Anti-Israel activists like David Wildman at the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries and the caucus group United Methodist Kairos Response are claiming the United Methodist General Board of Pension and Health Benefits divested from British firm G4S because of its work for Israeli prisons.
This claim is conveniently timed to precede the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly, which will consider anti-Israel divestment next week.
The United Methodist General Conference in 2012 voted by two to one against divesting from firms doing business with Israel.
Wildman told The New York Times that the sale of about $110,000 worth of G4S stock holdings was, as the article paraphrased, “intended to have a larger symbolic impact, adding to the pressure on Israel to stop building settlements and end the occupation.”
Wildman is quoted in a Kairos news release: “This is the first time that a United Methodist general agency has included human rights violations related to Israel’s illegal settlements and military occupation in a decision to divest from a company. We celebrate this strong human rights message both to G4S specifically and to other companies whose business operations support longstanding human rights abuses against Palestinians.”
Kairos claims a “top executive of GBPHB contacted United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR) leaders this week about the sale of G4S stocks, informing them that this decision was due in large part to the serious concerns about G4S activities raised by United Methodists seeking a just and peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
But the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits has so far said nothing publicly to confirm these claims. Instead the pensions board, in a statement it reports already sharing with Kairos, attributes divesting from G4S to its work in the prison industry, in which the pensions board resolved in early 2012 to avoid investing.
Here’s the pensions board statement:
While we did not have the opportunity to see the UM Kairos Response press release in advance, we shared the information below with them:
“The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits sold its G4S shares for reasons related to a number of that company’s business activities. Our decision was specific to G4S. Our rationale for selling G4S was that we felt the inherent nature of the company’s products and services—which are tailored to the prison industry—may not align with UMC values. We are waiting to conduct additional research after our board of directors meets in July to review and discuss the broad range of our investment policies—we may have additional comments after their deliberations.”
Please attribute this statement to Chief Investment Officer David Zellner of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church.
Comment by David Tiffany on June 14, 2014 at 5:44 pm
They talk about the occupation. Two thoughts on this article. 1. Do they read their Bibles? God gave the land of Israel to the Jews. 2. Can they show in Scripture where God has commissioned the church of Christ to punish the apple of His eye?
http://483years.blogspot.com/
Comment by SallyClay Mainly Mark Smith on June 16, 2014 at 9:05 am
Perhaps the main reason the pensions board offered this clarification is the fact that boycotting or divesting from companies due to disagreements with Israeli foreign policy may be illegal: the Export Administration Act discourages, and in some circumstances, prohibits U.S. companies and individuals from furthering or supporting the boycott of Israel. The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is responsible for penalties imposed for each “knowing” violation with fines of up to $50,000 (or more under select circumstances) and imprisonment of up to five years.
Comment by SamXie on June 23, 2014 at 10:47 pm
Tourism to Israel is at record levels, A-list celebrities flock to Israel. Innovative Israeli startups are contributing to an economic boom. BDS is dead in the water as a means of exerting economic pressure, but its essentially a way to manipulate the dialog. BDS has been failing since its inception in 2001, and these hoaxes are a way to keep it going, albeit on life support
Comment by M Theresa Basile on August 26, 2025 at 8:57 am
Disappointing that this article can still be found online without any correction. The New York Times published an update on this divestment action a few days later on June 16: “Methodist Church Pension Board Links Divestment to Firm’s Role in Israeli Prisons”
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/us/methodist-church-group-links-divestment-move-to-israel-and-a-firms-prison-role.html
It confirmed what UMKR reported:
“Mr. Zeller said in the interview that the news release from Kairos Response was correct: that the stock was sold in response to concerns brought by pro-divestment groups that G4S was supplying equipment used in Israeli prisons and in the occupied West Bank. The criteria the pension board used was prisons, but the impetus was the company’s contracts to supply prisons in Israel, Mr. Zellner said.”