Palestine solidarity activists censure G4S in London
According to a news report by Ha’aretz, a group of pro-Palestinian activists briefly occupied the offices of global security company G4S in Portland, Oregon Thursday, to protest the firm’s affiliation with the Israeli prison system. According to the International Middle East Media Center, activists managed to occupy the company’s office for a brief period in an effort to force its closure for the day, before they were removed from the premises by security.
United Kingdom-based G4S, which is the world’s largest security company in terms of its annual revenue, oversees operations in approximately 125 countries, including 11 Arab states. Members of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in Portland went after G4S because it has contracts to “provide equipment and services to Israeli prisons at which Palestinian political prisoners, including child prisoners, are detained and mistreated,” according to the group. They also criticized G4S for providing “equipment and services to checkpoints, illegal settlements and businesses within these settlements.” Although G4S in fact announced in early June that it would terminate all of its Israeli prison contracts within the next three years, the anti-Israel activists insist that the company has made similar promises in the past without fulfilling them.
G4S recently won a contract to provide security services for several city-owned buildings, including City Hall, in Portland.
“As bombs continue to fall on the besieged Gaza Strip, we, as anti- Occupation Jews, Americans, Israelis, and other people of conscience call on G4S to heed the call of Palestinian civil society and divest from Israel until it complies with International law and the Universal Principles of Human Rights,” stated a local BDS organizer.
“Businesses that profit from human rights abuses, war, and possible crimes against humanity should have no place working for City Hall,” declared Jonathan Irwin, 28, a self-described “Jewish American.” ”If G4S would like to keep its local contracts, they must pull out of Israel/Palestine and follow their own human rights policy more carefully.”
“As an Israeli Jew I have seen the Israeli military system that is used to oppress Palestinians and that violates human rights daily,” said activist Maya Rotem. “G4S is a full accomplice in operating and maintaining this system, its checkpoints and military courts and jails. I urge G4S to sever its ties with Israel and stop its participation in the Israeli occupation and international human rights violations.”
The protesters called for G4S to “honor its prior commitments to withdraw from Ofer prison, affiliated checkpoints, and affiliated West Bank police stations,” present its plans to end contracts related to the West Bank, and review all its contracts worldwide to ensure that they adhere to its human rights guidance policy.