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| The Church of Scotland to discuss divestment
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The Church of Scotland will discuss later this month pulling out their investments in Israeli companies at their annual General Assembly meeting in Edinburgh, it has been revealed.
The Church and Society Council, one of the Scottish church’s most influential bodies, will present a report, titled “Investment in Palestine and Israel”, to raise the issue and “show solidarity to the Palestinian people”.
This follows the Church of England’s decision in February to disinvest in companies whose products Israel uses in the territories. However last month the Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group voted against divestment.
Negotiation call
The report makes a number of proposals including the call for Israel to negotiate with Hamas and that the World Council of Churches coordinate a listing of products available whose source is the “illegal settlements”.
The report says: “It is concerned that the lucrative markets for British and Western armaments have blinded us to our responsibilities to the poor and oppressed in the Middle East”.
The General Assembly, the highest court of the Church, has the authority to make laws determining how the Church of Scotland operates.
David Alexander, a member of the committee, said: “The issue is with the occupation of territories that are illegally occupied in terms of UN conventions. It will not command 100 percent support, but the council was unanimous in supporting it as a very considered statement of the issues and a very even-handed approach to both communities.”
Suggesting “positive investment in the Occupied Territories” as a better instrument, he added: “It may mean the church looking at investment in firms involved in, for example, housing developments or water supply in Palestine.”
Palestinian issues
The report maintains Israeli policy “deliberately undermines economic efforts by and on behalf of the Palestinian people, drawing particular attention to the issues of water”.
A 2001 Church and Nation Committee report on Jerusalem led the General Assembly to recognised “the illegal occupation of Palestinian land as a fundamental difficulty”.
The divestment call follows a 2004 report on the “separation wall” that states, “Thousands of hectares of heavily cultivated Palestinian farmland have ended or will end up on the Israeli side.”
Based on this evidence, the new report mentions the “frustration that nothing seems to move on and that far from using economic levers to promote peace and justice, the West seem only to engage those levers to reward and support an illegal occupation”.
One of the report’s findings is that the Church of Scotland’s money “has not been connected with oppressive practices in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land”.
It calls also on the EU to ensure the clear labelling of products that come from settlements so that “consumers can make an informed decision on whether or not to purchase them”.
While there is no direct call for the cessation of terror activities, the report says, “The time has now come for Hamas to depart from those aspects of its previous rhetoric and actions which have been aimed at the destruction of Israel, in order to be a proper and effective government for the Palestinian people.”
A Church of Scotland spokesman said, “This issue will be discussed at the General Assembly in May, representatives from presbyteries and congregations across Scotland will have the opportunity to debate the whole of the report.”
“The delegates, known as commissioners to the Assembly, will be able to approve, amend or reject this proposal as they see fit.”
Proposal condemned
The divestment proposal was condemned by Sister Margaret Shepherd, director of the Council of Christians and Jews,
She said, “Israelis recently voted to give up much of the West Bank, despite its immense strategic significance and threats posed by its new government. It is quite clear that now is a time to encourage and promote negotiation, rather than making financial gestures which will not benefit anyone.”
“Divestment has been immensely hurtful for a Jewish community that is close to Israel and facing renewed threats of anti-Semitism in this country, but it is important not to exaggerate its significance.
Simon McIlwaine, coordinator of Anglicans for Israel, echoed the concerns. “It beggars belief that members of a supposedly Protestant and evangelical Church should seek to place it at the disposal of radical Islamists like Hamas who seek to expunge the Jewish and Christian presence from the Holyland,” he said.
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