For decades, the state of Israel has denied Palestinians their fundamental rights of freedom, equality, and self-determination through ethnic cleansing, colonization, racial discrimination, and military occupation. Despite abundant condemnation of Israeli policies by the United Nations, international bodies, and human rights organisations, Israel’s crimes have continued with impunity.

On July 9 2005, a year after the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s apartheid wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) to be illegal, a clear majority of Palestinian civil society called upon people of conscience all over the world to launch broad boycotts, implement divestment initiatives, and to demand sanctions against Israel, until Palestinian rights are recognised in full compliance with international law.

Why target Veolia?

Veolia is a large French multinational corporation active in delivering utility services, including water supply, waste management, energy and transport services. In 2010, Veolia employed 320,000 employees in 105 countries. In 2010, Veolia’s revenue was recorded at €34.8 billion and its profit at €579 million. Veolia Environment and Veolia Transport are profiting from major investments in Israeli infrastructure projects servicing settlements located in the OPT.

City Pass Consortium
Veolia Transport Israel, a subsidiary of Veolia Transdev, is a leading partner in the CityPass consortium, contracted to build a light-rail tramway linking west Jerusalem to illegal Jewish settlements in occupied east Jerusalem. The rail system, which began operation last December, will cement Israel’s hold on occupied east Jerusalem and tie the settlements even more firmly into the State of Israel. The “Ammunition Hill” station of the network operates as the feeder station for settler traffic from Ma’aleh Adumim, a large Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and from Jewish settlements in the Jordan Valley.

Veolia Transport Israel, which also operates the rail system, is directly implicated in maintaining illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory and is playing a key role in Israel’s attempt to make its annexation of the Palestinian territory of east Jerusalem irreversible. Veolia has recruited operators for the tramway through an advertisement requiring Hebrew to mother tongue standard, but without mention of Arabic, a clear indication that the tramway is expected to be used primarily by Jewish Israelis, not Palestinians. Full army or civic service is also required, meaning Palestinians are denied employment on the rail system.

In April 2010, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution, with a vote 44 to 1, declaring the light rail and its operation to be illegal.

Apartheid bus services
Veolia Transport Israel is also runs two bus services serving the same function as the light rail: supporting and consolidating illegal settlements and tying them more closely into Israel. These are services 109 and 110, linking the settlements of Mevo Horon, Giv’at Ze’ev and Har Shmuel to Israel. Until recently, part of the route was an Apartheid road on which Palestinians from the West Bank were forbidden to travel, even though it passes through the West Bank. In June 2010 the ban was partially lifted to comply with an Israeli court order, but at most West Bank Palestinians can still only use the Veolia buses between two stops about 5kms apart, and quite possibly not at all.

Tovlan landfill: dumping rubbish on the occupied territories
Through its subsidiary TMM, Veolia Transport Israel has been operating the Tovlan landfill site in the occupied Jordan Valley for many years. During this time Tovlan has been supporting Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank by taking their refuse. There has also been a report of Tovlan receiving refuse from Israel itself, the occupier dumping its rubbish on the occupied. Veolia says that it is selling Tovlan to a local buyer and may have already done so, but far from ending Veolia’s complicity, the deal will compound it, for the intended sale is to Massu’a, the nearby illegal Israeli settlement. Moreover Veolia will continue its involvement by providing the settlement with advice concerning Tovlan.

Veolia divesting from Israel?
On 9 December last year, the Isareli daily Haaretz reported that Veolia is seeking to pull out of of transit and contracting services in Israel/Palestine, citing the European economic crisis as responsible for a planned contraction in its international investments. While Veolia Israel has agreed to sell the contracting business of its Energy subsidiary, Dalkia Israel, to Electra for an estimated NIS 40-60 million, and is negotiating divestment from its transport services, Haaretz reported, “Veolia Israel will be keeping its local [waste management] and water businesses, which employ another 1,250 and have about NIS 1 billion in annual revenues.” Haaretz reported that Veolia is expected to expand investment in these services “as they are quite profitable”.

According to Haaretz, Veolia Transport Israel is trying to sell its 5% stake in the CityPass Consortium and its 80% stake in the tramway operating company to the Israeli company Egged for NIS 46 million, but the Israeli state has held up the sale. Part of the proposed deal is for Veolia Transport Israel to provide Egged with technical assistance in running the tramway for five years, so Veolia will still be involved in and profit from the tramway operation. Veolia says that it is selling its stakes to take advantage of a good offer rather than trying to distance itself from services to settlements.

Veolia Environment has also attempted to use the March 2011 merger of its transport division with Transdev, which formed Veolia Transdev, to hide its corporate complicity in the occupation. The merged company is 50% owned by Veolia Environment, with the CEO of Veolia Environment also the Chairman of Veolia Transdev. Veolia Environment therefore still bears very substantial responsibility for and retains effective control of Veolia Transdev’s wholly owned subsidiary Veolia Transport Israel. Veolia’s involvement with Tovlan is not affected by the Veolia Transport/Transdev merger, for the subsidiary concerned is part of Veolia Environment’s Environmental Services Division.

International BDS campaign targets Veolia
Though Veolia has not yet emerged as a major target for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in Australia, numerous actions have targeted Veolia’s investments in North America and Europe in recent years and, more recently, in occupied East Jerusalem.

The UK-based Bin Veolia campaign is seeking to end Veolia’s waste management contracts with numerous government authorities. UK and European activists have been seeking to appeal to European Union regulations that a company can be excluded for bidding for government contracts on the grounds of grave misconduct.

The Bin Veolia campaign has achieved considerable success with at least eight UK councils having ended Veolia’s contracts since latte 2010 or resolved to exclude Veolia from future contracts. Late last year, the West London Waste Authority excluded Veolia from a £485 million contract covering 1.4 million inhabitants of the London boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames, for treatment of residual domestic waste.

Over the last six months campaigners collected signatures from nearly 600 local residents on a letter documenting Veolia’s direct complicity in grave breaches of international and humanitarian law in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Sarah Colborne, Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK , commented:
“Complicity in infringing human rights and international law has become an expensive business for Veolia. Other companies please note: There is a strong, determined and popular international campaign for justice for Palestinians; if you aid Israel’s oppression of Palestinians your business will suffer just like Veolia’s.”

In February 2011 the East London council of Tower Hamlets voted to review its position with Veolia and place no further contracts with it, after claiming that Veolia’s work for the Israeli government assisted the “continued oppression of the Palestinian people”.

Internationally, Veolia has lost several major contracts, in part due to the BDS campaign.

In 2009, Veolia Transport, which had been running the Stockholm metro for many years, lost the replacement contract, worth several billion euro, after a high profile public campaign. Veolia’s finance manager for Sweden was sacked. Stockholm City Council did not admit that the campaign was responsible, but it was widely acknowledged that this was the case.

Also in 2009, Veolia transport lost a €750 million contract for the biggest urban network in France.

On 30 November 2009, Connex Melbourne (a Veolia transport subsidiary) lost the contract for operating Melbourne’s suburban rail system. While media reports focused on Connex’s failure to deliver an efficient service to the Melbourne public, Connex had also been the focus of a local Palestine solidarity boycott campaign.

In 2010, the Dublin City Council instructed its City Manager not to grant or renew any contracts with Veolia after concerted action by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Freedom rides
On November 15 last year, Palestinian activists boarded segregated Israeli settler public transport headed to occupied East Jerusalem in an historic act of civil disobedience inspired by the Freedom Riders of the US Civil Rights Movement.

The six Freedom Riders — Fadi Quran, Nadeem Al-Sharbate, Badee Dwak, Huwaida Arraf, Basel Al-Araj and Mazin Qumsiyeh — chose to board a bus that serves Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank on it’s way to Occupied East Jerusalem, wearing kuffiyehs (Palestinian scarves) and t-shirts reading ‘Justice’, ‘Freedom’, and ‘We Shall Overcome’.

They took this bold action to expose the racism and policies of segregation that pervade every aspect of life in occupied Palestine: to send the message to the world that separate is not equal. Not in the United States and not in Israel or Palestine. They also wanted to bring attention to the role of Israeli and international companies, such as Egged and Veolia, who operate these segregated bus lines, in perpetuating and profiting from the occupation.

Before being dragged from the bus by Israeli soldiers and arrested, Fadi Quran, a 23 year old Palestinian from Ramallah, said:
“We are not going to give up. We are struggling for justice, freedom, and dignity and we shall overcome. Stand with us in solidarity. Please divest from the Egged and Veolia bus companies and all Israeli institutions. We will achieve freedom, justice, and dignity for this generation of Palestinians.”

Veolia in Australia
Veolia Transport’s turnover for Australia is over $635 million Australian dollars. It’s Australian transport investments include: Veolia Transport Brisbane, using the former National Bus Company’s fleet; free CAT bus services in the Perth CBD, Fremantle and Joondalup; WA Southern Coast Transit bus lines in the Mandurah/Rockingham area and the bus lines in the Joondalup/Wangara that feed Transperth rail lines; Sydney’s Light Rail and Monorail; and Veolia Transport NSW (Formerly Connex/Connex Southtrans) commuter buses that service the depots of Bankstown, Villawood, Taren Point, Menai and Revesby.

Veolia Environment also has numerous contracts with councils and waste management authorities around Australia, though these contracts are more hidden from public scrutiny. The Perth inner city council, Town of Vincent, is one such example.

FOPWA’s AGM discussed a number of possible protest actions targeting Veolia, including: ‘freedom rides’ on CAT bus routes in Perth and Fremantle; and a ‘bin Veolia’ campaign directed at inner city councils, universities and other statutory authorities found to have significant contracts for waste management with Veolia Environment.

Freedom Rides Song

To the tune of “Can the Circle Be Unbroken”

I was standing by my window
I saw that bus for Jerusalem
And I wanted so bad to go
But they said you can’t get on.

(chorus)
Can the occupation be broken
Freedom Ride, yeah, Freedom Ride
There’s a better future waiting
In a free, free Palestine

Well I told that bus driver
I won’t stand for apartheid
Because separate is never equal
I’m gonna ride, I’m gonna ride.

(chorus)

I’ve seen walls and I’ve seen checkpoints
I’ve seen segregated highways
But I’ve never seen al-Quds
Even though I live ten miles away.

(chorus)

And if you lock me in your prison
For demanding equality
You won’t stop people from riding
Toward a day when we’re all free.

(chorus)

Chord pattern:
A
D A
A
E A

Lyrics by Jewish Voices for Peace (http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/campaigns/solidarity-with-
palestinian-freedom-riders).

Details:
Date: 4 February 2012
Time: 2.30pm
Location: CitiPlace Community Centre (back room)
Address: Concourse level, Perth City train station.

The meeting is open to members and supporters of Friends of Palestine WA. Only members can vote but of course you can join or renew on the day.

The meeting will have a strong focus on campaign priorities and will not be too administrative. Please come along and help shape the conversation.

Thanks for your support in 2011 – it seems that the voice for recognising Palestinian human rights is growing stronger.

More than 40 people joined a BDS campaign action at the Seacret stall in the Carousel shopping centre.

Seacret is an Israeli cosmetics company that illegally sources its product from the Dead Sea in Occupied Palestine.

Borrowing a song from a successful Brisbane BDS action, Friends of Palestine activists created a musical message against Israeli Apartheid in the shopping centre’s food court. When Centre security tried to move us on, we proceeded to the Seacret stall chanting “Free, free Palestine, Occupation is a crime” where the protest continued for some time.

The actions by the shopping centre security force – colluding with police to try to close down a democratic protest for human rights – were largely ineffective. The protest achieved exactly what we set out to achieve: to raise the issue of Israeli Apartheid and the illegal actions of the Seacret company.

The questions must be asked though: Why does Carousel Centre Management tolerate the presence in its complex of a company that profits from illegal occupation? Further, why do they try to restrict the democratic rights and free speech of their customers who are simply drawing attention to the human rights abuses connected to Israeli Apartheid?

Friends of Palestine encourages our supporters to write to Carousel Shopping Centre encouraging the company to respect human rights and to end the lease they currently grant to Seacret. Click here for contact details.

The next Seacret action – don’t buy Israeli Apartheid for Christmas – will be on Thursday 8 December 2011. Contact Friends of Palestine WA for more information.

Date: Saturday, November 12
Time: 12 noon
Meet: Cannington train station
What: March to Carousel, details on the day.

Download the flyer here:

Why are we concerned with Palestine?
Israel has occupied Palestinian territory, contrary to UN resolutions, for over forty years. Palestinians have no state of their own. Palestinians who live in Israel experience second-class citizenship, particularly with regard to accessing housing and land. Palestinian who live in Israeli-occupied West Bank have no citizenship, and have been subjected to land seizures, curfews, road closures, checkpoints, harassment and even murder by Israeli settlers and the military. Palestinians who live in Gaza are subjected to an even worse situation – they are basically kept in a giant prison with very little able to get in or out, due to an Israeli blockade since 2007, and have suffered a high number of casualties at the hands of the Israeli military.

Who is calling for the boycott?
Over 150 organisations inside Palestine have called for this boycott and it is supported by human rights groups throughout the world. Here in Perth, we too are concerned with human rights.

Why a boycott?
We are targeting Israeli businesses on the basis that Israel is carrying out racial discrimination against non-Jews in Palestine, and we hope that our non-violent, democratic campaign will bring about change.

Israel has told the world that they seek a two-state solution with a Palestinian state, but all the while they have expanded their settlements in the West Bank. Many of us out in the world, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, know that just asking Israel will do the right thing and end the occupation of Palestine has not worked. Palestinians and human rights organisations from Israel have asked for the international community to boycott Israeli businesses, in the hope that a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions will lead Israeli people to put pressure on their government to end the occupation of Palestine.

Can this one small action make a difference?
Its effectiveness relies on business-people experiencing a downturn in demand, and knowing why, and then taking the message to their government: What you are doing doesn’t just hurt the Palestinians, it also hurts us!

Has a boycott like this ever worked before?
You may question whether such change is possible, and whether ceasing to buy Israeli goods can actually mean anything in the scheme of things. We believe that it can. The boycott and sanctions campaign against Apartheid South Africa was made up of many small actions, and it brought about peaceful democratic change in that country. We believe that we can help to achieve an end to the apartheid system in Israel / Palestine. We are far away in Australia, but we have a voice as business-people and as consumers to not give support to regimes that carry out human rights abuses. We are attempting to be part of the solution, and we hope that in this one small way you will help too.

Isn’t it anti-Semitic to target Jewish or Israeli-owned businesses?
The BDS campaign is led by activists who reject any form of ethnic stereotyping or targeting. The labelling of the BDS campaign as anti-Semitic is a mischievous attempt to divert attention from the people who are really engaged in racial and ethnic persecution – the Israeli government. To treat people differently on the basis of their ethnicity or race is morally abhorrent no matter who is doing it. It was abhorrent in the 1930s when it was done to Jews in Europe, and it is abhorrent in Israel / Palestine when it is done to non-Jews. Any comparisons of BDS to early Nazism are not only slanderous but an insult to the victims of the Holocaust. We target Israeli businesses, or international businesses with links to the apartheid Israeli regime. Whether or not these businesses are owned by people identifying as Jewish is irrelevant. The point is that these businesses are providing material support to an apartheid system, and hence are legitimate targets of our non-violent campaign.

Friends of Palestine WA – www.fopwa.org – 0449 028 894

Around 80 people marched through the streets of Perth to protest against Israeli Apartheid on September 17. The protest was organised by Friends of Palestine WA and targeted businesses in the CBD area that have links with Apartheid Israel or who profit from the illegal occupation of Israel.

Businesses targeted included Veolia, The Body Shop and Caterpillar. Veolia is building a light rail project to service illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and whose subsidiary runs some bus services in Perth. The Body Shop is owned by L’Oreal which has deep and extensive business links with Israel. Caterpillar produces military bulldozers specifically designed to be used in war zones and which have killed people defending Palestinian houses from demolition. Several shops in the CBD sell Caterpillar branded merchandise.

The rally attracted a counter-protest of supporters of Apartheid Israel which demonstrates that the international BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign is having major impact. The rally called for an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine and for Israel to comply with international law.

Photo above by Jason Murphy above and by Zeb Parkes below.

CIA studios, 480 Newcastle St, West Perth

Khristo Newall is a social justice activist and a peace campaigner who has recently returned from 3 months in the middle east and will be speaking particularly about Palestine and the struggle for peace there.

Khristo joined a Christian Peacemaker Team delegation into Israel and Palestine for 2 weeks, and then made a similar trip into Kurdistan (Northern Iraq), followed by a further 2 months of independent travels in Palestine and the region.

Come along to hear his personal account not only of tragedy but also of hope, including stories not heard often in the West, and learn about ways to be involved.

Drinks and nibbles provided, entry by donation.

For more info check out the blog:

http://wanderingsojourner2011.blogspot.com/

Venue: CIA studios are at 480 Newcastle St, West Perth:
directly opposite City Motors, look for the big brick school – entry via rear stairs.

A public forum with MIKO PELED

Miko Peled is an Israeli peace activist and writer living in the US. Born and raised in Jerusalem, his grandfather was an original signatory on the Israeli Declaration of Independence. His father was an Israeli soldier in 1948 and a general during the 1967 war. In 1997 his niece was the victim of a suicide bombing.

In this forum he explains why he is speaking out against Israel’s Apartheid policies and for justice for Palestine.

Thurs 29 September
6 for 6:30pm
Alexander Lecture Theatre,(ALEX 106:157) – Ground Floor (Arts Building) UWA

Organised by Friends of Palestine * www.fopwa.org * 0449 028 894

DOWNLOAD: A4 poster (999kb PDF)

DOWNLOAD: A4 poster (B&W) (746kb PDF)

DOWNLOAD: A5 flyers (1.2Mb PDF)

DOWNLOAD: A5 flyers (B&W) (814kb PDF)

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT MIKO PELED:

Miko Peled is an Israeli peace activist and writer living in the US. Born and raised in Jerusalem, Miko grew up in this highly political insider’s milieu. A young patriot, he volunteered for a Special Forces Commando unit in the Israeli Defence Forces – service he later came to regret.

Peled’s outlook goes beyond the ordinary perceptions on the Palestine/Israel question common in the US. Driven by a personal family tragedy to explore Palestine, its people and their narrative, he has written a book about his journey called “The General’s Son.”

The book covers the work in which Peled’s family has been involved since his Zionist grandparents emigrated to Palestine in the early 20th century. It describes their work and their life in some detail. Peled’s grandfather was a signer on the Israeli Declaration of Independence and his father was a General in the Israeli army. In the 1970s, his father pioneered the Israeli Palestinian dialogue and later met with Yasser Arafat. In 1997, his sister Nurit lost her daughter in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.

In preparing the book, Peled spent countless hours in the Israeli Army archives and interviewed former Palestinian political prisoners. What he found is described at length in his book. Peled expects the book will be translated into Arabic and Hebrew very quickly as the stories and the conclusions that are within it will be of great interest and value to readers in both languages.

Peled has been featured and interviewed in the SD Union Tribune through letters to the editor, op ed pieces and feature stories. He is a contributor to several online publications that deal with the Middle East and authors a blog dedicated to creating peace between Israelis and Palestinians, to tearing down Israel’s separation wall, and advocating the creation of one secular state with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.

Peled lectures at universities across the US. He has also been a guest on radio talk shows and was featured in a 2002 Israeli television documentary. His lectures and panel involvement on the issue of Palestine/Israel include the University of San Diego’s Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, SDSU, Southwestern College, Palomar College as well as synagogues, churches local mosques and Rotary clubs. Recently, he spoke at the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee in Washington DC on the subject of BDS.

Together with Palestinian Nader Elbanna, he has established The Elbanna-Peled Foundation, a not for profit, 501c3 dedicated to educational and humanitarian support for people in Palestine/Israel. In their work together Peled and Elbanna have sent over 1000 wheelchairs to Palestinian and Israeli children and have been part of numerous projects to help the people of their shared homeland.

Educated in Israel, Japan and the United States, Miko is an accomplished professional martial artist. He holds a sixth degree black belt in karate, which he teaches at his dojo in Southern California. Peled’s martial arts school is dedicated to teaching leadership skills and non-violent conflict resolution through martial arts.

He also teaches classes to Palestinian children in the West Bank. Miko frequently travels from his home in the US to Palestine/Israel. He lives in Coronado, California with his wife, Gila, and their three children.

Friends of Palestine WA organised a speakout in support of the “free speech and a free Palestine” on Friday 12 August. Here are some photos of the event. The next major action for Palestinian human rights is the rally and “rogues tour” on September 17 beginning in the Murray Street Mall at 1pm.

Supporting activists arrested in during a Max Brenner protest in Melbourne
We, Israeli citizens, members of Boycott!, would like to express our solidarity with the Australian citizens who were brutally arrested by the police during a non-violent demonstration near a Max Brenner store on July 1 in Melbourne. We consider these activists as friends, and we thank them wholeheartedly for promoting the BDS initiative, as well as challenging the Australian’s government’s complicity in Israel’s policies of apartheid and occupation.

Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within
boycottisrael.info/

******

Following anti-Democratic Arrests and Intimidation Attempts: Israeli Citizens in Solidarity with Australian BDS Activists!

We, Israeli citizens, members of Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within, would like to express our solidarity with the numerous Australians who are involved in the burgeoning BDS campaign in Australia.

Witnessing first-hand the brutality of our government against the Palestinian people, we have joined the July 2005 Palestinian call for a comprehensive boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against the state of Israel and its institutions. Such means should be applied as long as Israel continues to flout international law and UN resolutions and refuses to acknowledge the Palestinian people’s universally recognized human rights: The rights of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories, the rights of Israel’s Palestinian citizens, and the rights of Palestinians who were expelled from their homes during the Nakba (the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine).

As Israeli citizens, we are angered by the outrageous attempts to exploit the horrors committed by the Nazi regime, through a comparison of the Palestinian led BDS campaign to the 1933 Nazi boycott campaign, in order to try and silence the Palestinian non-violent popular struggle for freedom and justice. The deplorable and racist Nazi boycott campaign targeted all Jews, without exception, and only for being Jewish. The Australian BDS campaign does NOT target Jewish businesses, as argued by demagogues in Australia! The lesson from the Jewish Holocaust should be, in our view, the need to oppose all forms of discrimination and violence committed against different ethnic groups in the name of nationalist or supremacist ideologies. The state of Israel has failed to learn that lesson.

To reiterate, we are concerned that some politicians in Australia have accused the activists involved in BDS of being anti-Semitic. We reject those accusations. The BDS campaign is a legitimate form of non-violent political action, whereby people and organizations are required not to participate in or support violations of international law. We take a clear stand against all forms of racism, including antisemitism and Islamophobia. Not only does the BDS campaign oppose anti-Semitism, it is also a responsible call that targets only complicit institutions rather than individuals. BDS is neither anti-Jewish nor anti-Israeli, since it does not oppose all that is Israeli because it is Israeli: the campaign simply insists that Israel abide by its obligations under international law. Furthermore, by attempting to lump together all Jews around the world as a monolithic block that is expected to support its criminal policies, the state of Israel is denying the fact that many Jews, including in Israel, oppose the occupation and apartheid policies inflicted on the Palestinian people.

The current debate within Israeli society shows us that the boycott campaign is extremely effective. The latest attempt by the Israeli government to silence its own citizens, the new anti-boycott legislation, in addition to other explicitly racist laws, is yet another indication of the need for this Palestinian-led non-violent global movement, in order to insure the rights of all people in this region.

The recent Australian BDS actions have been a great inspiration. We are encouraged to know that as far-away as Down Under there are individuals and groups active in the BDS campaign, promoting the Palestinian people’s unassailable rights. The BDS movement needs your help and support. We call upon all Australians to join and support the struggle for freedom and equality in Palestine.

With the deepest gratitude and all our support,

Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within

boycottisrael.info/