PALO ALTO, Calif. — As their biannual meeting concluded last week, Presbyterian Church leaders took some actions that irritated Jewish groups, but steered clear of the talk of divestment from Israel that ignited a firestorm in Presbyterian-Jewish relations in 2004.

On Friday, the church’s general assembly, in a 504-171 vote, approved a resolution endorsing a proposal for Middle East peace crafted in Jordan last year. Known as the Amman Call, the plan includes a “right of return” for Palestinian Arabs that Israel has rejected because it could produce a wave of immigration that would mean the demise of Israel as a Jewish state.

During debate on the measure at the meeting in San Jose, a church staffer told church members that the “right of return” as used in the Amman Call comprised both a literal right to return and an alternative involving financial compensation for Palestinians not returning.

An explicit mention of divestment was stripped from the resolution by the church’s Peacemaking Committee earlier last week, though the measure still urges “engagement” on human rights issues with two American companies singled out by anti-Israel groups, Caterpillar and Motorola.

The peacemaking panel narrowly passed a resolution urging a suspension of American military aid to Israel, but the measure, tied to alleged human rights violations and targeting of civilians by Israel, was later defeated in a show of hands by the church’s general assembly.

The Presbyterian congress did adopt a separate resolution calling for an evenhanded approach to the conflict. “We will not over-identify with the realities of the Israelis of Palestinians,” the measure, supported by church members sympathetic to Israel, said. “We will avoid taking very broad stands that simplify a very complex situation into a caricature of reality where one side clearly is at fault and the other side is clearly the victim.”

“We welcome the movement by Presbyterians toward balance. However, concerns remain,” a spokesman for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and other Jewish groups, Ethan Felson, said in a written statement. “We hope that the new policy of nonpartisanship will motivate the church to recognize the need to exert pressure on companies operating in Iran and Syria, state sponsors of terror. … The cause of a secure and just peace, a goal we very much share, will be furthered by the more nuanced approach sought by the general assembly.”

In another heated debate, the Presbyterian gathering voted, 380-325, to set in motion a process to repeal completely the church’s ban on ordaining gays and lesbians.