DURHAM, NC, November 24, 2014 -- Durham has become the first U.S. municipality to boycott a company because of its role in perpetuating injustice in Israel/Palestine.
On a night when the Ferguson grand jury failed to indict Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown, Durham residents successfully brought an end to a $1 million annual contract between the County and with private security corporation G4S Secure Solutions.
G4S previously provided security at Durham County libraries and civic buildings. Durham reconsidered its security contract after residents protested the role of the privatized police force in the community and the company’s involvement in Israeli institutions that detain and discriminate against Palestinians.
“As a long-time Durham resident, the presence in my community of a company that participates in the oppression of my people makes me feel unsafe and unwelcome,” said Ahmad Jitan. “Given their track record in occupied Palestine, I do not expect G4S to have the best interests of people of color here in Durham in mind. If Ferguson can’t even keep the public police force accountable for their actions, how can we expect to keep a private police force like G4S accountable? For the sake of both my homes, I am proud that the county dropped the G4S contract. I do not want my tax money to fund a company that profits from the occupation of my people's land.”
G4S signed a contract with the Israeli Prison Service in 2007 and its machinery and security officers have been deployed in checkpoints and illegal settlements in occupied Palestine.
“Since I moved to Israel and saw the reality of life for Palestinians with my own eyes, I could no longer remain silent,” said Emily Schneider, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace - NC. “I waited for hours with Palestinian friends at checkpoints that look like cages—that run with G4S security equipment. Thank you, Durham County Commissioners, for boycotting G4S.”
BDS Victory Durham drops 1 million contract with Israeli occupation profiteer Jewish Voice for Peace
Good.
More to come.
A couple of hundred resident Muslims and Jewish Israel-haters (Quislings) made a lot of noise and caused the county to drop the contract.
Trouble is, the contract was (1) already expired, and (2) G4S was providing services on a month-by-month contract-extension basis, and (3) the county was already looking for a different kind of company with a centralized command center, even before the latest round of anti-Israeli Muslim-Jewish-Quisling protests had begun.
The county did, indeed, cave into 200-some-odd protesters, making a lot of noise, for convenience sake.
It was by no means a condemnation of Israel or any of its corporations, no matter how badly Muslims and Jewish Quislings would like to spin it in that way, and bamboozle the more naive amongst us.
An independent take on the contract-dropping event...
County prepping building-security changes The Herald-Sun
The contract...
http://durhamcounty.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=662&meta_id=33718
They were preparing another R(equest) F(or) P(roposal) anyway, and have already declared that G4S will be welcome to bid on the RFP, as well.
This was a matter of the existing vendor's system not working out very well, and the county board becoming dissatisfied, and considering pulling the plug on the vendor long before these anti-Israel yahoos had any substantive momentum in connection with the issue.
But, when this month-by-month extension of this contract turned-out the way that these anti-Israel yahoos had hoped...
They jumped on the event like it was all their idea... that the dropping of the contract was due to their efforts... overlooking the idea that the country already had the contract on month-by-month life support until they were ready with another RFP sequence...
But, when one has so few substantive victories to point to, one must ginn-up whatever successes one can, wherever one finds them, even if the Deciding Authority had already determined to take an action that happened to coincide with the ambitions of Israel-haters.
Classic spin-doctoring, by the lightweight, silly-assed BDS folk...
