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Wiesenthal Center: Cracks in Support of Controversial Presbyterian Israel Divestment Campaign

July 23, 2004

Opposition to the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s campaign to divest from Israel has surfaced just days after its adoption at its just completed 216th General Assembly. The Reverend Stephen Kendall, Principal Clerk of the Presbyterian Church of Canada, responding to a request from the Canadian Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies stated that the Canadian Church has "not adopted any resolution with respect to divestment in Israel."

In a related development, Reverend J.W. Gregg Meister, an ordained PCUSA minister, who is president of the New Jersey-based Interlink Media, told officials of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, "The actions of the Presbyterian Church's General Assembly do not accurately reflect the beliefs and convictions of the people in the pews. We share with Israel belief in the same God and the same democratic system. No Arab state does. I am confident that the majority of people in our denomination strongly support Israel's right to exist and to defend itself."

Leo Adler, Director of National Affairs for Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies stated, "The Canadian Presbyterian Church, in refusing to go along with such a one-sided and inappropriate resolution, is, in fact helping the cause of peace."

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Center in Los Angeles noted, "The vicious canard that Israel is an apartheid state was first introduced at the infamous UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban South Africa just days before the 9/11 terror attacks. This ugly demonization of Israel has helped to create and sustain the culture of death and mass murder that has led to the deaths and maiming of thousands of Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Holy Land," added Rabbi Cooper who was the spokesman for the Jewish NGOs at that controversial Conference in 2001.

"The Jewish community and all supporters of Israel are buoyed by these voices within the Presbyterian faith community. The Wiesenthal Center will continue to seek out partners to debunk this big lie," he concluded.

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

[This article appeared originally at this link.]

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