NEW YORK (Dispatches) – The Presbyterian Church (USA), the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S., has voted overwhelmingly to recognize Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza as a genocide, making it the first major U.S. church to adopt such a designation.
The General Assembly approved the measure by a vote of 454 to 15, also calling on church members to boycott Israeli products and lobby Congress for an arms embargo against Israel. 
The denomination further voted to divest from two U.S. firms—Palantir Technologies and General Electric Aerospace—over their ties to Israel’s military and intelligence services.
Palantir, a data analysis firm with close ties to the CIA, provides artificial intelligence applications that assist the Israeli military in developing “kill lists” of Palestinians, according to the church’s resolution. 
General Electric Aerospace supplies engines and manufacturing components used in military assaults in Gaza that human rights organizations have deemed war crimes.
Reverend Dr Fahed Abu Akel, a Palestinian-American and former moderator of the PCUSA, who survived the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, addressed the assembly.
“We have been silent on the destruction of most of the schools, universities, hospitals, mosques and churches—all of which were done with our American-made weapons and dollars. Siblings in Christ, in the name of the living Christ, we cannot be silent on this matter any longer.”
Reverend Marietta Macy, co-moderator of the church’s Palestine Justice Network, welcomed the decision, stating: “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 church has previously divested from companies implicated in Israeli war crimes. In 2014, it divested from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions for providing equipment used in Israel’s illegal occupation and colonization of Palestinian territories. 
Last year, the denomination voted to divest from Israeli bonds and approved a resolution denouncing Christian Zionism.
Reverend Dr Naim Ateek, a Palestinian Anglican who heads the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in occupied Al-Quds, has said that Christian Zionism contradicts the teachings of the New Testament and should be viewed as a heresy. 
He says the doctrine violates Christ’s message of love, justice, and peace, and its prophecy of a world ending in violence contradicts the view of a loving and merciful God, instead endorsing a tribalism based on racial exclusivity.
Israel has killed more than 75,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, though independent estimates are significantly higher. The death toll includes 17 Palestinian Christians in Gaza.