Divestment follows a phased process that starts with attempted dialog and shareholder resolutions and ultimately the total sale of and future ban on the church's holdings in a company.
"[5] In June 2004, the PC(USA) General Assembly met in Richmond, Virginia, and adopted by a vote of 431–62 a resolution that called on the church's committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment "to initiate a process of phased, selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel".
The resolution expressed the church's support of the Geneva Accord, said that "the occupation ... has proven to be at the root of evil acts committed against innocent people on both sides of the conflict", "the security of Israel and the Israeli people is inexorably dependent on making peace with their Palestinian neighbors", "horrific acts of violence and deadly attacks on innocent people, whether carried out by Palestinian suicide bombers or by the Israeli military, are abhorrent and inexcusable by all measures, and are a dead-end alternative to a negotiated settlement", that the United States government needed to be "honest, even-handed broker for peace", supported the idea of a United Nations peacekeeping force to ensure security in Palestinian territory, and urged "the U.S. government, the government of Israel, and the Palestinian leadership to move swiftly, and with resolve, to recognize that the only way out of this chronic and vicious impasse is to abandon all approaches that exacerbate further strife, lay aside arrogant political posturing, and get on with forging negotiated compromises that open a path to peace".
In separate votes, the General Assembly also adopted policies rejecting Christian Zionism as being incompatible with Presbyterian theology on the grounds of it being an offshoot of "premillennial dispensationalism".
[12] In response, the PC(USA) General Assembly Council claimed that the PCUSA has "approved numerous resolutions on Israel and Palestine, repeatedly affirming, clearly and unequivocally, Israelis right to exist within permanent, recognized, and 'secure' borders".
[19] In June 2006, the Presbyterian Church (USA) 217th General Assembly overwhelmingly (483–28) replaced language adopted in 2004 that focused on the "phased, selective divestment" specifically on companies working in Israel.
The new language clarified that the church should pursue its aims through the customary engagement process of its Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment, which can include divestment but only as a last resort.
[24] This document stated that "Once again, many Presbyterians have become aware that strains of an old anti-Jewish tradition are present in the way we ourselves sometimes speak and in the rhetoric and ideas of some writers that we may read regarding" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.