GOOD NEWS: Bill Gates divests from Israeli-linked G4S Security company. Following calls from Palestine solidarity and BDS activists Microsoft founder Bill Gates has began divesting from the controversial security company G4S. G4S is complicit in Israels illegal detention, torture and incarceration of Palestinian political prisoners. The world’s richest man Bill Gates held a stake of more than 3pc in the FTSE 100 group through Cascade Investment (his private investment vehicle) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The stake amounted to more than $170 million (over 1 billion rands) worth of shares in G4S. However, according to a stock exchange filing on Wednesday (28 May 2014), the holding in G4S has been sold down to less than 3pc, the lowest threshold at which investors have to declare stakes. The filing does not say how many, if any, G4S shares Mr Gates still holds. See: telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/supportservices/10860285/Bill-Gates-sells-shares-in-G4S.html -------------------- Bill Gates and his charity organisation the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (the largest charitable foundation in the world) has come under increasing international pressure from Palestine solidarity activists in recent months for investing in G4S. Earlier this year in April, to mark the international Palestine Political Prisoners Day (17 April), human rights campaigners, Palestine solidarity members and BDS activists held protests at the various offices of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - including at the Johannesburg offices of the Gates Foundation. The protests called on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to divest from the controversial security company G4S due to G4S Securitys complicity in Israeli human rights abuses. A petition with more than 11 000 signatories was also handed over to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. BDS South Africa welcomes the decision by Bill Gates and the Bill Gates Foundation to divest from G4S. As South Africans we painfully identify with the plight of the Palestinians in general and Palestinian prisoners in particular. When we see the Israeli imprisonment, facilitated by G4S, of our Palestinian comrades, we are reminded of how our mothers and fathers were imprisoned during Apartheid. We found it disturbing that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had in the first place invested in the notorious security company G4S which is complicit and is basically profiteering from Israel’s imprisonment, detention and torture of Palestinians - including Palestinian children. However, we are glad that following our protests and calls Bill Gates and his Foundation have began divesting from G4S. We would like to thank all organisations including SASCO, YCL, Swaziland Solidarity Network, WFTU and others that had joined BDS South Africa earlier this year in calling on the Gates Foundation to divest from G4S. In particular we would like to thank the Ex-political Prisoners Association of South Africa led Comrade Mpho Masemola. Rafeef Ziadah, a UK-based human rights campaigner with the British anti-poverty group War on Want (that had also participated earlier this year in the worldwide protests against the Gates Foundation) commented: “We are glad the pressure on the Gates Foundation to divest from G4S is starting to work. We urge the foundation to sell any remaining shares it still holds. ---------------------------------------- ABOUT ISRAELI PRISONS AND G4S According to the United Nations, over 750 000 Palestinians (roughly 40% of Palestinian men) have been imprisoned by Israel at one point in time. According to the European Union, about 100 000 Palestinians have been held by Israel in administrative detention (the equivalent of Apartheid South Africas Detention without trial). Similar to the experience of Black families under Apartheid, almost every Palestinian family has been affected by the Israeli imprisonment of a relative. In the last 11 years alone, more than 7500 Palestinian children have been detained in Israeli prisons and detention facilities (including being held in solitary confinement) with Muhammad Daoud Dirbas, at the age of six, being the youngest Palestinian child to have been detained by Israeli soldiers. Currently, there are over 5000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel; 137 of them are being held under Israels administrative detention (Apartheid South Africas Detention Without Trial) and 210 of them are children. In 2007 G4S was contracted to provide and maintain Israeli prisons, torture centres and detention facilities. Although initially claiming that it intends to terminate its Israeli contracts, G4S still operates in Israel and with the Israeli regime. G4S also provides equipment and services to Israeli checkpoints and Israels illegal Jewish-only settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank (click here to download the United Nations Special Rapporteur report with details of G4S and its illegal activities in Israel [Pages 15 & 16]). Due to this Israeli involvement, in 2012, Palestinian prisoners and prisoner support organisations called for an international boycott of G4S as part of the global Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) against Israel campaign. In October 2012, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights made special mention of G4S as one of the international companies that should be boycotted for their involvement in Israel. In a news release, the UN Special Rapporteur, Richard Falk, said: “My main recommendation is that the businesses highlighted in the report – as well as the many other businesses that are profiting from the Israeli settlement enterprise – should be boycotted.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 10:14:50 +0000
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