Divestment is just the beginning… and it’s long overdue – Rev. Chad Collins

The PCUSA’s decision to divest from Caterpillar, Motorola, and Hewlett Packard, has sent ripples of unifying hope and joy to the Palestinian people and their faithful supporters in Israel and abroad.

I recall the days leading up to the vote as being tense and nervous; at least it was for me. My wife Johanna and I were on Sabbatical in Palestine/Israel in June, during the 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). And after two weeks of living with Palestinians in Beit Sahour, Bethlehem, and Beit Safafa (near Jerusalem), it became very apparent to us how crucial the Presbyterian vote would be to our new friends and family, especially if the vote to divest failed again.

Prior to our pilgrimage to Palestine, Johanna and I read and studied about life in Palestine pre and post 1948 and had the great gift of a deep loving friendship with the late Presbyterian Pastor Rev Fuad Bahnan and his beloved wife Wadad, Palestinians who were both exiled from their home in Jerusalem in 1948. Therefore the struggle for Palestinian freedom was not new to us. But, as we expected, seeing and experiencing things first hand has moved us greatly.

We lived with a family whose husband/father had to awaken at 3am each day to wait in line at the checkpoint just to get to work by 9. We walked through checkpoints and were allowed through easily while our brother from Beit Sahour was harassed and questioned. We broke bread in the home of our young friend Mohammad who less than a year ago was shot in the face by Israeli soldiers for taking pictures of them. We sat for coffee with our 75-year-old friend Saad who the week before was tear gassed while praying in Al Aqsa Mosque. We met with a young Israeli woman who spent 6 months in jail for refusing to serve in the military because of its blatant brutality toward Palestinians. We witnessed the arrogance of AK47-carrying Jewish settlers walking the streets of Hebron, while knowing that no Palestinian is permitted to own a gun.

In just 2 weeks time what we knew from stories and books we came to know in our very beings. The situation of Palestine/Israel has become deeply personal for both of us.

So on the morning after the vote as I laid in bed, after a night of praying and checking the GA updates, Johanna awakened me with the news. And like many others all we could do was hold one another and weep for joy! Divestment had passed!!

Now I could tell my new Palestinian/Israeli brothers and sisters (Christian, Muslim, and Jewish) that they aren’t alone in their struggle for true justice and peace. I could tell them that the Presbyterians in the United States are listening to their cries. And though the PCUSA’s divestment is very small, in light of the blind and overwhelming support from our government for Israel and its military rule, it is a beginning. It is a glimmer of hope. It is a message of love and unity to a Palestinian people living under illegal occupation, living without access to their own water and farms, living in refugee camps waiting to return to their homes, living as second class citizens in the land of their foremothers and forefathers. Our GA vote is truly a sign of hope to God’s people who have been suffering for so long.

All that said, it must be clear to the PCUSA and to other believers in active justice and peace work that this divestment decision is not enough. It is only a beginning and is sadly long overdue.

While I understand that many of our fellow Presbyterians were not in agreement with this vote, it is time for us to continue responding with action to this growing injustice. One only has to look at the last 2 months to see the brutality of Israel’s political and military rule over Palestine/Israel. From the mass arrests and the midnight home invasions in the West Bank to the horror of the slaughter in Gaza, Israel’s policy is clear.  It wants all of the land and none of the Palestinian people. And this is only intensifying as Gaza is left in ruins and Prime Minister Netanyahu announces the annexing of 1,000 more acres of Palestinian homeland to be used for upscale Israeli settlements.

Like the apartheid regime in South Africa, freedom and justice and peace for Palestinians and Israelis will only come when like-minded believers in justice stand together and ACT!  It is clearer to me now more than ever that the lives of God’s Palestinian people (and God’s Jewish people) demand further action!  More words and conversations and careful diplomatic dialogue are not enough.

Being in Palestine/Israel sadly reminded me of our own nation’s horrifying history of slavery and Jim Crow and the deeply ingrained racist policies and practices that still rule our land. As followers of Christ, we know that there will always be evil and sin in this world and as others have done for thousands of years we must follow Jesus and speak prophetically against such evil and stand up to it with our very lives. As Presbyterians, this is our history: to do justice.  So as we have done, let us continue to do.

We have now taken action by divestment. Let us not rest there. Let us continue to divest, to boycott, to fight peacefully and powerfully for justice and peace in Palestine/Israel.  Let us reach out to Christians throughout the US to join this movement. Let us continue to build bridges with our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters who believe in the same peace and justice we hold so dear in our hearts. Let us continue to put our faith in the One who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to the Prince of Peace be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Rev. Chad Collins is pastor of Valley View Presbyterian Church (2005 – present) in the Garfield neighborhood of inner-city Pittsburgh.  He graduated in 1998 from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor’s Degree in Africana Studies (Black Studies) and he earned his M.Div. in 2005 from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.  Much of his ministry has focused on community and church engagement with issues of institutionalized racism, poverty, and violence, including police brutality and public education in Pittsburgh.  Chad is married to Johanna and from that union they have five wonderful children: 13 year old daughter Nesta, 11 year old daughter Micaiah, 9 year old daughter Sweet Peace, 7 year old son Angelo and 5 year old son Sabeel.  Their sabbatical was supported by a grant from the Lilly Foundation for Clergy Renewal.