The United Methodist Church has banished five Israeli banks from a list of financial institutions it will no longer do business with citing human rights violations.
The church's pension board said it will no longer invest with Bank Leumi, Bank Hapoalim, First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank or Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot,
The New York Times reports.
Israeli banks lend money for settlement construction "in what most of the world considers illegally-occupied Palestinian territories," The Times said.
The newspaper reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel described the divestments as a campaign to destroy Israel.
But Palestinian advocates describe it as an important step in an international effort to financially pressure Israel on the Palestinian issue, The Time says.
The pension board's assets in 2014 was valued at $20.9 billion in the seven-million member church's annual report.
The Methodists are not the first religious group to try to put financial pressure on Israel.
The Times says that last July, the United Church of Christ "voted overwhelmingly at its general synod for a resolution calling for divestment from companies that profit from the occupation and a boycott of products from Israeli settlements."
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