Has G4S really been cleared of aiding Israel's abuses?

posted on: Jun 12, 2015

Management at G4S probably feels that it has scored a goal against Palestine solidarity campaigners over the past few days.

One of the world’s most influential newspapers, The Financial Times, has reported that the private security firm has been “cleared” of abetting Israel’s human rights abuses. That message is very different from the adverse coverage that G4S received the previous week, when its annual general meeting was disrupted by activists protesting at its role in equipping jails where Palestinians are frequently tortured and held without charge or trial.

A deeper examination of these issues suggests that G4S would be foolish to take anything more than fleeting comfort from The Financial Times article.

The body which reportedly “cleared” the firm is known as the National Contact Point. That body is part of the business department in the UK’s government.

Sajid Javid, the new British business secretary, spoke on Monday night at a dinner celebrating trade links between the UK and Israel. He cited data indicating that the value of UK-Israel trade is about £4.5 billion ($7 billion) per year. As well as expressing satisfaction that such trade is growing, he emphasized that he had “no time for the boycott campaign” against Israel.

Under his predecessor, Vince Cable, the business department authorized the delivery of weaponry worth £7 million ($11 million) during the six months preceding Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza.

Despite the impression created by The Financial Times’ headline, the National Contact Point did not completely exonerate G4S. Rather, it accepted some of the main arguments in a complaint by the organization Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, which had prompted the National Contact Point’s investigation.

Source: electronicintifada.net