By Leonard Blair, The Christian Post.
The board of the United Methodist Church’s $20 billion Pension and Health Benefits Fund has essentially blacklisted Israel’s five largest banks by declaring them off limits for investment amid claims of human rights violations.
Mark Tooley, president of The Institute of Religion and Democracy who is also a lifelong member of the United Methodist Church, however, says the pension board’s decision is “unfortunate and embarrassing” and could likely harm relations between the United Methodist Church and the Jewish people.
The five banks — Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank and Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot — are on a list of 39 companies from a number of countries that have been declared off limits for not meeting the church’s Human Rights Investment Policy guideline implemented in 2015.
The New York Times claims that the banks “help finance settlement construction in what most of the world considers illegally occupied Palestinian territories.” The decision by the church is also noted as a part of the global Boycott, Divest and Sanction campaign, or B.D.S., which seeks to pressure Israel economically over the Palestinian issue.
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The URL is missing the leading ‘$’; once you put that it, it works.
Sick.
The bullies with deep pockets at PCUSA and United Methodist are waging economic war on Jews. The Palestinian leadership has a long history of mass murder of innocent, defenseless people. Those dying, leftist mainline churches should study Holy Scripture at least half as much as they study their financial portfolios.