The Anglican Consultative Council, a global policy-setting panel for the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, unanimously approved a statement urging divestment that was drafted last year by the Anglican Peace and Justice Network.
The ACC, meeting in Nottingham, England, commended the U.S. church for its "resolve" to pursue divestment, even though it has not formally endorsed divestment. American church leaders were not allowed in the meeting because of sanctions stemming for their pro-gay policies.
The ACC urged the Communion's 38 provinces to consider divestment, as well as "investment strategies that support the infrastructure of a future Palestinian state."
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, which had criticized the divestment report two weeks ago, said it was "bitterly disappointed" by the action.
"Israel is (a) democracy and a pluralistic society in which Jews and Arabs, Christians and Muslims have equal rights in the law," said the board.
"These rights are not extended to non-Muslims in many of Israel's Arab neighbors, sadly. Israel is also a country on a virtual war footing -- not a conventional war, however, but a war of terror characterized by the suicide bomber."
The board echoed criticisms from many U.S. Jewish groups that divestment is one-sided against Israel and "fundamentally flawed and unbalanced."
"That Israel alone should be singled out for such treatment, particularly at a time when dialogue is beginning to prevail, shows an inequality in the treatment of the Jewish state which must raise concerns about the Church's relationship with our community," said the board's chief executive, Jon Benjamin.
In the United States, the Presbyterian Church (USA) sparked the divestment movement last summer but won't make a final decision until next summer. The United Church of Christ is scheduled to debate the issue at its general synod in Atlanta in early July.
