<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[ei: Security firm G4S confirms involvement in Israel&#8217;s&nbsp;occupation]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><span class="text14">Adri Nieuwhof, <em>The Electronic Intifada,</em> 7 January 2011</p>
<p><span class="content">The Danish-British security firm G4S  recently confirmed in a letter its involvement in the Israeli occupation  and violations of international law &#8212; <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11678.shtml">reported on last month by The Electronic Intifada</a>.</p>
<p>After the publication of The Electronic Intifada&#8217;s report on 15 December  2010, the Business &amp; Human Rights Resource Centre asked G4S to  respond to the investigation as well as a 28 November 2010 article  published by Press TV (<a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail/153062.html">&#8220;&#8216;Firm sold torture instruments</a>&#8216;&#8221;).</p>
<p>Within a week G4S replied, confirming that it had withdrawn from  contracts providing security officers to residential settlements in the  West Bank in 2002. &#8220;However, we continue to serve major commercial  customers, for instance supermarket chains, whose operations include the  West Bank,&#8221; the company stated (<a href="http://www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Individualcompanies/H/HashmirapartofG4S">the letter can be downloaded from the Business &amp; Human Rights Resource Centre&#8217;s website</a>).</p>
<p>G4S claims in its letter that the commercial clients in illegal Israeli  settlements in the occupied West Bank serve the general public. The  company wrote that contracts include the provision of security officers  to protect the premises of &#8220;commercial clients who serve the general  public&#8221; in the occupied West Bank. However, G4S fails to address that  Israeli settlements serve an exclusively Jewish population and are built  illegally on occupied Palestinian land.</p>
<p>By providing security services to illegal settlement businesses, G4S  facilitates Israel&#8217;s violations of international law. In 2004, the  International Court of Justice (ICJ) reaffirmed the illegality of the  construction of the wall and settlement colonies in the occupied West  Bank, including East Jerusalem. According to the ICJ, construction  activities should stop immediately and the wall and settlements be  dismantled.</p>
<p>G4S tries to downplay its involvement by stating that the number of  security officers deployed in the West Bank is &#8220;generally less than  twenty and currently stands at eight.&#8221; However, violation of  international law remains a violation, no matter the size.</p>
<p>G4S further attempts to evade responsibility by stating that it does  &#8220;not carry out police or military-style patrols anywhere in the West  Bank.&#8221; The company provides security officers to protect police  facilities &#8220;from time to time,&#8221; but they do not perform any kind of law  enforcement or public security role, the company stated. G4S also  confirmed it provided security equipment, including X-ray machines and  body scanners, with associated maintenance services, to the Israeli  police, prison service and Ministry of Defense. In its letter the  company adds, &#8220;We do not control, nor are we necessarily aware, where  this equipment is deployed as it may be moved around the country.&#8221;</p>
<p>The feigned ignorance about where the equipment is deployed is contrary  to the detailed information mentioned in a G4S promotional brochure it  distributed this summer.</p>
<p>In the brochure, published by the Danish watchdog DanWatch, G4S  describes the supply of a perimeter defense system for the walls around  the Ofer prison compound and the installation of a central command room  to monitor the entire Ofer compound. In addition, the company writes it  also provided all the security systems in Ketziot prison and a central  command room in Megiddo prison (<a href="http://www.danwatch.dk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=298:g4s-teknologi-i-israelske-faengsler&amp;catid=16:artikler&amp;lang=en">G4S delivers technology to Israeli prisons</a>,&#8221; DanWatch, 21 November 2010).</p>
<p>G4S boasts that the three prisons can detain 2,700-3,700 &#8220;security&#8221;  prisoners &#8212; the majority of whom are Palestinians from the occupied  West Bank and Gaza Strip illegally transferred to detention centers  within Israel&#8217;s internationally-recognized boundary. International  humanitarian law forbids an occupying power from transferring prisoners  outside of the occupied territory and the conditions in Israeli prisons  do not meet international legal standards. Accordingly, G4S&#8217;s  involvement in the Israel Prison Service apparatus abets violations of  international law.</p>
<p>G4S&#8217;s promotional material contradicts its claim that it does not know  where its X-ray machines and body scanners are used. Who Profits? &#8212; a  project of the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace &#8212; has also  documented that G4S luggage scanning equipment and full body scanners  are used at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank towns of Qalandiya,  Bethlehem and Irtah. G4S also provided full body scanners to the Erez  checkpoint at Gaza. Who Profits? told The Electronic Intifada that this  information is published in G4S&#8217;s own website and brochures.</p>
<p>The ICJ affirmed in 2004 that Israel&#8217;s wall and checkpoint regime in the  West Bank impede Palestinians of &#8220;the right to work, to health, to  education and to an adequate standard of living&#8221; and are contrary to  international law.</p>
<p>G4S also revealed in its letter to the Business &amp; Human Rights  Resource Centre that it sells security equipment &#8220;with associated  maintenance services.&#8221; In order to provide maintenance service, G4S  presumably must know where the equipment is deployed. By providing  maintenance service for years after the installment of the security  equipment, G4S continues to facilitate Israel&#8217;s violations of  international law.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, new research by Who Profits? shows that in 2009 G4S won a  tender for providing central control rooms to all the prisons and  detention facilities of the Israeli Prison Authority (&#8220;<a href="http://tinyurl.com/3azt8mt">G4S Technologies will provide security systems for the prisons and the detention facilities of the Israeli Prison Authority</a>,&#8221; G4S website). Therefore, G4S security equipment is deployed in every Israeli prison and detention facility.</p>
<p>G4S&#8217;s response to the revelations of its involvement in human rights  violations shows the company is not heeding the responsibilities that  come with its endorsement of the principles of the UN Global Compact.  According to the first two principles of the compact &#8212; is a strategic  policy initiative launched in 2000 for businesses that are committed to  sustainability and responsible business practices &#8212; G4S should support  and respect the protection of international human rights within its  spheres of influence and make sure it is not complicit in human rights  abuses.</p>
<p>G4S can expect to come under pressure from the growing boycott,  divestment and sanctions movement until it untangles itself from  Israel&#8217;s brutal occupation.</p>
<p><em>Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate.</em></span></p>
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