wfn.org | [ENS] 'Positive investment' in Israel-Palestine central to Council

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Sunday, October 9, 2005

'Positive investment' in Israel-Palestine central to Council action

By Mary Frances Schjonberg

ENS 100905-1

[Episcopal News Service] The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church
directed its Social
Responsibility in Investments (SRI) committee to use the church's
investments to encourage
positive change in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

The action, which affirms "positive investment" and "corporate
engagement,"
came on
October 8 during the council's fall meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"Our recommendation is not divestment, which I think some people were
anticipating," the
Rev. Canon Kate J. Cullinane, associate dean of Christ Church Cathedral,
Indianapolis,
Indiana, and SRI committee chair, told the council.

Cullinane said that to divest would mean to walk away. "We're going to
stay
involved," she
told the council.

The council based its resolution on the recommendations in a report from
the
SRI committee.
The report did not recommend divestment because "the goal is for
selected
companies to
change behavior resulting in a more hopeful climate for peace. If the
church
simply divests,
nothing positive has happened."

The council's resolution fits into the Episcopal Church's long-standing
policy of supporting a
two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians,
said
committee member
Kim Byham.

Cullinane also noted that the resolution deals with the Palestinian
Territories rather than
Israel. The committee chose that approach because Israel exists as a
state
and has a right to
have an economy that flourishes. She said that the committee wants to
engage
in efforts that
help Palestinians achieve the same status.

The resolution directed the SRI committee to "engage in dialogue with
and,
where
appropriate, to file shareholder resolutions" with companies in which
the
church invests who
operate in the Occupied Territories and "whose products or services
contribute to violence
against either side, or contribute to the infrastructure that supports
and
sustains the
Occupation."

Such infrastructure includes settlements and their bypass roads, the
security barrier where it
is built on Palestinian land, and demolition of Palestinian homes.

The council said that the committee should also use the same tools of
dialogue and
shareholder resolutions to encourage companies in which the church owns
shares that are in
a position to support economic development in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip.

The council recommended that Episcopal Church-related bodies which have
invested assets
join with other religious organizations, denominations and institutions
to
invest in West Bank
and Gaza Strip infrastructure.

The council also recommended that members of the Episcopal Church visit
the
church's
partners and others in Israel and the Palestinian Territories "in order
to
understand the
complexities of the conflict."

The report upon which the resolution was based came out of a year's
deliberations during
which the SRI committee engaged in research, study and dialogue with
many
groups and
individuals. Two members of the committee visited Israel and the
Palestinian
territories.
Full text of the SRI committee's report to Executive Council is
available
online at: http://
www.episcopalchurch.org/1866_68277_ENG_HTM.htm.

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the
Episcopal News
Service.

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