BDSers spawn investigation of British security company for installing cameras at checkpoints
The Financial Times of London reports that BDS groups have spawned an investigation of a British multinational for 'human rights violations' as a result of the group's work with the IDF on setting up checkpoints.
G4S supplies and services screening and security equipment to military
checkpoints, prisons and detention centres in the West Bank and Israel.
In
a statement the National Contact Point, a government body, said that it
had “accepted issues for further examination”, though it stressed that
no conclusions had yet been reached.
The National Contact Point sits within the Department for Business
and is responsible for ensuring the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development’s standards for the behaviour of
multinationals are fulfilled.
It is expected to examine whether the supplying and servicing of
equipment in the checkpoints infringes on the human rights of
Palestinians. It will also examine the use of screening equipment in
prisons and detention centres in Israel and the West Bank.
The investigation shines a spotlight on the murky area of what
constitutes ethical practice for multinationals. G4S has been under
pressure from pro-Palestinian protesters over its work for the Israeli
authorities for several years and is expected to face protests outside
its annual general meeting on Thursday.
...
G4S,
which employs 6,000 people in Israel, said it “takes very seriously our
obligations to ensure that our activities do not contribute to human
rights abuses. We have provided evidence which clearly demonstrates that
the company is acting appropriately in the context of international
laws and voluntary human rights guidelines including those set out by
the OECD”.
G4S said it would support the NCP’s process but cited the watchdog’s
“clear acknowledgment that the company carries out extensive due
diligence and ongoing review of the potential human rights risks of its
business”.
The group has already said it will not seek to renew
the West Bank contracts when they end in 2015. It argues that its staff
simply fix and install security equipment such as CCTV and are not
directly involved in the management of the prisons or checkpoints.
But the arguments have failed to satisfy the pro-Palestinian campaign
groups, which want the company to exit all its contracts for the
Israeli government.
Still waiting for investigations of who is supplying Syria or Sudan or Egypt or Iran... and word that their governments are cooperating. Hypocrites!
This is a great video about the checkpoints between Israel and the 'Palestinian' populated areas of Judea and Samaria. The checkpoints actually first started around 1993-94, and have gotten more imposing since.
One of my children had to come home this evening on a bus that uses Route 443.
The other passengers do not expect any Arabs to be on this bus, but this bus included an Arab, and when the bus approached the checkpoint at the entrance to Jerusalem, the Arab put on his coat as if he expected to be removed from the bus.
But when the bus went through the checkpoint, no soldier boarded the bus. It was waived through. The Arab then started to take something out of his bag, which 'really scared' my child. The Arab took out what turned out to be a huge video camera and something else that my child could not identify.
'Palestinians' arrested trying to ride bus into Jerusalem
After an hour-long standoff at the Hizme checkpoint in northeastern Jerusalem, six 'Palestinians' were forcibly removed from an Egged bus on Tuesday night and barred from entering Jerusalem because they did not have the proper permits.
Event organizers compared themselves to the freedom riders from the 1960s US civil rights movement.
“We see this as the first of many freedom rides,” said activist Huwaida Arraf, as she stood in Ramallah surrounded by more than 50 reporters and photographers. Their goal, she said, was to highlight what she called Israel’s discriminatory bus system, which does not allow Palestinians without Israeli identification cards to freely ride public buses into east Jerusalem and many West Bank settlements.
Palestinians with the proper permits can use such buses to travel, but the activists said they believed they should enjoy the same rights as Israelis, who do not need such permits to ride the buses.
Although Palestinians need special permits to enter areas of Israel within the pre-1967 border as well, the activists chose to focus on the issue of freedom of movement in regions they believe are under “occupation” and should become part of a future Palestinian state.
Huweida Arraf, who was one of the six, is an American citizen (married to a Jew) who resides in Michigan and is one of the founders of the terror-supporting ISM movement. I wonder how many of these other 'Palestinians' are actually foreign residents.
Moreover, the real freedom riders were non-violent. There was no fear that they were suicide bombers as is the case with 'Palestinians' trying to enter Jerusalem.
Even more significant, if the 'Palestinians' ever get their wish and get to establish their reichlet in Judea and Samaria, Israel will be able to ban all 'Palestinians' completely except those who have visas, as is customary at borders between states. The only way the 'Palestinians' ought to have a right to enter Jerusalem would be if we annexed all of Judea and Samaria, and they were therefore citizens of Israel.
Let's go to the videotape.
The bus driver told the JPost that he didn't know who the 'Palestinians' were or he would not have stopped for them, as six buses that passed before him did.
It's amusing (and a little sad) that the JPost has no clue who Haggai Segal is. Segal is a long-time correspondent for Arutz Sheva and was part of the 'Jewish underground' in the 1980's. He wrote a book about his experiences, which was translated into English as Dear Brothers.
'Peace-loving' flytilla 'activists' clash with Israeli troops
Those 'peace loving' flytilla 'activists' clashed with Israeli troops on Sunday at a checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
Palestinians and international activists in Bethlehem on Sunday tried to force their way through a checkpoint separating the West Bank city from Jerusalem.
Among the protesters were activists who were onboard the so-called "flytilla" that arrived Friday at Ben Gurion International Airport.
Israeli soldiers prevented protesters from accessing the area and threatening to shoot anyone who approached the checkpoint, one of the main terminals connecting the occupied West Bank with Jerusalem.
But they came here to demonstrate peacefully against the 'security fence,' right?
On Thursday, a pro-'Palestinian' demonstration blocked the center of the campus at Bir Zeit on the Hudson.
Students dressed as Israeli soldiers stopped other students, ordered them to the ground, and blindfolded them in a demonstration that drew multiple campus groups to a standoff on College Walk Thursday afternoon.
The Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine set up mock checkpoints—to resemble those manned by the Israeli army in the West Bank—drawing crowds and counter-protests for several hours.
Organizers from CSJP said the demonstration was meant to protest human rights violations at these checkpoints, while representatives from pro-Israel groups argued that the event was offensive and the checkpoints are a needed form of protection.
Four groups under the Columbia/Barnard Hillel, the umbrella organization for Jewish student life, set up camp opposite CSJP on the sundial and distributed fliers telling passersby that checkpoints were a necessary evil and a product of a complicated relationship.
"Our gut reaction was to show up with suicide belts and say, 'See this is why we have checkpoints'," said Jonah Liben, Hillel's Israel coordinator. "We did not want to stoop to that level of evocative anger." Actually, that's precisely what they should have done.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
