Veolia profiteert van de bezetting en kolonisatie, en meer dan dat

Dat ook een bedrijf als Veolia medeplichtig is aan de Israëlische bezettings- en kolonisatiepolitiek is al jaren bekend.

Er is echter meer te zeggen over Veolia, aldus Workers World 16 oktober 2013.

I. History of bribery, corruption and embezzlement
2. Contempt for workers and their unions
3. Profits from privatization of water
4. Environmental destruction
5. Profits from Israeli occupation of Palestine

Veolia has operated bus lines through the occupied West Bank of Palestine, connecting illegal settlements to Israel. The Veolia buses use roads built on land stolen from Palestinians, while servicing only Israeli settlers.

While global pressure forced Veolia to sell off these bus lines in September, the company still operates light-rail services to illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, and owns and operates the Tovlan landfill in the West Bank, where it dumps refuse from Israeli settlements. Veolia also provides wastewater services to the settlements.

Veolia not only profits from apartheid in Israel. It has the largest commitment of any international company to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. (corporatewatch.org.uk, October 2009)    

Oproep van Britse vakbond aan G4S: stop contracten met Israel

UK union head calls on G4S to end Israel contracts, Asa Winstanley 15-10-2013


G4S’s complicity with human rights abuses has united different campaigns.
 (Aimee Valinski)

One of the UK’s biggest unions on Friday called for controversial security firm G4S to pull out of Israel. The British-Danish security giant has been a major target for activists because of its involvement with several Israeli prisons.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of UNISON, wrote to G4S arguing:

I understand that your activities in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories only account for approximately one percent of G4S profits.

However, I believe that the reputational risks that these activities pose for your company are far greater [than profit] and I would urge you withdraw now from doing business in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

In the press release announcing Prentis’ letter to G4S’s chief executive Ashley Almanza, UNISON listed the giant firm’s complicity.

It provides security for Ketziot and Megiddo prisons in Israel, to which Palestinians are transferred in breach of the Geneva convention’s stipulation not to detail prisoners outside an occupied territory. It runs the central command room at Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank, and runs security systems at Kishon and Jerusalem detention centers, where there is evidence that Palestinians are tortured.

Zie verder: UK Union head calls G4S

Speeches Palestinaconferentie (Vrede Palestina/Israel) 28-9-2013

Vakbeweging en burgers samen in actie tegen de bezetting (zie ook eerder bericht in Conferentie Vrede Palestina-Israel) was de subtitel van de werkconferentie die o.a. voortkwam uit de 'opdracht' van de PSI-conferentie te Durban, deze opdracht. Hierna de speeches van de gastsprekers:

- Rafeef Ziadah namens PTUC-BDS , de Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS

- Werner van Heetvelde namens ABVV

- René Grotenhuis namens Cordaid

En na de workshops:

- Cees Flinterman lid ethische commissie beleggingen pensioenfonds PFZW en hoogleraar internationaal recht, eind van de middag afrondend.

Deze voorgelegde aanbevelingen kregen steun:

1. Het ontmoedigen van bedrijven om handel te drijven met en te investeren in de nederzettingen of bezetting of mee te doen aan het bouwen van de muur.

2. Zelf geen zaken doen met bedrijven die met deze praktijken doorgaan.

3. Het aandringen bij pensioenfondsen om geen investeringen te doen of behouden in bedrijven die met deze praktijken doorgaan.

4. Het informeren van de leden en de achterban van onze organisaties en burgers in het algemeen over deze bedrijven zodat ze bewust kunnen consumeren. Het er bij de overheid op aandringen om nederzettingsproducten te etiketteren en op termijn de invoer van producten uit de nederzettingen verbieden.

5. Aandringen bij de overheid (bv. via ondernemingsraden) om producten en bedrijven uit nederzettingen uit te sluiten van openbare aanbestedingen.

6. Aandringen bij de overheid om nederzettingen uit te sluiten van bilaterale overeenkomsten en instrumenten tot samenwerking, om organisaties die nederzettingen financieren uit de systemen voor belastingvermindering te schrappen, en om financiële transacties ter ondersteuning van nederzettingen en aanverwante activiteiten te voorkomen.

Rapport Wereldbank over schade aan Palestijnse economie door Israel

World Bank: Israeli control of 'Area C' deprives Palestinian economy of $ 3.4 billion a year

Israel’s control over the largest part of the occupied West Bank deprives the Palestinian economy of an estimated $3.4 billion a year, the World Bank reported Tuesday.
This lost potential income is equivalent to some 35 percent of the Palestinian gross domestic product in 2011, according to a new World Bank report, "Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy."

 

Zie verder Abu Pessoptimist 8-10-2013 

Noorwegen: vakbond stopt contract met G4S

Norwegian union ends G4S contract as "act of solidarity" with Palestinians

Michael Deas, 2-10-2013   

Palestine solidarity activists protest outside G4S’s annual general meeting in London.
(Palestine Solidarity Campaign)

A major Norwegian trade union has terminated its contract with security company G4S in protest of the firm’s role in providing equipment and services to Israeli prisons and settlements.
Industri Energi, a trade union for workers in the energy and heavy industry sectors, had been using the company to provide security at its offices in Stavanger in the south of Norway.
Announcing that the contract will now be terminated, union leader Leif Sande told Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen that the move was taken as “an act of solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people.”

Zie verder Norwegian Union ends G4S contract