THE GRASSROOTS PALESTINIAN ANTI-APARTHEID WALL CAMPAIGN BDS NEWSLETTER
Edition: 09 - December 10, 2008 CORPORATE NEWS
Feature: Veolia under pressure in Sweden

On the 15th November of this year, the Swedish Cooperative Centre, SCC, launched a day of action day against Veolia in Stockholm. Activists distributed red cards and asked passengers of the Stockholm underground to stick them to their clothes to protest against Veolia’s involvement in the Jerusalem Light Railway built on stolen Palestinian land. Veolia operates the Subway system in Stockholm and is bidding for a second 8 year contract with the Stockholm County Council? Veolia is currently under severe pressure following several protests by NGOs, media attention and political opposition from the Stockholm County Council, which has demanded that Veolia be excluded from the procurement process due to their disrespect for international law in Palestine.

For more information: www.fria.nu/artikel/75948 (in Swedish)

Ongoing Campaigns: Increased pressure to stop settlement production and exports

Unilever to sell stake in plant based in West Bank settlement

The food and soap manufacturing multinational Unilever has announced that it will divest from an Israeli factory in Ariel settlement, which is illegally built on land confiscated from Palestinians. In this latest instance of corporations cutting their ties with Israeli settlement businesses, Unilever will sell its 51% stake in the Beigel & Beigel factory in Ariel. Other multinational corporations who have taken similar actions are: Swedish company Assa Abloy, which removed its Mul-T-Lock factory in the Barkan settlement; the Barkan Winery company, which divested from its branch on the Barkan Industrial Park after entering a partnership with the Dutch beer manufacturer, Heineken; and Harrod’s department store, which cleared its shelves of Beigel & Beigel products in August. These instances are positive examples of corporations responding to pressure from civil society, but at the same time, it is important not to be satisfied merely with divestment from settlement industry and its products. Instead, the focus must be on a comprehensive boycott of all Israeli products and divestment from its corporations.

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Israel angered over British plan to label produce from Israeli settlements

A diplomatic row is emerging over a British plan to label vegetables grown on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israeli officials fear that this plan could be used to launch a consumer boycott in the UK and other EU countries, and Tzipi Livni, leader of the Kadima party, argued that it is the equivalent of “a vote by universities in Britain to ban Israeli academics from speaking engagements“, probably alluding to the initiatives of British academic unions to head the Palestinian call for BDS.

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for much more corporate info please see StopTheWall.org