[News] G4S sells off bulk of its Israeli business, including prison operations, in major achievement for global boycott struggle

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://samidoun.net/2016/12/g4s-sells-off-bulk-of-its-israeli-business-including-prison-operations-in-major-achievement-for-global-boycott-struggle/ 



  G4S sells off bulk of its Israeli business, including prison
  operations, in major achievement for global boycott struggle

December 3, 2016

Under heavy pressure from the international campaign for Boycott, 
Divestment and Sanctions 
<https://bdsmovement.net/news/under-bds-pressure-g4s-ends-most-illegal-business-israel> 
following calls from the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and Palestinian 
organizations, G4S – the world’s largest security corporation – 
announced it had reached an agreement to sell off its Israeli subsidiary 
<http://www.standard.co.uk/business/g4s-sells-off-israeli-security-arm-after-pressure-groups-protest-a3410691.html> 
to the Israeli private equity company, FIMI on Friday, 2 December. G4S 
had earlier announced it planned to exit the market 
<http://samidoun.net/2016/03/g4s-pledges-to-pull-out-of-israeli-market-entirely-following-sustained-bds-campaign/>, 
widely attributed to the damage to its reputation 
<https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Vqh2xbe3K4AJ:https://www.ft.com/content/72789bbe-e5cf-11e5-bc31-138df2ae9ee6+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=be>caused 
by its contracts with the Israel Prison Service and related state 
security agencies.

*The announcement is a victory, first and foremost, for the Palestinian 
prisoners’ movement, whose hunger strikes and other collective struggles 
inspired years of boycotts and divestments in solidarity. G4S is the 
world’s second-largest private employer, and was pushed into this action 
by the mobilization of people’s movements in response to its involvement 
and complicity in the persecution and torture of Palestinian political 
prisoners. During the campaign, G4S has lost contracts 
<https://bdsmovement.net/news/under-bds-pressure-g4s-ends-most-illegal-business-israel> 
in the Arab region, South Africa, Latin America, Europe, the United 
States and elsewhere as a result of its involvement in the imprisonment 
of Palestinians. *

G4S is also a target for global campaigning because of the corporation’s 
involvement withyouth incarceration and migrant detention 
<http://g4sfacts.org/youth-detention-us/> in the United States, Canada 
<http://samidoun.net/2015/08/boycott-and-divest-from-g4-call-from-bds-vancouver-canada-palestine-association/>, 
Australia and elsewhere. Organizations like Columbia Prison Divest 
<http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/23/us/columbia-university-prison-divest/>, 
the Afrikan Black Coalition at the University of California 
<http://samidoun.net/2015/12/black-students-win-historic-prison-divestment-at-university-of-california/>, 
and Black Students United at Cornell University 
<http://samidoun.net/2016/04/cornell-universitys-johnson-museum-of-art-to-terminate-g4s-contract-in-victory-for-student-organizing/> 
have played leading roles in building university and community boycott 
and divestment campaigns against G4S as a part of the prison-industrial 
complex. G4S was highlighted in the Black4Palestine statement 
<http://black4palestine.com/> as a key target of joint struggle. In 
addition, G4S is part of the system of deportation and detention 
thatterrorizes migrant families 
<https://corporatewatch.org/company-profiles/g4s-immigration> in the 
U.S., Canada, and elsewhere. In the UK, Jimmy Mubenga 
<http://www.irr.org.uk/news/justice-blindfolded-the-case-of-jimmy-mubenga/> 
died during a deportation flight as he was restrained by G4S guards. In 
addition, G4S is involved in privatized domestic policing in the United 
States, including in Charlotte, NC 
<http://samidoun.net/2016/11/new-york-protesters-rally-against-g4s-abuses-from-charlotte-to-standing-rock-to-palestine/>, 
where the corporation runs the transit police service, working hand in 
hand with the city police who took the life of Keith Scott. At Standing 
Rock, G4S is part of the array 
<http://www.alternet.org/reckless-security-firm-hired-protect-dakota-pipeline-company-has-dark-past-palestine> 
of private security corporations working for the Dakota Access Pipeline 
against the indigenous protest of water protectors that has drawn 
widespread solidarity and international support.

In Palestine, G4S remains complicit in the ongoing violation of 
Palestinian rights, as it is a co-owner of Policity, 
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/12/02/g4s-sells-israeli-arm-88m/> 
a national Israeli police training center, along with Shikun and Binui, 
the largest Israeli real estate corporation and a settlement profiteer.

This massive exit from the Israeli market is clearly a response to 
Palestinian and international pressure on the global security giant, 
evidencing the power of the call of Palestinian prisoners to force G4S 
out of the business of profiteering from the imprisonment and torture of 
Palestinians.*Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes 
all of the Palestinian, Arab, and international organizations and 
movements that have been organizing and struggling for years against the 
role of G4S in Palestine. The campaigns to boycott G4S have borne fruit 
after many years of campaigning and work. We also join with the 
Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee to note 
that G4S’ complicity and profiteering from oppression remains a target 
for campaigning and action. *

G4S is, of course, not the only multinational corporation that has been 
profiting from the imprisonment of Palestinians. Hewlett Packard 
Enterprise (HPE) <https://bdsmovement.net/boycott-hp> currently markets 
management and database software to the Israel Prison Service along with 
multiple other agencies and sectors of settler colonial repression. It 
is the target of a growing international boycott campaign. *Today, we 
salute the Palestinian prisoners whose call for justice and struggle for 
freedom led to this achievement, and urge all of our movements to 
redouble our efforts to win their freedom, and the freedom of 
Palestinian people and land. *

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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