3 dec 2016
Human rights campaigners to intensify pressure against the company…
The world’s largest security company, G4S, announced today that it is selling most of its Israeli business after an effective campaign against the company, waged by the Palestinian-led, global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights, caused it “reputational damage.”
Reacting to the breaking news and to the fact that G4S will nonetheless maintain some illegal projects in Israel, Rafeef Ziadah, speaking for the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), said:
“We have succeeded to push one of the world’s largest corporations into selling its key business in Israel. Our globally coordinated campaign has had a real impact. We will continue campaigning until G4S ends all involvement in violations of Palestinian human rights.”
French multinationals, Veolia and Orange, and Ireland’s largest building materials company, CRH, have all exited the Israeli market since September 2015, mainly as a result of BDS campaigning.
“A domino effect is at play here,” said Ziadah. “Some investment fund managers are recognizing that their fiduciary responsibility obliges them to divest from international and Israeli corporations and banks that are complicit in Israel’s persistent violations of international law.”
Guman Mussa, Arab World Coordinator in the BNC, added:
“It is not everyday that human rights campaigners can compel a massive multinational like G4S to end its involvement in serious human rights violations through sustained, strategic grassroots pressure. BDS is clearly working, and other complicit multinationals, like HP and Alstom, should take notice.”
“We dedicate this victory to all Palestinian political prisoners who in 2012 had called on the BDS movement to intensify our boycott of G4S due to its role in Israel’s prisons, where torture is rife.”
G4S is a British security company that helps Israel run prisons where Palestinian political prisoners are held without trial and subjected to torture and ill-treatment. It is also involved in providing equipment and services to Israeli military checkpoints, illegal settlements and to military and police facilities.
The international Stop G4S Campaign has cost the company contracts worth millions of dollars in Europe, the Arab world, South Africa and elsewhere.
G4S’s list of lost clients includes private businesses, universities, trade unions, and UN bodies.
Despite the sale of its subsidiary, G4S will remain directly complicit in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights through Policity, the flagship national police training centre it co-owns, and the settlement-profiteer Shikun & Binui group.
Israel’s police operates in occupied East Jerusalem, instead of the Israeli military in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, serving as the guardian of Israel’s illegal annexation, protecting the illegal settlements, and oppressing the city’s Palestinian population.
BNC Europe Coordinator, Riya Hassan, concluded:
“The BNC is determined to continue its campaign against G4S, in partnership with other justice struggles across the world. From the US to Palestine, from South Africa to the UK, G4S is profiting from the patently racist mass incarceration business.”
“As in the struggle against apartheid South Africa, BDS pressure against Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid is making some of the world’s most powerful multinationals realize that profiting from Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights is not just unethical and socially-irresponsible. It is downright bad for business as well.”
Notes:
- G4S announces sale of most of its Israel business, following intense BDS pressure
- G4S remains involved in Israeli police training and settlement construction business
- BDS human rights campaigners celebrate victory, call for continuing pressure
The world’s largest security company, G4S, announced today that it is selling most of its Israeli business after an effective campaign against the company, waged by the Palestinian-led, global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights, caused it “reputational damage.”
Reacting to the breaking news and to the fact that G4S will nonetheless maintain some illegal projects in Israel, Rafeef Ziadah, speaking for the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), said:
“We have succeeded to push one of the world’s largest corporations into selling its key business in Israel. Our globally coordinated campaign has had a real impact. We will continue campaigning until G4S ends all involvement in violations of Palestinian human rights.”
French multinationals, Veolia and Orange, and Ireland’s largest building materials company, CRH, have all exited the Israeli market since September 2015, mainly as a result of BDS campaigning.
“A domino effect is at play here,” said Ziadah. “Some investment fund managers are recognizing that their fiduciary responsibility obliges them to divest from international and Israeli corporations and banks that are complicit in Israel’s persistent violations of international law.”
Guman Mussa, Arab World Coordinator in the BNC, added:
“It is not everyday that human rights campaigners can compel a massive multinational like G4S to end its involvement in serious human rights violations through sustained, strategic grassroots pressure. BDS is clearly working, and other complicit multinationals, like HP and Alstom, should take notice.”
“We dedicate this victory to all Palestinian political prisoners who in 2012 had called on the BDS movement to intensify our boycott of G4S due to its role in Israel’s prisons, where torture is rife.”
G4S is a British security company that helps Israel run prisons where Palestinian political prisoners are held without trial and subjected to torture and ill-treatment. It is also involved in providing equipment and services to Israeli military checkpoints, illegal settlements and to military and police facilities.
The international Stop G4S Campaign has cost the company contracts worth millions of dollars in Europe, the Arab world, South Africa and elsewhere.
G4S’s list of lost clients includes private businesses, universities, trade unions, and UN bodies.
Despite the sale of its subsidiary, G4S will remain directly complicit in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights through Policity, the flagship national police training centre it co-owns, and the settlement-profiteer Shikun & Binui group.
Israel’s police operates in occupied East Jerusalem, instead of the Israeli military in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, serving as the guardian of Israel’s illegal annexation, protecting the illegal settlements, and oppressing the city’s Palestinian population.
BNC Europe Coordinator, Riya Hassan, concluded:
“The BNC is determined to continue its campaign against G4S, in partnership with other justice struggles across the world. From the US to Palestine, from South Africa to the UK, G4S is profiting from the patently racist mass incarceration business.”
“As in the struggle against apartheid South Africa, BDS pressure against Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid is making some of the world’s most powerful multinationals realize that profiting from Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights is not just unethical and socially-irresponsible. It is downright bad for business as well.”
Notes:
- In March 2016, G4S announced it would sell its Israeli subsidiary in the coming “12 to 24 months.” In describing the move, The Financial Times reported that G4S was “extracting itself from reputationally damaging work.”
- More recently, UNICEF in Jordan and a major restaurant chain in Colombia became the latest high-profile bodies to end their contracts with G4S following BDS campaigns.
- The Norwegian sovereign fund divested from Shikun & Binui in 2012, as did the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, which cited the company’s “involvement in the construction of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
- In June 2014, the Bill Gates Foundation divested its entire $170m stake in G4S following an international campaign. That same month, the U.S. United Methodist Church divested all G4S shares from its $20bn investment fund. The Public Institution for Social Security (PIFSS) in Kuwait decided to divest from G4S in June 2016 following calls from BDS Kuwait and the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC).
26 nov 2016
France has informed retailers and importers that goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories must be clearly labeled in compliance with a European Union (EU) resolution issued last year.
According to a notification published on a French government website on Thursday, the French step is aimed at enforcing EU regulations with regard to labeling goods from the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, which the international community considers occupied Palestinian land, and the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967.
"Under international law the Golan Heights and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, are not part of Israel," the announcement said.
Labeling goods simply as from the West Bank or Golan Heights without more details is "not acceptable," it added.
Goods must be specified as coming from an "Israeli settlement" when that is the case, to avoid "the risk of misleading the consumer.”
The French move, however, drew an angry response from the Israeli government, with its foreign ministry condemning it as a step that would encourage the boycott movement against Israel.
"It is unfortunate that France, which has a law against boycotts, is advancing steps like these which can be interpreted as encouraging radical elements and the boycott movement against Israel," Emmanuel Nahshon, Israel's foreign ministry spokesman, said.
"We regret that France, in which there is a law against boycotts, is advancing steps that could be seen as giving a tail wind to radicals and the boycott movement against Israel," he said, adding that "it is inexplicable and troubling that France chooses to apply a double standard when it comes to Israel, while ignoring 200 territorial conflicts taking place around the world, including those on its very own doorstep."
Late on Thursday, an Israeli official source in Jerusalem attacked France, saying that "those who failed to convene an international Middle East peace summit is turning instead to a path of product labeling."
Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and have been the main obstacle to peace efforts between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
In November 2015, the EU's executive body sparked a major diplomatic row with Israel by adopting a motion that effectively declared that products from settlements would have to be labeled explicitly in all member countries as made in settlements.
According to a notification published on a French government website on Thursday, the French step is aimed at enforcing EU regulations with regard to labeling goods from the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, which the international community considers occupied Palestinian land, and the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967.
"Under international law the Golan Heights and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, are not part of Israel," the announcement said.
Labeling goods simply as from the West Bank or Golan Heights without more details is "not acceptable," it added.
Goods must be specified as coming from an "Israeli settlement" when that is the case, to avoid "the risk of misleading the consumer.”
The French move, however, drew an angry response from the Israeli government, with its foreign ministry condemning it as a step that would encourage the boycott movement against Israel.
"It is unfortunate that France, which has a law against boycotts, is advancing steps like these which can be interpreted as encouraging radical elements and the boycott movement against Israel," Emmanuel Nahshon, Israel's foreign ministry spokesman, said.
"We regret that France, in which there is a law against boycotts, is advancing steps that could be seen as giving a tail wind to radicals and the boycott movement against Israel," he said, adding that "it is inexplicable and troubling that France chooses to apply a double standard when it comes to Israel, while ignoring 200 territorial conflicts taking place around the world, including those on its very own doorstep."
Late on Thursday, an Israeli official source in Jerusalem attacked France, saying that "those who failed to convene an international Middle East peace summit is turning instead to a path of product labeling."
Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and have been the main obstacle to peace efforts between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
In November 2015, the EU's executive body sparked a major diplomatic row with Israel by adopting a motion that effectively declared that products from settlements would have to be labeled explicitly in all member countries as made in settlements.
24 nov 2016
Reservists on Duty and the Lone Soldier Center recruit recently released American Israeli soldiers to attack the BDS movement on college campuses.
Israeli anti-BDS organization Reservists on Duty (RoD) is partnering with the Lone Soldier Center to launch a recruitment campaign titled “Project Gideon,” the Jerusalem Post reports.
RoD was established in January in apparent exasperation over the success of the BDS movement. The group travels to college campuses in North America and Europe. The Lone Soldier Center is an organization based in Jerusalem that supports Jewish people around the world enrolled in the occupation forces and integrated into settler colonial Israeli society.
The campaign targets recently released American Israeli soldiers and encourages them “to implement the principles and tactics employed by Reservists on Duty in their fight against [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS)] on university and college campuses across North America.”
The BDS movement is a global, non-violent, social justice movement that advocates boycotting, divesting from, and sanctioning Israel and the companies that do business with it until Israel complies with international law and respects Palestinian human rights.
RoD dismisses the tactic of hasbara – i.e. touting Israeli propaganda – as ineffective against the BDS movement. Instead, the group advances characterizations of Palestinian society as uniquely implicated in human rights violations. Israel, on the other hand, is propped up as a colonial savior.
RoD also claims that BDS – a movement started by 170 Palestinian civil society organizations – is actually counter to Palestinians’ well being.
RoD hopes to inspire Israel’s highly secretive anti-BDS bodies to devote more time to berating Palestinian society too. Israeli consul general Dani Dayan has met with the group
Israeli anti-BDS organization Reservists on Duty (RoD) is partnering with the Lone Soldier Center to launch a recruitment campaign titled “Project Gideon,” the Jerusalem Post reports.
RoD was established in January in apparent exasperation over the success of the BDS movement. The group travels to college campuses in North America and Europe. The Lone Soldier Center is an organization based in Jerusalem that supports Jewish people around the world enrolled in the occupation forces and integrated into settler colonial Israeli society.
The campaign targets recently released American Israeli soldiers and encourages them “to implement the principles and tactics employed by Reservists on Duty in their fight against [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS)] on university and college campuses across North America.”
The BDS movement is a global, non-violent, social justice movement that advocates boycotting, divesting from, and sanctioning Israel and the companies that do business with it until Israel complies with international law and respects Palestinian human rights.
RoD dismisses the tactic of hasbara – i.e. touting Israeli propaganda – as ineffective against the BDS movement. Instead, the group advances characterizations of Palestinian society as uniquely implicated in human rights violations. Israel, on the other hand, is propped up as a colonial savior.
RoD also claims that BDS – a movement started by 170 Palestinian civil society organizations – is actually counter to Palestinians’ well being.
RoD hopes to inspire Israel’s highly secretive anti-BDS bodies to devote more time to berating Palestinian society too. Israeli consul general Dani Dayan has met with the group
20 nov 2016
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The International Boycott HP Network and the Palestinian BDS National Committee are calling for an international week of action against Hewlett-Packard, over its role in Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land.
The week of action will take place November 25 – December 3, which includes the UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on November 29. In Palestine, Hewlett Packard (HP) companies provide imaging for Israel’s apartheid checkpoints and ID cards system; enable Israel’s deadly blockade of the Gaza Strip; provide services to illegal Israeli settlements; and manage people for profit in Israeli prisons where torture is systematic. |
While claiming to uphold values of social responsibility, HP companies are notorious for involvement in oppressive practices worldwide, like providing technology to enable deportations, mass incarceration, and solitary confinement in the United States.
18 nov 2016
The representative council of Qatar University students voted for the provincial movement and the refusal of normalization with the Israeli occupation, in a new victory of the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) in the Arabian Gulf.
Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency reports that, in a statement, the council stressed the importance of the Arab role in countering normalization, boycott and divestment from Israel in order to strengthen the resistance of the Palestinians amid escalating Israeli crimes.
The council called the presidency of Qatar University to abide by their commitments and not to contract with companies complicit in Israeli crimes and in violation the international law, based on the standards of the boycott movement.
The council also spoke out against participation in any project, initiative or activity, domestic or international, designed specially for the collection (either directly or indirectly) between the employees of the University of Qatar and Israel ( individually or institutions).
Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency reports that, in a statement, the council stressed the importance of the Arab role in countering normalization, boycott and divestment from Israel in order to strengthen the resistance of the Palestinians amid escalating Israeli crimes.
The council called the presidency of Qatar University to abide by their commitments and not to contract with companies complicit in Israeli crimes and in violation the international law, based on the standards of the boycott movement.
The council also spoke out against participation in any project, initiative or activity, domestic or international, designed specially for the collection (either directly or indirectly) between the employees of the University of Qatar and Israel ( individually or institutions).
15 nov 2016
The Israeli Knesset approved late Monday a bill to bar activists from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement from entering Israel in its first reading, Israeli media sources said.
Under the current law, the Israeli interior minister has the right to bar individuals calling for a boycott of Israel from entering Israel.
The bill would allow the Israeli the interior minister to make exceptions, the sources added.
The proposed bill was mainly submitted to bar the entry of foreign peace activists who are forced to travel via Israeli airports and border crossings to reach West Bank or Gaza Strip.
The bill came while the call to boycott Israel has grown stronger all over the world.
Under the current law, the Israeli interior minister has the right to bar individuals calling for a boycott of Israel from entering Israel.
The bill would allow the Israeli the interior minister to make exceptions, the sources added.
The proposed bill was mainly submitted to bar the entry of foreign peace activists who are forced to travel via Israeli airports and border crossings to reach West Bank or Gaza Strip.
The bill came while the call to boycott Israel has grown stronger all over the world.