To all the Archbishops and Bishops of all England.07.02.2009

Dear Sir,
the eyes of the world have watched the ongoing massacre visited upon the Palestinian peoples in Gaza, planned to inflict the maximum number of casualties. N.G.O.'s/ aid agencies who sought to alleviate the human suffering have been refused entry into Gaza, as has the world's media for fear that they report the full extent of this massacre.
In addition to to the repeated waves of heavy bombardment by F16 fighter jets, the IDF heavy artillery shelling of people, their homes, hospitals and medical centres, police stations, government buildings, factories ,places of worship and farmland there has been the deployment of phosphorous shells (which burn the flesh slowly to the bone) DIME bombs and Flechettes (bombs that discharge millions of tiny arrows which bend upon entry). These weapons are illegal and their use has been declared a war crime by the United Nations.
The so-called war that has been practised upon Gazans is part of a far larger historical picture in which Israel has illegally occupied, annexed, or laid claim to Palestinian and other territories, including parts of Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and land claimed by the construction of the Apartheid Wall. The Wall itself was declared illegal in 2004 by the International Court of Justice.
Since the Annapolis Peace Conference of 2007, Israel has accelerated its programme of building illegal settlements, connecting roads, and infrastructure, demolishing countless Palestinian homes. It has also been systematically bulldozing, burning, grubbing up or claiming olive groves and orange orchards, often the lifelong subsistence crops of Palestinian farmers.
Convoys from the ICRC and other humaitarian aid agencies have been shelled and burned as they tried to bring in aid and supplies. Some of these have been taxed or confiscated at the border crossings.
All such crimes violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, numerous U.N. Seecurity Council resolutions and are a collective punishment of the Palestinian peoples.
They require and receive investment by external companies such as Agrexco, Veolia,and Caterpillar. Without the Israeli-European Trade Agreement, moreover, the Israeli war machine would not have been able to amass and deploy such devastating firepower as it did.

However, some organisations and churches are announcing that they will no longer invest in Israel. Unilever recently divested from a factory in an illegal settlement and the U.S. Episcopalian Diocese of New Hampshire has voted for a disinvestment. In the U.K., the Methodist Church refuses to invest in companies that support the Occupation.

I therefore strongly urge you as a representative of the Church of England and at its forthcoming general Synod to finally implement the policy it agreed upon in 2006 on the Palestinian Occupied Territories and to call for disinvestment from companies that support and fund Israel's military offensives.
In so doing, you would be providing a moral compass for the whole world. You would be upholding the precious principles of compassion, international law and human dignity.