Letter to the Editor, Church Times, 7 June 2024
From the Rt Revd Michael Doe (Balfour Project Trustee), the Very Revd Nicholas Frayling (Chair of the Balfour Project Advisory Forum), and the Rt Revd John Pritchard (Balfour Project Patron)
Sir, — As beneficiaries of the Church of England Pension Scheme, we are particularly concerned with the Board’s investments and the sources of the pensions that we receive. We fully acknowledge the leadership that the Board has shown with regard to mining companies and fossil-fuel extraction in the light of climate change, but, at a webinar last week, it again refused, as it has done for more than two years, to answer any question about its investments in the Israeli economy.
Since the Hamas massacre of 7 October, the Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, many of them children. We pensioners have the right to know: first, does the Pensions Board have any investments in Israeli companies, and, second, are we benefiting from any economic activity in the (illegal) Occupied Palestinian Territories?
Or, to put it more bluntly, as pensioners, have we Palestinian blood on our hands?
MICHAEL DOE, NICHOLAS FRAYLING, JOHN PRITCHARD
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