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Evangelical Lutherans Divest from Israel over 'Settlement' Activity

CBN

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JERUSALEM, Israel – The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America passed a resolution to end to all aid to Israel ostensibly until it ceases its "settlement" activity in Judea and Samaria.

A group within the organization, called Isaiah 58, posted a press release on the resolution.

The resolution calls for an end to investment in any company profiting from Israel's "occupation" and called on the U.S. president to recognize a Palestinian state.

The church further urged its membership to call "their U.S. Representatives, Senators and the Administration to take action requiring that to continue receiving U.S. financial and military aid, Israel must comply with internationally recognized human rights standards as specified in existing U.S. law, stop settlement building and the expansion of existing settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, end its occupation of Palestinian territory, and enable an independent Palestinian state."

It also called on the president to support membership of a Palestinian state at the United Nations and cites similar resolutions by the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (USA).

At the end of June, the Presbyterian Church USA passed several resolutions supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, calling the Jewish state's "policy trajectory of continued settlements and brutal occupation…deeply troubling."

"Not only does it make a two-state solution increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to achieve, but the emerging, de facto single state's systematic violation of Palestinian rights and democratic values is eroding Israel's moral legitimacy," the report states.

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