All of a sudden, divestment has become the new craze, the must-do accessory for the terrorists-as-victims crowd. The Methodists’ conference will this week hear calls to follow the Anglicans in divesting from companies supporting Israel’s ‘illegal occupation of Palestine’. War on Want is launching ‘a new Palestine campaign in order to call for sanctions on Israel, oppose the construction of the separation wall and boycott Caterpillar who supply bulldozers to the Israeli military.’ In the US the United Church of Christ and the Episcopal church are considering following the Presbyterian example into divestment. As NGO Monitor points out, this is a strategy that was sanctioned by the profoundly Judeophobic Durban conference which took place a few days before 9/11:

‘The NGOs involved in the 2001 Durban conference articulated the strategy of using boycotts and divestment campaigns to de-legitimize Israel. Many of the NGOs using the rhetoric of human rights and humanitarian aid have pursued different forms of boycotts. In this process, their reports on Israel policy are increasingly aimed at justifying the individual boycotts that support the wider effort. For example, HRW's allegations regarding Israeli military activities in Gaza (November 2004) provided the springboard for subsequent participation in the boycott campaign focusing on the Caterpillar Corporation. Amnesty International has also used its public relations and political organization to press Caterpillar to end sales to Israel . In Britain, many of the major NGOs, such as "Christian Aid" and "War on Want" contributed directly and indirectly in creating the foundation used in the attempt to justify the academic boycott. And the numerous Palestinian NGOs that are often financed by European governments and church groups provided the language and faulty rationales that propelled the AUT boycott and the church divestment campaigns.’

It’s a truly fantastic situation where bodies that purport to be committed to the highest ideals of religious morality and social justice, so much so that they are considered immune from the kind of sceptical interrogation applied to any other public bodies, have actually turned themselves into accessories to mass murder, Judeophobia and the revival of the blood libel in modern garb. They now form a monstrous parallel universe, a profound threat to the values of the entire civilised world that they are doing so much to corrupt and undermine by their assault upon the Jews.

Posted by melanie at June 28, 2005