Jan 14, 2016 Amnon Peery Evangelic, Christian 0
(PHOTO: REUTERS/NIR ELIAS): A woman uses an automated teller machine (ATM) outside a Bank Hapoalim branch in Tel Aviv May 30, 2013.
The board of the United Methodist Church’s $20 billion Pension and Health Benefits Fund has essentially blacklistedIsrael’s five largest banks by declaring them off limits for investment amid claims of human rights violations.
Mark Tooley, president of The Institute of Religion and Democracy who is also a lifelong member of the United Methodist Church, however, says the pension board’s decision is “unfortunate and embarrassing” and could likely harm relations between the United Methodist Church and the Jewish people.
The five banks — Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank and Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot — are on a list of 39 companies from a number of countries that have been declared off limits for not meeting the church’s Human Rights Investment Policy guideline implemented in 2015.
The New York Times claims that the banks “help finance settlement construction in what most of the world considers illegally occupied Palestinian territories.” The decision by the church is also noted as a part of the global Boycott, Divest and Sanction campaign, or B.D.S., which seeks to pressure Israel economically over the Palestinian issue.
Wespath, which is the investment management division of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church, explains the new investment policy on its website.
“The General Board’s Human Rights guideline reflects The United Methodist Church’s call for all general boards and agencies to ‘… make a conscious effort to invest in institutions, companies, corporations, or funds whose practices are consistent with the goals outlined in the Social Principles.’ (¶ 717) We are a global investor, and we actively influence the promotion and protection of human rights through constructive engagement by using our voice as shareholders to change company practices. We believe that engagement is the most effective strategy for us, and like-minded investors, to effect corporate change and improve human rights protections,” it states.
It further notes: “There are specific times, however, when we must recognize that a company is very unlikely — or unable to — discontinue activities in certain parts of the world that we have classified as ‘high-risk.’ When activities in high-risk countries and areas represent a significant part of a company’s business, we will avoid investing until the company has changed its business practices. Avoiding such investments supports our commitment to sustainable investing, which we believe ultimately improves the performance of our investment funds.”
Israel-Palestine, North Korea and several African and Middle Eastern countries round out a list of 14 nations identified as “high risk” because they “demonstrate a prolonged and systematic pattern of human rights abuses,” according to Wespath.
In a statement last Thursday, United Methodist Kairos Response, a group within the United Methodist Church that has been pushing for divestment over the Palestinian issue, said it was “the first time a major church pension fund has acted to preclude investment in Israeli banks that sustain Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.”
“We commend the pension fund for taking this significant step in disassociating from the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. But as United Methodist policy opposes the occupation, this is only a first step toward ending our financial complicity in the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people,” UMKR Co-Chair Rev. Michael Yoshii said in the statement.
Wespath removed Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi from the Church’s portfolios and also divested from Shikun & Binui, an Israeli company involved with construction in the settlements.
“UMKR is pleased to learn of these actions, while noting that Wespath still holds stock in 10 companies located inside the illegal settlements and in several others that lend important support to Israel’s occupation,” added the statement.
In an interview with CP on Wednesday, Tooley said: “I think that it potentially harms relations between the United Methodist Church and Jewish people and could impair interfaith relationships. But most of all I think it’s just unfortunate and embarrassing for the United Methodist Church, of which I am a lifelong member, and shows that we do our political witness very, very poorly and inaccurately.”
“Although the Christian Church should be outspoken about human rights and religious liberty, we tend to do it in a haphazard and uneven fashion at best.”
Tooley explained that while the pension board is saying the decision is simply overall action against a wide variety of companies from different countries based on human rights situations, it is unfair to lump Israel in with countries like North Korea for human rights abuses.
“It is unfair and does not accurately reflect United Methodist policy. Looking at the list of countries that were targeted for human rights abuses, it is pretty ridiculous to include Israel on the same list with North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Syria. Israel is just about the only functional democracy on the list, so the list itself wasn’t put together very thoughtfully,” he said.
Tooley also argued that pro-divestment groups like the UMKR, which are portraying the decision as a big anti-Israel move, are exaggerating facts to suit their agenda. He said he did not see any real ramifications for Israel and the Middle East as a result of the decision.
“For Israel, none; and for the Middle East, none. It’s all a very small amount of money and I don’t think anyone else is going to follow the example,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who has described the divestment movement as a campaign to destroy Israel, has not yet responded to the decision.
The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church is recognized as the largest faith-based benefit plans administrator and pension fund/investment asset manager in the U.S., and is ranked among the top 100 pension fund managers (based on assets under management) in the country.
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Menachem Begin in December 1942 wearing the Polish Army uniform of Gen. Anders’ forces with his wife Aliza and David Yutan; (back row) Moshe Stein and Israel Epstein
(photo credit: JABOTINSKY ARCHIVES)
During the inauguration of a memorial to the victims of the Siege of Leningrad in Jerusalem’s Sacher Park on January 24, 2020, before the climax of Holocaust remembrance events at which Russian President Vladimir Putin was given a central platform, we were stunned to hear a rendition of The Blue Kerchief (Siniy
Giant figures are seen during the 87th carnival parade of Aalst February 15, 2015
The annual carnival in Aalst, Belgium, is expected to take place on Sunday with even more antisemitic elements than in previous years.
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Pope Francis waves as he arrives at the Basilica of Saint Nicholas in the southern Italian coastal city of Bari, Italy February 23, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli.
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Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have reached an agreement to end a five-month long trade dispute, officials said on Thursday.
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Antisemitic caricatures on display at the annual carnival in Aalst, Belgium. Photo: Raphael Ahren via Twitter.
Disturbing images emerged on Sunday of the annual carnival at Aalst, Belgium, showing an astounding number of antisemitic themes, costumes, displays and statements.
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Feb 02, 2020 0
The remarks from the US official came in wake of the Palestinian decision to reject the administration’s peace plan. US PRESIDENT Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive to...The stench of anti-Semitism always hovers over Switzerland’s Lake Geneva when the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is meeting there. The foul emanations reached a new nadir last week with UNHRC’s publication of a “database” of companies doing business in the disputed territories in Israel.
Following the publication of the list, Bruno Stagno Ugarte, deputy director for advocacy of NGO Human Rights Watch, stated, “The long-awaited release of the U.N. settlement business database should put all companies on notice: To do business with illegal settlements [sic] is to aid in the commission of war crimes.”
One of the many things that annoys me about politicians is how sure they are of themselves. Everything is black and white. Every idea is good or bad. Take globalism, for example. You either love it or hate it. It works or it doesn’t.
Another thing that annoys me is how so much of a politician’s life revolves around power: Do everything you can to get it, and everything you can to keep it.
Why am I ranting? Because, while our politicians have been consumed with power and the media with the fights over power, a threat to our nation has been virtually ignored.
Blue and White Party leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid are establishing their diplomatic credentials in the immediate run-up to Israel’s March 2 election with an insult to a U.S. administration that has arguably provided Israel with more diplomatic gains than any previous administration.
The Times of Israel reported that at a campaign stop in front of English-speaking Israelis, Gantz accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “of neglecting bipartisan ties in favor of exclusive support from U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” under the headline “Gantz pledges to mend ties with U.S. Democrats if elected.”
Bipartisanship was in short supply at the State of the Union address earlier this month—with one notable exception.
Nancy Pelosi had been looking dyspeptic, shuffling the papers she would later rip to shreds, when President Donald Trump reminded his audience that “the United States is leading a 59-nation diplomatic coalition against the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.”
Suddenly, the House Speaker applauded. Trump then introduced “the true and legitimate president of Venezuela: Juan Guaidó.”
The law professor Alan Dershowitz has thrown a legal hand-grenade into America’s political civil war by claiming to have evidence that former President Barack Obama “personally asked” the FBI to investigate someone “on behalf” of Obama’s “close ally,” billionaire financier George Soros.
He made his cryptic remark in an interview defending U.S. President Donald Trump against claims he interfered in the prosecution of his former adviser, Roger Stone.