Free Republic

A huge number of Americans own stocks and bonds, but some of the largest investors are company, state and federal pension plans. With the financial power of these pension plans exercised by a few experts, most people have been unaware that the pension plan on which they rely -- or in which their state government invests -- may be supporting terrorist governments. US law prevents direct investment in terrorist states, but companies that do business with those countries are lawful investments for US pension plans. To reverse that, Missouri, Louisiana, California and other states are leading a national effort to...

On the plane back from a recent conference in Israel, Presbyterian Pastor Will McGarvey met members of another Christian tour group. They had visited many Christian holy sites on their tour, but they did not travel to Bethlehem or to any Palestinian cities in the West Bank. "Some folks go over and see the holy sites and don't ever talk to a Palestinian," said McGarvey, sitting amid stacks of papers and books in his office at the Community Presbyterian Church in Pittsburg. "The Christian community in the United States is very divided when it comes to questions of Israel and...

As Presbyterians across America gear up for their biennial assembly next month, the legacy of the last such meeting is still roiling the Jewish community and the church’s own members. Two years ago, the Presbyterian Church USA passed a resolution calling for “phased, selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel.” Those who long have followed Jewish-Protestant relations weren’t surprised. “It was the culmination of decades - not years, but decades - of hostility toward Israel and Zionism, not by the rank-and-file members of these churches, but by some of the leadership,” said Rabbi A. James Rudin, senior interreligious adviser...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state pension fund for teachers should sell its $24 million investment in PetroChina Co. following a massive chemical spill at one of the company's plants in northeastern China, state Treasurer Phil Angelides said Friday. Angelides said the firm was slow to respond to the Nov. 13 disaster, which contaminated the drinking water supply for nearly 4 million people. He said the company also has ties to the Sudanese government, which has been accused of human rights violations. "It is clear that PetroChina's activities demonstrate significant environmental risks, human rights violations and ethical liabilities that present too...

Dear Friends of Israel, YOUR LETTER IS NEEDED NOW. Please take a few minutes and write a letter to the leadership of the United Church of Christ because they are preparing to have a conference in Atlanta Georgia NEXT WEEK (July 3, 2005) and decide on whether or not to divest from companies who do business in Israel. FORWARD this information to your friends Read the letter below and write your own TODAY..... please. Don't leave this task to someone else... SEND YOUR LETTER TO: thomasj@ucc.org guffeye@ucc.org jacksonb@ucc.org malayanj@ucc.org copel@ucc.org info@standwithus.com Dear Spiritual Leaders of the United Church of Christ,...

State Treasurer Sarah Steelman today called for a halt to the investment of Missouri’s state public retirement funds in companies and banks that support terrorist activities or aid rogue states that support terrorist acts. “Missouri’s retirement fund is now holding direct investments in overseas companies and banks that are alleged to have funding ties with terrorist activities and/or that are active in rogue states such as Iran,” Steelman said. “I am demanding these investments be stopped now, and stand ready to fight for whatever policy changes are necessary to make certain such investments are never made again.” Steelman became a...

In the 1930s, a group of Christians fighting against the Nazi takeover of their churches wrote the Barmen Declaration. The document, which has become a centerpiece of Protestant theology since World War II, warns Christians not to allow their churches to be used as instruments of the state. Sadly, a network of pastors in the West Bank and Gaza have failed to heed the warnings of the Barmen Declaration and have handed the symbols of Christianity over to the cause of Palestinian nationalism, with ominous consequences for the Jews of Israel and for Christianity itself. In an effort to serve...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Claims by the nation's biggest public pension fund that it has found no investments in Sudan prompted complaints Monday from U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, that the California Public Employees Retirement System is dismissing concerns about supporting Sudanese genocide. Lee released a CalPERS letter which stated it has discovered no Sudanese investments among 1,869 companies in which it owns shares. But CalPERS also acknowledged in the letter that only 11 percent of those companies responded to its survey last year about such investments. Lee spokesman Nathan Britton said the congresswoman considers the pension fund's response inadequate. Lee...

Nov. 26, 2004 0:00 Boston suburb may become first US city to divest from Israel By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER BOSTON Somerville, a community abutting both Boston and Cambridge, could become the first US city to divest from Israel. According to those who track the issue, the city has already distinguished itself as the first place to formally consider a divestment resolution. The measure stems from alleged Israeli human rights abuses and calls on Somerville's retirement board to rid the city's pension fund of $250,000 of Israel Bonds and other investments in American companies that "manufacture military equipment used in Israel's...

The Presbyterian Church (USA) continues its campaign against Israel.... What we still have is an example of what Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard, has forthrightly labeled anti-Semitism...... ...a petition that is available on the Internet (look here, PCUSAers) calling for a special meeting of the General Assembly to repeal the divestment resolution passed at the last Assembly....

Dershowitz On Presbyterian Anti-Israel Decision 18:19 Aug 10, '04 / 23 Av 5764 The Presbyterian Church (USA) resolved last month to condemn Israel's anti-terror partition/wall, to continue to fund the Avodat Yisrael church in Philadelphia that engages in missionary work towards Jews, and to divest from companies that do business with Israel. Excerpts from an article in the Los Angeles Times by Law Prof. Alan Dershowitz in response to the Presbyterian Church's anti-Israel decisions: "The Presbyterian Church (USA) has committed a grievous sin. The General Assembly of that church has voted to divest from only one country in the world....

By an overwhelming vote of its general assembly, the Presbyterian Church USA, boasting 3 million members, is siding with Palestinian Arabs and against Israel, choosing to divest from the Jewish state as it did only with apartheid South Africa. With the decision, approved in a 431-62 vote at the 216th annual general assembly of the PCUSA, the denomination is believed to be the largest organization or institution to join the divestment campaign against Israel. It is the first Christian denomination to do so. In 2001, the combined value of the church's foundation and pension fund was estimated at $7 billion....

Teresa Heinz Kerry, through a network of investments in blue-chip corporations, venture capital funds and municipal bonds, controls a family fortune worth an estimated $1 billion, an analysis of public records shows. The $1 billion figure is double the estimates of her wealth that are widely cited in news stories about her husband, Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. The couple would rank as the wealthiest to occupy the White House, far surpassing such storied presidential fortunes as the Kennedys'. Their assets are so vast and far-reaching that they mirror the U.S. economy and will probably...

<p>BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - In an emotionally charged meeting, City Council members decided late Tuesday night not to divest from Israel and Palestinian areas and companies.</p> <p>The debate, carried on over the shouts of protesters rallying outside City Hall, drew sharply divergent points of view.</p>