The United Methodist Church (UMC) is facing pressure from members of its congregation who are encouraging the church to divest from companies "harming the Palestinians."
Across the nation, protests against the Mideast war have broken out, with demonstrators calling for organizations to divest from companies with ties to Israel. Hundreds of students have set up protest camps at colleges across the nation, including more than 100 pro-Palestinian student demonstrators that are camped out on Columbia University's main lawn to protest the war and demand that their school divest from companies linked to Israel.
Law enforcement personnel have been deployed at several colleges in response to the demonstrations, including at the University of Texas at Austin last week, and protester arrests are nearing 900 nationwide. Israel and many of its supporters have called the college protests antisemitic and say they pose a threat to the safety of Jewish students.
The nationwide protests are in response to Israel's ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip, which began after Hamas' attack on southern Israel on October 7, when militants killed about 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostages. In the months since, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Associated Press reports, citing the Gaza Ministry of Health.
On April 25, United Methodists gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina, for a rally as the General Conference—the church's top legislative body—began meeting for its first legislative gathering in five years. The General Conference, which runs until May 3, will consider several historic changes, including potentially lifting the UMC's long-standing ban on same-sex marriage, according to the AP.
Petitions regarding the church's response to Israel's military actions in Gaza and its West Bank occupation will appear before the General Conference. United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR) is hoping the petitions will urge the church to take action.
UMKR is a grassroots effort that launched in October 2010. Contributors signed a document that served as an "urgent plea from Christians in the Holy Land for decisive action in support of a just peace."
Newsweek reached out to the UMKR and UMC by email for comment.
UMKR has worked on multiple petitions appearing during the General Conference, UM News reported, including one that opposes Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank. The April 25 rally, which included more than 100 delegates and observers and six UMC bishops, was held in support of the petitions. The UMKR is urging the UMC to divest from companies linked to Israel.
"We hope that the church would not invest in companies that are harming the Palestinians," said Theresa Basile, the UMKR's communications director. "And we want to ensure that American tax dollars are not being used to support the detention of children. There is a generation growing up in fear."
Other petitions regarding Palestine appearing before the General Conference call "for an end to detention and incarceration of children, protecting the right to peacefully address injustice through economic means such as boycotts, and calling on all parties to honor resolutions made by the United Nations," UM News reported.
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