Williams under fire over backing for disinvestment
-13/02/06
Williams under fire over backing for disinvestment
-13/02/06
By Fran Race
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has received a torrent of criticism over his backing for the Church of England to disinvest from an American company which makes giant bulldozers used by the Israeli army to demolish homes in Palestinian areas.
Last week the Anglican General Synod voted to disinvest from companies in Israel profiting from the “illegal occupation” of Palestinian territories by Israel. The synod said it was responding to “the call from our sister church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, for morally responsible investment in the Palestinian occupied territories and, in particular, to disinvest from companies profiting from the illegal occupation”.
Dr Williams supported the disinvestment call in the debate, and the Archbishop of York abstained.
The main target of the Anglican action is a US earth-moving company called Caterpillar, which indirectly supplies the Israeli government with equipment to demolish Palestinian homes.
The vote was warmly welcomed by Christian peace campaigners but was greeted with dismay from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s predecessor, George Carey. Carey said that the Synod’s statement was both “regrettable” and “one-sided” and made him “ashamed to be Anglican.” He went on to say it ignored “the trauma of ordinary Jewish People.”
Simon McIlwaine, spokesman of the Anglicans for Israel group, told the BBC Sunday programme the decision had set back Anglican-Jewish relations by 70 years and called for it to be reversed: “This has caused enormous hurt in Israel and the UK, so much so that many people in the Jewish community are talking about breaking contact with Anglican Christians.”
Leading Jewish figures in the UK such as The CEO of Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jon Benjamin says this move reveals in the mind of the Church of England “nothing Israel ever does will be right and nothing Palestine can do will ever be wrong”.
Dr Irene Lancaster of Jewish Studies, Manchester commented; “Some 350 years after settling here the writing is on the wall of Jews of Great Britain.”
Conservative religious websites in the US have been outraged by the synod’s decision, accusing the archbishop and the Church of England of anti-semitism and supporting terrorists and calling on him to resign.
A similar vote was taken in the US last week by the Presbyterian Church which announced it is not yet ready to come to a decision on the matter.
Fran Race is a reporter for Ekklesia and a member of All Hallows Anglican church in Leeds. She can be contacted: [email protected]
Williams under fire over backing for disinvestment
-13/02/06
By Fran Race
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has received a torrent of criticism over his backing for the Church of England to disinvest from an American company which makes giant bulldozers used by the Israeli army to demolish homes in Palestinian areas.
Last week the Anglican General Synod voted to disinvest from companies in Israel profiting from the “illegal occupation” of Palestinian territories by Israel. The synod said it was responding to “the call from our sister church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, for morally responsible investment in the Palestinian occupied territories and, in particular, to disinvest from companies profiting from the illegal occupation”.
Dr Williams supported the disinvestment call in the debate, and the Archbishop of York abstained.
The main target of the Anglican action is a US earth-moving company called Caterpillar, which indirectly supplies the Israeli government with equipment to demolish Palestinian homes.
The vote was warmly welcomed by Christian peace campaigners but was greeted with dismay from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s predecessor, George Carey. Carey said that the Synod’s statement was both “regrettable” and “one-sided” and made him “ashamed to be Anglican.” He went on to say it ignored “the trauma of ordinary Jewish People.”
Simon McIlwaine, spokesman of the Anglicans for Israel group, told the BBC Sunday programme the decision had set back Anglican-Jewish relations by 70 years and called for it to be reversed: “This has caused enormous hurt in Israel and the UK, so much so that many people in the Jewish community are talking about breaking contact with Anglican Christians.”
Leading Jewish figures in the UK such as The CEO of Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jon Benjamin says this move reveals in the mind of the Church of England “nothing Israel ever does will be right and nothing Palestine can do will ever be wrong”.
Dr Irene Lancaster of Jewish Studies, Manchester commented; “Some 350 years after settling here the writing is on the wall of Jews of Great Britain.”
Conservative religious websites in the US have been outraged by the synod’s decision, accusing the archbishop and the Church of England of anti-semitism and supporting terrorists and calling on him to resign.
A similar vote was taken in the US last week by the Presbyterian Church which announced it is not yet ready to come to a decision on the matter.
Fran Race is a reporter for Ekklesia and a member of All Hallows Anglican church in Leeds. She can be contacted: [email protected]