Subject: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Thu Jan 22, 2009 11:02 am
Sweden has delivered a massive blow to a French company involved in building light rail and travel infrastructure between illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine
"Diakonia Press Statement
Stockholm, 20 January 2009
Today the Stockholm community council in Sweden announced that the French company Veolia who has been the current operator at the Subway's in Stockholm County for 10 years lost the contract to the MTR-cooperation.
The contracts for the coming 8 years is worth 3,5 Billion EURO and has been the biggest ongoing public contract procurement process in Europe.
Although the board for county's public transportation ensured the decision was based on commercial factors the debate about Veolias involvement in a controversial tramway project in Jerusalem (Jerusalem light railway) has been intense in Swedish media.
The tramway connecting the Israeli west Jerusalem with illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory has triggered discussions about Veolia's ethical policy. Public protests against Veolia has brought the attention to the dilemma of operating public services when you at he same time are involved in politically controversial activities.
As late as the day before the decision the community council received lists with thousands of signatories from people demanding the county council to choose an operator who should not be associated with violations of international humanitarian law.
- This is clearly another sign of the importance for commercial actors not to have their brand associated to unethical behaviour, in the case of illegal settlements on occupied palestinian territory we can already see a trend of international companies who are moving out their operations from settlements, says Joakim Wohlfeil, at the Swedish development organization Diakonia.
Diakonia is a Swedish Christian development organisation working together with local partners for a sustainable change for the most vulnerable people of the world
Joakim Wohlfeil
Diakonia Head Office (Sweden)
Policy Officer, Conflict and Justice
Mobile: + 46 (0) 705 15 61 45
www.diakonia.se "
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:47 pm
ermmm, isn't Veolia behind the Luas??
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:48 pm
Yes, they run it under a PPP.
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:53 pm
Tonight, 11.05pm, Channel4, Dispatches Special on Unseen Gaza, unseen footage and analysis of the decision by Israel to ban foreign journalists from Gaza. Probably worth a peek...
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Thu Jan 22, 2009 11:44 pm
Veolia also look after the administration of most of our county councils' waterworks. Veolia Ireland Mmmm, I feel some letter writing coming on...
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Thu Jan 22, 2009 11:52 pm
Quote:
Although the board for county's public transportation ensured the decision was based on commercial factors
So it wasn't actually anything to do with their involvement in Israel?
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Tue Jan 27, 2009 7:41 pm
Aragon wrote:
Sweden has delivered a massive blow to a French company involved in building light rail and travel infrastructure between illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine
"Diakonia Press Statement
Stockholm, 20 January 2009
Today the Stockholm community council in Sweden announced that the French company Veolia who has been the current operator at the Subway's in Stockholm County for 10 years lost the contract to the MTR-cooperation.
The contracts for the coming 8 years is worth 3,5 Billion EURO and has been the biggest ongoing public contract procurement process in Europe.
Although the board for county's public transportation ensured the decision was based on commercial factors the debate about Veolias involvement in a controversial tramway project in Jerusalem (Jerusalem light railway) has been intense in Swedish media.
The tramway connecting the Israeli west Jerusalem with illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory has triggered discussions about Veolia's ethical policy. Public protests against Veolia has brought the attention to the dilemma of operating public services when you at he same time are involved in politically controversial activities.
As late as the day before the decision the community council received lists with thousands of signatories from people demanding the county council to choose an operator who should not be associated with violations of international humanitarian law.
- This is clearly another sign of the importance for commercial actors not to have their brand associated to unethical behaviour, in the case of illegal settlements on occupied palestinian territory we can already see a trend of international companies who are moving out their operations from settlements, says Joakim Wohlfeil, at the Swedish development organization Diakonia.
Diakonia is a Swedish Christian development organisation working together with local partners for a sustainable change for the most vulnerable people of the world
Joakim Wohlfeil
Diakonia Head Office (Sweden)
Policy Officer, Conflict and Justice
Mobile: + 46 (0) 705 15 61 45
www.diakonia.se "
Do you have any more links to this story?
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Tue Jan 27, 2009 7:48 pm
What about CRH?
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Tue Jan 27, 2009 8:01 pm
That's a double whammy all right. How can one be sure "West Bank" dates are not Palestinian grown though?
They're definitely not Palestinian: LINK.
Quote:
Sometimes they are labelled “produced in the West Bank” – this just confirms they are grown in the illegal Israeli settlements.
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Wed Jan 28, 2009 4:52 pm
Thanks for that link Hermes - Id not seen it before - watched the whole video (NB anyone who wants to watch it, it is longer than it seems at first - it's posted in segments which play automatically in sequence). Very informative and compelling.
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Wed Jan 28, 2009 5:21 pm
Aragon wrote:
Thanks for that link Hermes - Id not seen it before - watched the whole video (NB anyone who wants to watch it, it is longer than it seems at first - it's posted in segments which play automatically in sequence). Very informative and compelling.
No problem Aragon.
Yup the video is heartbreaking stuff. I should have embedded it in my last post, the more it gets around, the better. Here it is now:
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Boycott of Israel beginning to work Wed Jan 28, 2009 6:16 pm
Hermes wrote:
Aragon wrote:
Thanks for that link Hermes - Id not seen it before - watched the whole video (NB anyone who wants to watch it, it is longer than it seems at first - it's posted in segments which play automatically in sequence). Very informative and compelling.
No problem Aragon.
Yup the video is heartbreaking stuff. I should have embedded it in my last post, the more it gets around, the better. Here it is now:
Portal 
