PCUSA, American Academy of Religion call Gaza war a genocide

(RNS) — The largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States voted Tuesday evening (June 30) to recognize Israel’s war in Gaza as a genocide, two days after the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) unanimously voted to divest from Palantir Technologies and General Electric Aerospace over technologies used in the war.

Tuesday’s vote at the denomination’s General Assembly in Milwaukee passed 454-15 and called for Presbyterians to also lobby Congress for an arms embargo against Israel and to boycott Israeli products that contribute to the war.

Additionally, the American Academy of Religion adopted a Resolution in Solidarity with Gaza last week condemning the Israeli government for the war in Gaza, calling it a genocide. The association of religious studies scholars that boasts 6,000 members worldwide referred to the war at its Annual Business Meeting in Atlanta as a “scholasticide,” or an “intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system.” The motion was approved by 98% of members, according to a news release. 

The religious organizations’ resolutions add to growing criticism accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza — a claim Israel has repeatedly denied. 

Since the war in Gaza began after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by the Palestinian Authority. Almost a third of the reported casualties have been children, according to a United Nations Human Rights Council investigative body. Additionally, according to the U.N., 2 million Gazans are displaced, leaving swaths of Palestinians suffering from starvation, dehydration, inadequate shelter, poor sanitation, environmental exposure and other continued risks caused by the war.

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches across the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

On Tuesday, the U.S. House deliberated an amendment to cut funding for Israel. The bill was spearheaded by Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie but has mostly received support from House Democrats.

PCUSA’s decision to divest from Palantir and GE reflects the two corporations’ active roles in conflicts that have drawn condemnation from humanitarian groups, the denomination said. 

Palantir Technologies, a data analysis and technology firm that provides militaries with artificial intelligence, has used its technologies to support the Israel Defense Forces post-Oct. 7, according to a UN report. Al Jazeera reported Palantir’s software has been instrumental in interpreting data to develop “kill lists” for the Israeli military. 

General Electric provides Israel with engines and manufacturing components that have been used in military assaults deemed war crimes by human rights organizations, PCUSA wrote in its analysis.

This week’s votes are not the first time PCUSA has criticized Israel and divested from corporations. In 2014, the denomination divested in three companies — Caterpillar, Inc., Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions  — that provided Israel with equipment to aid in the occupation of Palestinian territories. And in 2024, PCUSA voted to divest from Israel bonds and approved a resolution denouncing Christian Zionism. The denomination began considering divestment from GE and Palantir the same year.

“We are pleased that the denomination has taken meaningful steps to address the genocide and other gross human rights abuses against Palestinians and others around the world,” the Rev. Marietta Macy, the co-moderator of the Palestine Justice Network of the PCUSA, said in a recent news release.

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Abdullah Moussa, 30, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, during his funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The International Association of Genocide Scholars, a group with 500 members that includes Holocaust experts, accused Israel of genocide last year.

Last month, a U.N. commission reported that Israeli forces deliberately shot at Palestinian children’s “vital organs using precision weapons such as quadcopters and snipers” and inflicted “death and severe bodily and mental harm” to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children “through (the) use of high impact weapons” on residential buildings, schools and displacement camps. In targeting children, Israel is “intend(ing) to destroy the existence of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group,” the report concluded.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the report “a propaganda piece as outrageous as its previous ones” and “libelous,” The Washington Post reported. 

Church investment is a direct “instrument of mission,” PCUSA wrote in its initial considerations. PCUSA noted in its analysis that GE’s materials have also been used in alleged war crimes in Yemen and for the forced migration and re-education of China’s Uyghur population, and that Palantir’s technology has been used in human rights violations against asylum seekers in the U.S.

The Rev. Marcella Glass, chair of the Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment of the PCUSA, told RNS that her committee began “focused engagement with Palantir and GE Aerospace on human rights concerns in conflict-affected” areas in 2024. The engagement included dialogue and filing shareholder resolutions with both companies.

“Despite our engagement, both companies continue to provide products or services to customers that are credibly accused of human rights or international humanitarian law violations with no sign of slowing down or changing course,” Glass said. Therefore, MRTI recommended PCUSA divest from both companies.

“We pray that this action motivates both companies to take a hard look at their connections to human rights violations and end these practices,” Glass added. She noted that if either company were to end its contracts “with customers connected to human rights violations” or stop “providing services connected to such violations,” MRTI would recommend their removal from the divestment list to a future General Assembly.

Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, associate director of religious and cultural organizing at Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist group, told RNS in a statement that PCUSA’s decision to divest from Palantir and GE “marks yet another important milestone in the growing movement to hold the Israeli government and military accountable.” 

It is unclear how the recent PCUSA and American Academy of Religion resolutions will be received by mainstream Jewish leaders and groups. But before PCUSA’s 2014 divestment vote, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, asked the denomination to reconsider, claiming that “a vote for divestment will cause a painful rift with the great majority of the Jewish community.”

The Union for Reform Judaism declined an RNS request for comment.