Clinton Blasts Israel Boycott Ahead Of Methodist Church Vote

TEL AVIV – Hillary Clinton reiterated her position that the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement is an impediment to peace ahead of her Methodist church’s bid to join the Israel boycott, the Times of Israel reported.  

“I believe that BDS seeks to punish Israel and dictate how the Israelis and Palestinians should resolve the core issues of their conflict,” wrote Clinton in a two-page letter to the Israel Action Network.

The letter was in response to the pro-Israel group’s appeal to the Democratic candidate to support Israel ahead of the Methodists’ efforts to divest from companies that allegedly profit from West Bank settlements.

The companies are Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola.

Clinton was raised a practicing Methodist.

During the quadrennial United Methodist Church General Conference in Portland, Oregon next Tuesday, four anti-Israel resolutions will come under review. This follows the Methodists’ pension fund removing five Israeli banks from its investment portfolio in January.

“I know you agree that we need to make countering BDS a priority, and that we need to work together — across party lines and with a diverse array of voices — to reverse this trend with information and advocacy, and fight back against further attempts to isolate and delegitimize Israel,” Clinton’s letter said.

“When anti-Semitism is on the rise across the world, we need to repudiate forceful efforts to malign and undermine Israel and the Jewish people. Anti-Semitism has no place in any civilized society – not in America, not in Europe, not anywhere. We must never tire in defending Israel’s legitimacy, expanding security and economic ties, and taking our alliance to the next level.”

“I stand ready to be your partner as we engage all people of good faith — regardless of their political persuasion or their views on policy specifics — in explaining why the BDS campaign is counterproductive to the pursuit of peace and harmful to Israelis and Palestinians alike,” the letter concluded.

The BDS movement has already had a series of successes with different Christian denominations, including the United Church of Christ in 2015 and the Presbyterian Church (USA) a year earlier.