SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER: UCC ANTI-ISRAEL RESOLUTIONS "FUNCTIONALLY ANTISEMITIC"

The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed outrage over the last minute decision by the United Church of Christ (UCC) Synod that urged divestment from American companies doing business with Israel, and the UCC resolution demanding Israel tear down its anti-terror security fence.

"There is a genocide in Darfur, an occupied people in Tibet, persecutions of religious leaders in China, the disappearing of Christians into the North Korean Gulag, but the UCC leadership has passed a divestment resolution against only one nation, the nation of Israel," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center. "The UCC Synod has also voted to demand that Israel lay her citizens defenseless before Palestinian suicide terror. By treating Israel within a different moral yardstick that the rest of the world, these moves are functionally antisemitic, undercut the forces of peace and moderation, and embolden the forces of terrorism. Finally, these resolutions make a mockery of a previous commitment by the UCC to combat antisemitism. The concerns, hopes and aspirations of world Jewry have been swept aside and relations with the Jewish community have been severely damaged," Cooper continued.

The divestment vote shocked many observers since the UCC official website is still assserting that the General Synod would reject divestment, but would "adopt broader strategies of economic and other engagement to work for peace in the Middle East."

"By virtue of these actions, the UCC has disqualified itself as a legitimate partner for a just and equitable peace in the Holy Land," Rabbi Cooper concluded.

Last Friday, Rabbi Cooper convened a news conference with UCC activists to oppose resolutions which called for the divestment from U.S. companies doing business with Israel.

We urge people who have not yet signed the Simon Wiesenthal Center's protest to do so immediately by using this link.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

For more information, contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.