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Presbyterian Church (USA) Rethinks Divestment, Adopts Universal Approach

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has backed away from calling for divestment from Israel. At its assembly in Birmingham, Alabama, delegates voted in favor of a resolution that calls for church holdings relating to Israel and the Palestinian territories to be "invested in only peaceful pursuits." The church had been at the center of a raging debate over divesting from Israel as a political statement about its relationship with the Palestinians. Some observers credited an impassioned speech by former CIA director James Woolsey, himself a Presbyterian, who said that the church’s 2004 resolution calling for "phased divestment" placed the Presbyterian Church (USA) "clearly on the side of theocratic, totalitarian, anti-Semitic, genocidal beliefs, and nothing less."