...Ateek mentioned only one corporation: the U.S.-based Caterpillar, which sells construction equipment to Israel (as it does to almost every other nation on earth). Israel uses some of that equipment to demolish Palestinian homes in building its separation barrier between Jewish and Arab populations - and in other actions that Israel believes are necessary to prevent terrorist attacks...

...Ateek also indicated that he was not disagreeing with others who advocated sterner economic measures against Israel. "I think we need to encourage everything that is non-violent," he said, including "a boycott [of Israeli goods], which would be wonderful."...

..."I believe Jewish-Christian dialogue groups have been a problem," Ateek commented. In many cases, he said, Christians have been persuaded to oppose divestment "because they're so close to their [Jewish] friends." He did not acknowledge that Christians might have good reasons of their own to disagree with divestment - apart from any supposed deference to their Jewish friends...

...Ateek expressed his hope that "Hamas, which has been extremist in opposition, will have to be responsible in the government." He predicted that the group would be under domestic and international pressure to moderate its stands. "Hopefully, the pressure will change Hamas," Ateek said.

Then Ateek assumed the fulfillment of his wish: "Once Hamas changes, we will have a stronger non-violent movement." He remarked, "We're hoping that we can move Hamas and the Palestinian people" toward non-violence. The Palestinian Anglican did not address the possibility that Hamas might not be willing to change its longstanding and deeply held convictions, enshrined in its charter...

...The Anglican canon did not suggest any other means of exerting pressure on Hamas. Indeed, it appeared that Israel was the only actor that he wished to target for economic pressure. Ateek did not discuss human rights abuses committed by other governments in the region: the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, among others. Christians are suffering under those regimes, too. But Ateek did not call for any actions in solidarity with all those other oppressed Christians in the Middle East.

In his workshop presentation, Ateek did not attempt to rebut the main arguments that have been made against his divestment movement. In fact, he did not even mention those arguments: that there is no legitimate reason to single out Israel as a pariah state, that Israel has a right to defend its people from terrorism, that Israel has made and offered more substantive concessions for peace than any of its Arab neighbors, that corporations selling non-military goods (such as bulldozers) to Israel (among many other nations) are not responsible for how the Israeli government chooses to use those multi-purpose items, that divesting from such corporations would have little or no effect or their behavior or Israel's, and that isolating Israel economically would not advance the prospects for a Middle East peace agreement.

There was no demand from Ateek's audience for him to answer these arguments. That audience of 30 to 40 - mostly North American and Western European activists - already seemed persuaded of the case for divestment...