Government Debt of Countries Involved in Prolonged Occupations
Summary: This resolution calls on United Methodists to practice responsible tourism when visiting the Holy Land, and consider more than ancient history and biblical sites. Provides guidelines for what United Methodists should do on their trips, includingstaying overnight in Bethlehem, spending time discussing the concerns of Palestinian Christians and other justice advocates,
getting advice and help in planning their trip from UMC agencies and missionaries, and several more recommendations.
Palestinian Christians have long implored their fellow believers around the world to “come and see” the reality of their lives under military occupation. This resolution urges all United Methodist leaders to hear that urgent call and to plan their tours in the Holy Land with the intention to see and learn about current conditions there and to use well this unique opportunity to “share in the vocation of peacemaking.”
See the full resolution hereandLEARN MORE on this subject here.
Download a four-page summary of UMKR's slate of legislation for GC2024:
In color
__________________________________________________________________________________
"CHILD INCARCERATION"