| Background piece. Short version: there is no stampede to divest. |
CHICAGO - Some U.S. Protestant churches are turning their back on the idea of dumping investments in companies profiting from Israel's West Bank occupation, people involved in the issue said yesterday. Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, along with a debate over whether divestment is the right move in the first place, may have helped cool what looked like a growing trend just a few months ago.
"My reading, as a central Jewish player in this, is that there never was a [general] move toward divestment," said David Elcott, director of inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish Committee. "Here is the reality: No church in the U.S. except the Presbyterians has voted for divestment," he said, and the only place where divestment looked like it was moving forward may have been in the media," he said.
U.S. Episcopal Church leaders recently rejected divestment in favor of corporate engagement, and another major denomination, the United Church of Christ, turned down divestment at its convention last summer. The 2.5 million-member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the largest body of that denomination, approved in 2004 a "phased, selective divestment" involving its $8 billion portfolio beginning in July 2006. |