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<h1 class="article_title"> $170m Argentina loss for Israeli water firm
Mekorot as BDS spreads southward </h1>
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<div class="newsitem_info"> <span class="newsitem_published"><span
class="icon-calendar"></span> Published on 16 March 2014 </span> <span
class="createby"> <span class="icon-pencil"></span> Written by
Palestinian BDS National Committe<br>
<small><b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/features/economy-of-the-occupation/7881-170m-argentina-loss-for-israeli-water-firm-mekorot-as-bds-spreads-southward">http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/features/economy-of-the-occupation/7881-170m-argentina-loss-for-israeli-water-firm-mekorot-as-bds-spreads-southward</a></small></small></small></b></small><br>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">In
the latest success for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (<a
href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/">BDS</a>) movement against Israel,
authorities in Buenos Aires have suspended a proposed $170m water
treatment plant deal with Israeli state water firm Mekorot. The
decision came after a campaign by local trade unions and human rights
groups which connected Mekorot’s role in Israel’s theft of Palestinian
water resources with evidence that the project did not meet Argentine
standards and necessities.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Campaigners
argued that Mekorot was attempting to export the discriminatory water
policies it has developed against the Palestinian people to Argentina.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">This
victory largely contradicts Israeli claims, last expressed during <a
href="http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/03/04/full-transcript-prime-minister-netanyahu%E2%80%99s-speech-at-2014-aipac-policy-conference/">Netanyahu’s
speech at the AIPAC</a>, that the global south, eager for Israeli
technology, are uncontested growing markets.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Mekorot
illegally appropriates Palestinian water, diverting it to illegal
Israeli settlements and towns inside Israel, and imposes severe
obstacles to Palestinians accessing their own water. Amnesty
International has <a
href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/028/2009/en/634f6762-d603-4efb-98ba-42a02acd3f46/mde150282009en.pdf">accused</a> Israel
of depriving Palestinians of their access to water “as a means of
expulsion”. A French parliamentary report <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ben-white/translated-french-parliament-report-israels-water-apartheid">accused</a> Israel
of imposing a system of “<a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/french-parliament-report-accuses-israel-of-water-apartheid-in-west-bank-1.407685">water
apartheid</a>” in the occupied Palestinian territory.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The
Buenos Aires provincial government approved a drinking water plant
project deal with a consortium led by Mekorot following a visit to
Israel by state governor Daniel Scioli in 2011, but protests and
lobbying have persuaded local authorities to suspend the project.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The
large Dutch water utility Vitens <a
href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/2013/dutch-water-company-terminates-relationship-mekerot-government-advice-11502#_ftn1">suspended</a> a
cooperation agreement with Mekorot on the grounds that the relationship
violated its “commitment to international law” in a high profile
announcement in December.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">“After
investigating, we concluded that Mekorot came to Argentina with the
intention to repeat what they are doing in Palestine. Water is a right
for all and no company should be able to provide water in a
discriminatory way,” said Adolfo, an engineer and a representative of
the CTA/ ATE Hidráulica trade union in Buenos Aires that campaigned
against the Mekorot plant.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">“We
fought in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice,
liberation and return and we won a battle not only against Israeli
crimes against the Palestinian people but as well for the right to
water here in Argentina,” said Tilda Rabi, president of the Federation
of Palestinian-Argentinian Organisations.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Campaigners
understand that the decision was made in December 2013 but were only
able to verify the news on March 7.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Friends
of the Earth Palestine and a range of BDS partners are calling for a <a
href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/2014/international-week-against-mekorot-11782">week
of action</a> against Mekorot during the last week of March.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Campaigners
are viewing the Buenos Aires decision as the latest sign that the
international BDS movement is increasingly isolating Israel and having
serious economic impacts on its regime of occupation, colonialism and
apartheid.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">On
Thursday, students at the National University of Galway in Ireland <a
href="http://www.ipsc.ie/press-releases/victory-in-galway-as-nuig-students-union-votes-to-join-bds-movement">voted</a> to
endorse BDS in a campus-wide ballot, following on from a similar
referendum success for BDS activists at the University of Windsor in
Canada. National and local student unions across Europe and North
America have now voted to support BDS-related measures.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><a
href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/2014/boycott-fears-cause-two-foreign-bidders-to-drop-out-of-ports-tender-11822">Israeli
media reports</a> attributed the recent withdrawal of two leading
European construction firms from the bid to build seaports in Israel to
boycott fears, and a third firm only agreed to go ahead with similar
plans after being allowed to submit a bid under a different name.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">It
emerged last month that Luxembourg’s state pension fund has <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/luxembourg-pension-fund-dumps-9-israeli-firms-over-settlements">excluded</a> nine
Israeli banks and firms over their role in illegal Israeli settlements,
following on from similar decisions in recent months by public pension
funds in <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/norway-pension-fund-bans-israeli-occupation-profiteers-after-lies-exposed">Norway</a> and
the <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/pggm">Netherlands</a> and <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.571849">Danske
Bank</a>, Denmark’s largest bank.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">A
recent solidarity conference organized by South African members of
parliament and civil society groups issued the <a
href="http://mediareviewnet.com/2014/02/the-cape-town-declaration/">Cape
Town Declaration</a> endorsing BDS and accusing Israel of the crime of
apartheid.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The
Norwegian branch of the YMCA-YWCA movement recently <a
href="http://www.kfuk-kfum-global.no/Free+Palestine.+Just+Peace+for+Israel+and+Palestine.b7C_wljS2d.ips">announced</a> its
support for an economic boycott of Israel.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">“Israel’s
attempts to smear the BDS movement are failing; Israel is increasingly
being isolated as people of conscience around the world take action to
support Palestinian rights and as investors realize that there are
serious economic and reputational risks associated with doing business
with Israel,” said Zaid Shuaibi, a spokesperson for the Palestinian BDS
National Committee, the largest Palestinian civil society coalition
that leads the global BDS movement.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span
style="font-size: medium; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">“Boycott
is becoming an increasingly powerful and empowering way for ordinary
people to support Palestinians in their struggle to end the occupation
and Israel’s apartheid policies and for the right of Palestinian
refugees to return to their homes,” he added.</span></p>
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