[News] New victories for G4S boycott campaign as UN agencies in Lebanon and Jordan dump security firm

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://samidoun.net/2016/12/new-victories-for-g4s-boycott-campaign-as-un-agencies-in-lebanon-and-jordan-dump-security-firm/ 



  New victories for G4S boycott campaign as UN agencies in Lebanon and
  Jordan dump security firm

December 7, 2016

In a new victory for the continuing campaign to boycott multinational 
security corporation for its role in profiteering from the oppression of 
Palestinians, the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon 
<https://www.facebook.com/CBSI.LB/photos/a.383924935024875.59185880.228861463864557/1184096625007698/?type=3&theater> 
announced that UNICEF in Lebanon will no longer be contracting with G4S 
for security work. This victory comes after an ongoing campaign by 
Lebanese and Palestinian organizations in Lebanon to demand UNICEF, 
other UN agencies, and Lebanese businesses stop doing business with G4S.

G4S announced on 2 December 
<http://samidoun.net/2016/12/g4s-sells-off-bulk-of-its-israeli-business-including-prison-operations-in-major-achievement-for-global-boycott-struggle/>that 
it is selling its G4S Israel subsidiary, which contracts with the 
Israeli Prison Service for equipment, control rooms and security systems 
for Israeli prisons, as well as with other Israeli state entities in 
checkpoints, settlements and the Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing where the 
siege on Gaza is enforced, to Israeli private equity company FIMI. The 
sell-off was widely seen as a response to the growing international 
boycott campaign targeting G4S as a key player in the private-prison 
profiteering market and especially its role in the imprisonment of 
Palestinian political prisoners.

However, G4S remains a target of boycott campaigns 
<https://bdsmovement.net/news/under-bds-pressure-g4s-ends-most-illegal-business-israel> 
because it is the co-owner of Policity, a joint venture with real-estate 
corporation Shikun & Binui, an Israeli corporation involved in 
settlements, to operate a police training center for Israeli police in 
Jerusalem, training police to enforce the occupation. G4S is also a 
target of international campaigns because of its involvement in youth 
incarceration, migrant detention and deportation, and private security 
for the Dakota Access Pipeline against the Standing Rock indigenous 
water protectors’ movement.

This victory in Lebanon comes alongside the announcement of the UN World 
Food Program in Jordan 
<https://bdsmovement.net/world-food-program-drops-g4s> that it will no 
longer contract with G4S, an action hailed by BDS Jordan 
<https://www.facebook.com/BDSJO/posts/1907270476168150> as a victory in 
its own ongoing campaign. Four out of six UN agencies 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/fourth-un-agency-jordan-dumps-g4s> 
operating in Jordan have ended their dealings with G4S after an 
escalated BDS campaign. Indeed, UNICEF in Jordan previously dropped G4S, 
as did UNHCR and UNOPS. The UNDP and UN Women continue to contract with G4S.

-- 
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