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<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"> <font
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href="http://samidoun.net/2016/12/g4s-sells-off-bulk-of-its-israeli-business-including-prison-operations-in-major-achievement-for-global-boycott-struggle/">http://samidoun.net/2016/12/g4s-sells-off-bulk-of-its-israeli-business-including-prison-operations-in-major-achievement-for-global-boycott-struggle/</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">G4S sells off bulk of its Israeli
business, including prison operations, in major achievement
for global boycott struggle</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">December 3, 2016<br>
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<p><span>Under heavy pressure from the international
campaign for <a
href="https://bdsmovement.net/news/under-bds-pressure-g4s-ends-most-illegal-business-israel">Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions</a> following calls from
the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and Palestinian
organizations, G4S – the world’s largest security
corporation – announced it had reached an agreement to
<a
href="http://www.standard.co.uk/business/g4s-sells-off-israeli-security-arm-after-pressure-groups-protest-a3410691.html">sell
off its Israeli subsidiary</a> to the Israeli
private equity company, FIMI on Friday, 2 December.
G4S had earlier announced it <a
href="http://samidoun.net/2016/03/g4s-pledges-to-pull-out-of-israeli-market-entirely-following-sustained-bds-campaign/">planned
to exit the market</a>, widely attributed to the <a
href="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">damage
to its reputation </a>caused by its contracts with
the Israel Prison Service and related state security
agencies.</span></p>
<p><strong>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 <a
href="https://bdsmovement.net/news/under-bds-pressure-g4s-ends-most-illegal-business-israel">lost
contracts</a> 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. </strong></p>
<p><span>G4S is also a target for global campaigning
because of the corporation’s involvement with<a
href="http://g4sfacts.org/youth-detention-us/">
youth incarceration and migrant detention</a> in the
United States, <a
href="http://samidoun.net/2015/08/boycott-and-divest-from-g4-call-from-bds-vancouver-canada-palestine-association/">Canada</a>,
Australia and elsewhere. Organizations like <a
href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/23/us/columbia-university-prison-divest/">Columbia
Prison Divest</a>, the <a
href="http://samidoun.net/2015/12/black-students-win-historic-prison-divestment-at-university-of-california/">Afrikan
Black Coalition at the University of California</a>,
and <a
href="http://samidoun.net/2016/04/cornell-universitys-johnson-museum-of-art-to-terminate-g4s-contract-in-victory-for-student-organizing/">Black
Students United at Cornell University</a> 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 <a
href="http://black4palestine.com/">Black4Palestine
statement</a> as a key target of joint struggle. In
addition, G4S is part of the system of deportation and
detention that<a
href="https://corporatewatch.org/company-profiles/g4s-immigration">
terrorizes migrant families</a> in the U.S., Canada,
and elsewhere. In the UK, <a
href="http://www.irr.org.uk/news/justice-blindfolded-the-case-of-jimmy-mubenga/">Jimmy
Mubenga</a> 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 <a
href="http://samidoun.net/2016/11/new-york-protesters-rally-against-g4s-abuses-from-charlotte-to-standing-rock-to-palestine/">Charlotte,
NC</a>, 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, <a
href="http://www.alternet.org/reckless-security-firm-hired-protect-dakota-pipeline-company-has-dark-past-palestine">G4S
is part of the array</a> 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.</span></p>
<p><span>In Palestine, G4S remains complicit in the
ongoing violation of Palestinian rights, as it is a
co-owner of <a
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/12/02/g4s-sells-israeli-arm-88m/">Policity,</a>
a national Israeli police training center, along with
Shikun and Binui, the largest Israeli real estate
corporation and a settlement profiteer.</span></p>
<p><span>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.<strong>
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. </strong></span></p>
<p><span>G4S is, of course, not the only multinational
corporation that has been profiting from the
imprisonment of Palestinians. <a
href="https://bdsmovement.net/boycott-hp">Hewlett
Packard Enterprise (HPE)</a> 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. <strong>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. </strong></span></p>
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