British security giant G4S has been nominated for the Worst Company in the World award in the annual The Public Eye Awards 2013. G4S is complicit in human right violations around the world. G4S services Israel’s oppression of Palestinians by maintaining and profiting from Israel’s prison system, facilitating illegal settlement policy thru manning and servicing checkpoints — there’s no more deserving company for this award! “Irresponsible Corporate Behavior” is an understatement.
From Public Eye Award website:
Largest Private Army in the World: the ranks of the British security service company G4S include more than 650’000 employees. These security forces are often badly trained and paid and many of its members have a criminal record. The company operates in 125 countries and is the world’s second largest private employer in the world and is involved in countless cases of violations of international law and human rights abuses. G4S is present in the occupied Palestinian territories—manning checkpoints and managing prison security for Israel and is thus complicit in Israel’s illegal settlement policy and the torture of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. G4S is also on record for several deaths that occurred during forcible deportations by G4S personnel. The company is also active in other regions of conflict, often serving repressive regimes such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Bahrain or Saudi-Arabia.
The decision of who the final 6 nominees are will be determined by public vote. Your participation is required. Please head over to Public Eye and VOTE.
Michael Deas at Electronic Intifada informs “this is the first time that the jury for the Public Eye Awards…has selected a company that has been nominated partly for supporting Israeli crimes for the final round of voting.”
Palestinian Hunger Strikers played a huge role in calling attention to Israel’s inhumane policies this year facilitated by G4S. Deas explains:
Samer Issawi’s inspiring hunger strike, which is now approaching its 170th day, serves as a powerful reminder of how Israel uses imprisonment and of the steadfastness of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Israel depends on the support of companies like G4S to maintain its prison system. In 2007, G4S signed a contract with the Israeli Prison Service to provide security systems and other services for major Israeli prisons.
G4S equips the Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank and the Ketziot and Megiddo prisons inside Israel to which Palestinian prisoners are illegally transferred. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the transfer of prisoners from a territory under occupation into the territory of the occupier. The company also provides equipment to the Kishon and Moskobiyyeh detention facilities, in which systematic torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners, including child prisoners, have been documented.
In a statement issued to The Electronic Intifada, the Palestinian prisoner support and campaign organization Addameer said, “Addameer views the current campaign as an effective means of highlighting the complicity of G4S in Israel’s continued occupation and colonization of Palestine. By providing the security infrastructure for a number of prisons where Palestinian political prisoners are held, G4S plays a direct role in implementing Israel’s policy of mass detention and imprisonment of the Palestinian people, which is necessary to maintain its continued occupation and colonization. As part of global civil society we have a responsibility to expose G4S and countless human rights violations it is involved in, not only in Palestine, but across the globe.”
For more information why G4S was nominated visit War on Want. VOTE.
Voted.
By the way, Miko Peled has taken up the cause of the Holyland Five.
Latest post:
http://mikopeled.com/2013/01/06/job-is-alive-and-well-and-being-held-at-a-us-prison/
previous post:
http://mikopeled.com/2012/12/23/israels-invasion-of-us-justice-by-miko-peled/
A horrible mixture of Kafka, Orwell, and yes, Job!