The Associated Press
NEW YORK — An investment panel of the Episcopal Church has recommended against divesting from companies that profit from Israeli policy in the Palestinian territories.
The Social Responsibility in Investments Committee said in a report Monday that "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."
Instead, the committee suggested that the denomination adopt a strategy of "corporate engagement," that would encourage companies to adopt practices that bring about "positive changes in Israeli government policy" toward pulling out of the territories completely, "as well as urging the Palestinian Authority to oppose violence as a means of resistance."
The Executive Council, the elected body which oversees the denomination, will take up the recommendations during a meeting that begins Friday in Las Vegas.
Several mainline Protestant churches have angered Jewish leaders by researching divestment as a way to create pressure to end Israel's presence in the territories. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has gone the furthest, naming companies it plans to target.
Israel withdrew from Gaza Strip over the summer, but retains control of the West Bank.
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The Executive Committee is meeting in Vegas?
I am happy they voted against divestment but are these people terminally naive??? I suppose next they will pass a resolution urging Osama Bin Ladin to reject violence as a means of promoting social change.