July 4th Update: US Boat to Gaza
We want to give you all a quick round up of several items related to the U.S. Boat to Gaza and the flotilla. But first….
Given the tremendous obstacles placed in the way of the flotilla we should not for a moment think this work has been in vain. Just the opposite. We have called greater attention to the urgent need to end the Israeli blockade and siege of Gaza, as well as the overall occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The lengths to which the Israeli government has gone to stop the boats only expose the real story: they are determined to hold on to their repressive, inhuman and illegal policies at any cost. Israel has outsourced its naval blockade of Gaza to Greece.
We cannot for one moment forget that the flotilla project is about our solidarity with the people of Gaza. Changing the Israeli policies and stopping the support they get from the U.S. government requires the strongest movement we can possibly build!
Here’s the latest news we have:
1) U.S. passengers harassed and arrested by Athens police
Nine of the passengers on the U.S. Boat to Gaza began a fast last night (7/3). They are Ken Mayers, Carol Murry, Medea Benjamin, Paki Wieland, Ray McGovern, Brad Taylor, Kit Kitteridge, Kathy Kelly and Linda Durham. After a rousing gathering in front of the U.S. Embassy (see photos and video on our website), they were all “cited” by the Athens police with occupying the sidewalk across the embassy and they were let go right away.
Today, 6 members of the U.S. Boat to Gaza were held at an Athens police station after Greek police arrested them for sitting on a park bench across from the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Greece. Ray McGovern, Linda Durham, Debra Ellis, Ridgeley Fuller, Ken Mayers and Carol Murry were put into squad cars and taken to the police station. We are not sure of the status of these 6 people at the moment.
2) The captain of The Audacity of Hope – John Klusmire – is set to be at a hearing at 12 noon (Athens time) on Tuesday. There are 2 Greek lawyers serving as his defense council. It is important to keep the pressure on the U.S. State Department to make sure they in turn pressure the Greek government to release our captain. Below are numbers and email addresses you can use to contact them. Please keep the pressure on!
3) Status of some of the other boats in the flotilla
Shortly before 6 pm (Greek time) today the Canadian boat, named Tahrir, left its dock in Crete to set sail for Gaza. They got to within 4 miles of international waters when Greek Special Forces stopped them from going any further. The Greek military boarded the Canadian boat and there are reports that when they asked for the captain of the boat all 30 people on board answered, “I am the captain.” The Greeks took command of the boat and at least report where headed back to be docked. We have heard reports that all of the people on the boat will be arrested, but we do not have confirmation of that.
Two boats from France – a cargo ship and a smaller passenger boat – are in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea. (They did not set sail from Greece.) We are not sure what they are planning on doing.
The Irish boat was sabotaged beyond repair last week and the Greek boat was also sabotaged but we do not have an update on their status.
Be sure to check our website regularly for update, as well as photos and video footage of much of the activity in Greece.
Leslie Cagan
Coordinator, U.S. Boat to Gaza
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Keeping the pressure on the U.S. State Department
Let them know you want them to help secure the release of John Klusmire, as well as the release of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. Tell them you expect the U.S. government to support the right if its citizens to sail freely to Gaza.
State Department general number: 202-647-4000 – ask for the Overseas U.S. Citizen Services Duty Officer and you’ll get a live State Dept. official who has to hear you out.
The voicemail for Kim Richter – also at the State Dept. – says she’s out of the office for several days, and that callers with urgent issues should contact a colleague at 202-647-4578. Hopefully, you will be able to reach Kim Richter’s office directly tomorrow by calling 202-647-8303. (She is in the office of Consular Affairs, Overseas American Citizen Services at the State Dept.
You can email the U.S. Embassy in Athens at: athensamemb@state.gov or you can send an email to them at: athensamericancitizenservices@state.go
If you can place an international phone call, the number for the U.S. Embassy in Athens is 011-30-210-721-2951. There are several other “after hour” numbers that you can call for emergency situations: 011-30-210-729-4301, 011-30- 210-729-4444. And you might also be able to get through on these “after hour” numbers: 011-30-210-720-2490, 011-30-210-720-2491.
Please also try to call, fax or email your members of Congress as well.
More information is on our website: ustogaza.org
Help us keep the pressure up!!
Greek coastguard forces Gaza ‘freedom flotilla’ vessel back to port: The Guardian
Canadian ship Tahrir part of international attempt to break Israeli blockade of Palestinian territory
An attempt by one of the Gaza-bound “freedom flotilla” ships to defy the Greek government and escape from port was thwarted on Monday when armed coastguard officials caught up with the vessel and forced it back to shore.
On a day that activists had dubbed “make or break” for the international coalition of boats seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the Canadian ship Tahrir burst out of Agios Nikolaos port in Crete at 6pm local time after supporters blocked the coastguard with manned kayaks.
“We have left port [and] are full steam ahead – coastguard boat about 5-10 [minutes] behind us,” announced passengers on the ship’s official Twitter feed as they raced towards international waters. But the faster coastguard boat caught up with the Tahrir and prevented it from going any further.
“Our boat has just been illegally boarded by armed members of the Greek coastguard and commandeered against our will,” Dylan Penner, a member of Tahrir steering committee, told the Guardian by phone from the ship’s deck. “This is conclusive evidence that Israel’s unlawful siege on Gaza has now been extended to Greece.”
The captain of a US ship, The Audacity of Hope, was arrested after a similar failed attempt to flee the port in Athens last week.
The Greek government caused controversy on Friday when it banned all flotilla ships from leaving its ports, without explaining its reasons. Critics accused the beleaguered government of bowing to Israeli and US pressure and surrendering Greek sovereignty over its sea borders. The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, thanked his Greek counterpart for helping to stamp out “anti-Israeli provocation”.
The flotilla’s last hope now appears to lie with the Stefano Chiarini, a Dutch-Italian vessel currently docked on the island of Corfu. Campaigners on the boat say they are expecting to get legal clearance to sail on Tuesday and believe they have local political support for their mission, a claim seemingly confirmed on Monday by the local governor.
Spiros Spirou, the provincial official in charge of the Ionian islands, told the Guardian that he “admires and supports the activists’ struggle” and said he would make no attempt to stop the ship if it left harbour. “Greece loves peace, but at this moment it can’t confront more powerful economic forces,” claimed Spirou, adding that official attempts to tie the flotilla up in bureaucracy and paperwork were merely a pretext to preventing it from sailing at all.
“The ban has come from the ministries in Athens and I have no responsibility for it at all – I’ve tried to get in contact with them and get an explanation but I have not been able to get through,” he said. “Right now Greece is in crisis and decisions have been taken at an international level.”
Elsewhere, flotilla activists vowed not abandon their mission, despite the growing number of seemingly irreversible setbacks. “Everyone involved with this flotilla came with the determined intention to break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza,” said Penner. “This is not over yet.”
Israel, Turkey scramble to reach compromise on UN Gaza flotilla report: Haaretz
In last-minute effort ahead of the release of the UN report on last year’s Gaza flotilla, Israeli and Turkish officials meet in New York in attempt to mend ties.
Three days before a UN report on last year’s deadly flotilla raid is due, Israeli and Turkish officials were engaged in feverish behind-the-scenes diplomacy in an effort to mend the bilateral ties that ruptured after the death of nine passengers aboard a Turkish ship.
The activists were killed by Israeli naval commandos who encountered violent resistance when attempting to keep the vessel from breaching Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
A meeting is scheduled for Tuesday in New York between Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon and senior Turkish officials. A government source in Jerusalem said the United States has been exerting heavy pressure on both sides to work out their differences by the time the report comes out Thursday.
If a compromise is not reached soon, the UN report will be released as is, and bilateral ties will likely be frozen for a long period, the source said. If a compromise is reached, the report will be reworded and toned down.
“We are at a critical stage,” the source said. “If things aren’t worked out, the report will be released and everybody loses.”
The UN committee reviewing the events of May 31, 2010, has sent a draft of its report to both Israel and Turkey.
According to a senior Israeli diplomatic source who read the draft, the committee concluded that the blockade of Gaza was legal, but that the naval commandos who seized the Mavi Marmara had used undue force.
Turkey, meanwhile, is concerned about the committee’s apparent criticism regarding Ankara’s role in the flotilla, particularly its ties with the group that organized it, IHH, which has links to Hamas.
Turkey has asked Israel to agree to have the report toned down as part of a deal meant to reconcile the two countries and bring the Turkish ambassador back to Tel Aviv.
The heart of the dispute remains Turkey’s demand that Israel apologize for its role in the events.
“Diplomats are working like linguists to find a word that will sound like an apology in Turkish, but won’t sound like an apology in Hebrew,” the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported Monday.
Britain to deport Israeli Islamic leader Sheikh Raed Salah: Jonathan Cook
NAZARETH // Efforts were under way by the British government yesterday to deport the leader of Israel’s largest Islamic group after he was arrested on charges of entering the country illegally.
Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement and a vocal critic of Israeli policies, was detained at his London hotel on Tuesday.
His arrest came as he was preparing to address a meeting yesterday in the British parliament attended by several MPs.
Sheikh Salah arrived in Britain on Saturday, clearing border checks, despite an exclusion order reportedly issued by the British home secretary, Theresa May, last week.
Yesterday, Mrs May said steps were being taken to remove Sheikh Salah from Britain. “A full investigation is now taking place into how he was able to enter,” she said.
The Home Office said his presence was “not conducive to the public good”.The government’s hard line against Sheikh Salah follows a campaign by pro-Israel groups in Britain, backed by right-wing newspapers, alleging he had a history of making anti-Semitic statements.
Sheikh Salah, who has denied the remarks, was reported to be planning to sue the newspapers over their reports. His lawyer, Farooq Bajwa, said Mr Salah hoped to fight his deportation, pointing out that he had made “no attempt” to conceal his identity or lie about the purpose of his visit.
Sheikh Salah is a controversial figure among Israeli Jews. He has been arrested several times and jailed twice, for contacting a foreign agent and spitting at a policeman.
He also travelled on last year’s aid flotilla to Gaza that was stormed by Israeli commandos, leading to the deaths of nine activists on-board.
Britain’s Daily Mail branded Sheikh Salah a “preacher of hate” and “a militant extremist” on Tuesday, before his arrest, describing Britain’s border controls as a “joke”.
Sarah Colborne, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which invited Sheikhr Salah to Britain, said: “This shocking move by the British government will deeply damage British relations in the Middle East.”
Arab leaders in Israel criticised the arrest, and were due to issue a formal protest to the British embassy in Israel. Haneen Zoubi, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, said the British government had “caved into pressure from the Zionist lobby”.
She said lobby groups wanted to “silence” Sheikh Salah for his criticisms of Israel’s “systematic discrimination” against its Arab citizens, a fifth of the population.
Sheikh Salah has angered Israeli officials by accusing Israel of trying to take over a holy compound in Jerusalem’s Old City that includes the al Aqsa mosque. “[Sheikh Salah] is not an extremist,” said Ms Zoubi. “But it is very easy for Zionsts in Britain to portray him as fundamentalist and racist by tapping into Islamophobic ideas.”
Sheikh Salah had spoken about the Arab Spring to large audiences in London and Leicester before his arrest.
However, an invitation for him to speak in the parliament building at a meeting entitled “Building peace and justice in Jerusalem”, had provoked fierce criticism from Jewish groups and some British politicians.
After criticism from the Board of Deputies, the main representative body for British Jews, officials from the opposition Labour party had urged three of its MPs not to attend.
Hassan Jabareen, the director of the Adalah centre for Israel’s Arab minority, said Sheikh Salah had never been accused of advocating or participating in armed struggle, and had not been charged with incitement or anti-Semitism.
“Israel is one of the most security-obsessed countries in the world. If it believed he was a threat of any kind, he would be under administrative detention, or at the very least subject to a travel ban.”
The Islamic Movement has accused the Israeli authorities of persecuting Sheikh Salah with a series of investigations and legal cases over many years.
In April he was arrested at a crossing into Jordan, after he was accused of hitting an Israeli interrogator.
He was freed from an Israeli prison in December after five months’ incarceration for spitting at a policeman during a confrontation over Israeli excavations close to the Al Aqsa mosque.
Israel, Greece mark growing ties with joint air force drill: Haaretz
Greek and Israeli air forces hold two-week-long drill as the two countries’ ties tighten following Greek government’s attempt to halt the Gaza-bound flotilla from departing.
Israel’s Air Force on Monday concluded a two-week drill with the Hellenic Air Force as the two nations cemented growing ties between their militaries, recently reflected in Greece’s recent move to halt a Gaza-bound flotilla set to depart from its shores.
The joint drill was held at Greece’s Larisa Air Base, and several elite Israeli squadrons, along with the IDF’s elite rescue unit 669 took part in the exercise along with the Greek military.
Over the past few days Greece has been working to stop the pro-Palestinian flotilla from departing to Gaza. On Sunday, the Greek government offered to transport the flotilla’s aid to Gaza as a compromise in order to end the affair.
According to the Greek initiative, the humanitarian aid aboard flotilla ships will be loaded onto watercraft of the Greek government and transferred to Gaza via the organized channels, as was requested by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon two weeks ago. This means the aid would go through either the Ashdod port or Arish, and from there be taken to the Gaza Strip under the supervision of Greek and UN authorities.
The Greek government has already approached the United Nations and Israel to assess the possibility of transferring the humanitarian aid via Israel or Egypt to the Gaza Strip using Greek governmental ships, under UN supervision.
The Battle Over the Gaza Flotilla: The Nation
Joseph Dana
July 1, 2011
On Thursday, the passengers of the Audacity of Hope, the US boat in the “Freedom Flotilla 2” to Gaza—a convoy of ten boats, two cargo ships and some 300 civilians—emerged from their hotel on the edge of an Athens turned upside down. The air was heavy from the stench of garbage and tear gas, after two days of a general strike and fighting between police and demonstrators protesting the latest austerity measures. But the dramatic urban landscape barely caught the passengers’ attention as they boarded a chartered bus to a distant Athenian port, kept secret until then due to security concerns.
Standing in front of more than seventy journalists from around the world, the thirty-five passengers called on the Greek government to allow their boat to sail. The idea was that if the government were to continue its efforts—coming after intense Israeli lobbying—to prevent the boat from sailing, it would be forced to do so in front of the world media, and thus might back down. But just one hour before the press conference was set to begin, the captain of the US boat announced that he was abandoning the mission, saying that he risked losing his maritime license and could face jail time if he didn’t. But this was only the latest setback for the flotilla.
The day before the US press conference, the Irish ship in the flotilla, the MV Saoirse, announced that it had been sabotaged at its dock in Turkey. The boat’s propeller had been tampered with, sustaining more than 20,000 euros in damage. And two days before that, the propeller of the ship jointly sponsored by organizers from Greece, Norway and Sweden had also been sabotaged, allegedly by underwater divers while in port in Athens, according to the Irish Times.
Allegations by flotilla organizers, as well as others, of Israeli sabotage can’t be confirmed, but in the past Israeli officials have themselves hinted at such operations. In June 2010 the Guardian reported that an unnamed Israeli military official had briefed the Knesset about the existence of “grey operations” against two boats in the May 2010 flotilla, the same flotilla that included the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was attacked by Israeli commandos, who killed nine passengers. The Challenger One and Challenger Two, which had been preparing to sail to Gaza from Greek ports and join the Mavi Marmara, both malfunctioned under mysterious circumstances.
This year’s sabotage came after strongly worded Israeli government threats against the flotilla, with military officials stating on more than one occasion that the IDF would use any means necessary to prevent it from reaching Gaza. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton provided some US diplomatic cover for Israeli actions against civilians on the high seas when she stated last week that the flotilla organizers have created a situation in which Israel “has the right to defend itself.”
Israeli officials claim the mission is an “anti-Israeli public relations stunt.” If that’s the case, then the PR battle has resulted in largely positive exposure for the flotilla organizers, who have maintained the upper hand in the media war. Careful not to leak any sensitive information, the US organizers have been inconsistent in dealing with journalists planning to travel on their boat. And the gulf between the Israeli government’s organized media campaign and the haphazard and largely disorganized campaign of the US organizers has been evident. But the bellicose Israeli strategy has helped to publicize this story in ways the flotilla organizers could never have orchestrated themselves.
Last Sunday the Israeli Government Press Office took the bizarre step of openly threatening journalists with a ten-year travel ban to Israel if they accompany the flotilla. Immediately decried as an attack on press freedom by Israel’s Foreign Press Association, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rescinded the ban the day after it was published, but he did not comment on whether press would be allowed to keep footage they filmed on the boats (Israel has come under fire for confiscating press and activist footage from last year’s flotilla).
Central to the Israeli strategy have been efforts to associate the passengers with violence. On Monday the Israeli press reported that flotilla passengers planned to use chemical “substances” against Israeli soldiers sent to intercept their ships. These unsubstantiated rumors attributed to “military sources” were presented as fact in the Jerusalem Post as well as in Yediot Ahronot, the most popular daily. Some military officials publicly challeged the accusations the day after the story entered the news cycle, but the damage had already been done.
The US boat has not been free of sabotage attempts. On Friday, June 24, an anonymous complaint was filed against the Audacity of Hope over its “seaworthiness.” On Sunday the Israel Law Center (Shurat HaDin), known for representing Israeli victims of Palestinian terror attacks, took responsibility for the complaint in the Israeli press. The organization, which receives funding from American evangelical pastor and Christian Zionist leader John Hagee, also sent letters to the passengers of the US boat saying that their voyage could be a violation of US criminal law.
Greek authorities, whether in response to that complaint or because of Israeli government pressure, have been rigorously inspecting the US boat since that Friday. Yonatan Shapira, a former Israeli Air Force pilot and anti-occupation refusenik and activist who is a crew member of the Audacity of Hope, argued, “It is clear that this complaint is not about seaworthiness but is an attempt to stop the boat from leaving port in Athens.” Speaking to an Israeli Air Force graduation ceremony on Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked his Greek counterpart for his help in preventing the “flotilla provocation.”
Over the past several weeks the US boat has been tested at sea several times with excellent results, according to organizers. David Smith, the boat’s engineer and a former Greenpeace activist who has ample experience in dangerous sea missions, said, “The boat is in top sea shape and is a perfect choice for this type of mission.” Passengers have been sleeping in shifts on the boat to thwart sabotage attempts.
Flotilla organizers, speaking anonymously, believe that Israeli agents are behind the attacks. “They are watching everything we do,” one organizer told me. “A number of our cellphones have been stolen from our passengers while in Athens. I’m sure the Israelis are listening to our communications and tracking our whereabouts.”
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In an air-conditioned conference room of the Stanley Hotel in downtown Athens, 86-year-old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein and Pulitzer Prize–winning author and activist Alice Walker sang and clapped with the other US passengers as they rehearsed the nonviolent tactics they plan to use when Israeli commandos board their ship.
“We are in a waiting mode that could a take a day or two or three, but we are determined to get to Gaza,” Epstein remarked after an exhausting day of training. Swarms of Greek policemen, bused in from the countryside to assist with crowd control in an Athens rocked by the anti-austerity protests, gathered in the hotel lobby where Epstein quietly sat.
Questioned about Israeli threats of military interception and possible attack, Epstein smiled shyly but was defiant. “I have never been afraid of what the Israelis might do to us because I believe that there is always a chance to reach the humanity inside a soldier,” she said, adding after a brief pause, “but I have learned that they might bring attack dogs, and you can’t reach the humanity of a trained attack dog. And that is terrifying.”
Many passengers believe they have already achieved a major goal of their mission: to raise awareness about conditions in Gaza. Robert Naiman, a US boat passenger and policy director of the Washington, DC, think tank Just Foreign Policy, said, “The fact of the matter is that we have already won. The international press is talking about the blockade and Gaza. The contradiction between the world of the Israeli military officials and the world in which the rest of us live is exposed for all to see.”
The sabotage and propaganda campaign against the Freedom Flotilla culminated just as demonstrations rocked central Athens, when a broad section of Greek civil society took to the streets in clashes with riot police. Amid the clouds of tear gas, Molotov cocktails and bonfires on Athenian streets, some passengers from the US boat, wearing black T-shirts with the words “Unarmed Civilian” written in white letters, walked the streets in solidarity with the Greek people.
“Get ready for this type of tear gas on the boats if the Israelis board us,” one passenger remarked as a group watched Greek anarchists clash with police. As the US passengers looked on nervously, demonstrators set ablaze three cartons in front of an ATE Bank and then threw Molotov cocktails inside the blown-out windows. As the bank started to burn, to the visible excitement of thousands of protesters, most of the US passengers had had enough and began to head back to their hotel, five blocks from the front lines.
Many passengers on the US boat have spent summers in the West Bank and Gaza with pro-Palestinian groups like the International Solidarity Movement. One of them noted that the demonstrations in Athens felt safer than similar ones in the West Bank. She remarked, while choking on tear gas, “You can’t predict what the Israeli soldiers will do to you. They could fire a tear-gas canister directly at your head in [the West Bank village of] Bil’in, but that will not happen here.” (In the spring of 2009, American ISM volunteer Tristan Anderson was critically wounded when Israeli soldiers fired a high-velocity tear-gas projectile at his head in the West Bank village of Ni’ilin.)
The anti-austerity protests in Athens provided an outlet for flotilla passengers frustrated with the delayed departure of the US boat. “There are going to be serious clashes tonight,” said one passenger, wearing swimming goggles and a Palestinian kaffiyeh over his face for protection. “We have a planning meeting tonight about how to get out of here, and as soon as it’s done I’m running back to the streets to see this historic event.”
For most on the US boat, the flotilla’s mission is about civil society connecting with civil society, against the oppressive pressure and influence of government. The energy of the protests in Athens, and the popularity of the Gaza flotilla mission among Greek activists, was a potent source of encouragement. Flotilla activists have addressed Greek protesters camping in front of the Parliament in Athens, and Greek activists have used their prominence in the media to demand that their government allow the boats to sail. The Greek harbor masters where flotilla boats are waiting in port have supported the mission; in fact, one organizer connected to the US boat said the harbor masters are ready to allow the boats to sail even if the government orders them to stay in port.
Alice Walker has become an icon and anchor of this diverse crew of Americans willing to risk their lives to highlight Israeli control over Gaza. At the flotilla’s only international press conference held so far in Athens, she expressed a widely shared sentiment when she said, “My government has failed us, and is ignorant of our own history.” Visibly exhausted from the last week in Athens, she added, “When black people were enslaved for 300 years, it took a lot of people from outside our community to help free us. This is a fine tradition—going to help people who need us anywhere on the planet. I look at you in the room; if we have salvation as humankind, it is in this room.”
Finally, on Friday afternoon, July 1, after a week of delay, the Audacity of Hope set sail, with thirty-five passengers, five crew members and eleven journalists. After only an hour at sea, however, we were stopped by the Greek Coast Guard, which told the boat, “You are forbidden to leave Athens. Return to port now.” The battle continues.
French court decision on Jerusalem light rail must be challenged: The Electronic Intifada
Daniel Machover and Adri Nieuwhof
A French court ruling on the construction of a light rail network to service illegal Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem betrays a lack of understanding about how the project abets the Israeli occupation.
On 30 May, the High Court of Nanterre dismissed a petition by the France-Palestine Solidarity Association (known by the acronym AFPS) to nullify under French law contracts signed by French transport giants Veolia and Alstom for building a light rail system in Jerusalem. AFPS has until 30 June to appeal the decision.
In its petition, AFPS asserted that the Jerusalem light rail project will connect West Jerusalem with Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, normalizing the illegal situation on the ground.
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the annexation of East Jerusalem are illegal under international law. Numerous UN resolutions and the 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on Israel’s wall in the West Bank have confirmed this.
The Nanterre court found that under French law these particular international law provisions have no direct effect on private individuals and companies who are not a party to the conflict. Under French law, only states which signed the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Hague Regulations of 1907 can be regarded as being bound by the specific treaty provisions listed in AFPS’s legal arguments.
State responsible for French firms
The Nanterre court judgment repeatedly refers to the obligation (common to all four Geneva Conventions of 1949) on all states “to respect and ensure respect” for the terms of those treaties. The court’s ruling is therefore a reminder that states who are party to those treaties made solemn promises about protecting civilians under military occupation from violations by the occupying power.
According to French international law specialist Monique Chemillier-Gendreau, commenting on the Jerusalem light rail project in Le Monde Diplomatique, “A state is accountable for the actions of its country’s major companies if they break international law and if the state does not do what it can to prevent them” (“Jerusalem’s apartheid tramway,” 17 February 2007).
Not only is France not ensuring the respect of international law, it is actively defying it. Gerard Araud, the country’s ambassador to Israel, took part in the official Jerusalem light rail contract-signing ceremony in the offices of then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. On that occasion, Sharon made it clear that the light rail would “sustain Jerusalem for eternity as the capital of the Jewish people, the united capital of the state of Israel” (“PM Sharon’s Statements at the Ceremony for the Signing of the Light Train Agreement,” Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, 17 July 2005).
France should be held to account for disregarding its responsibilities towards the involvement of Veolia and Alstom in Israel’s illegal activities in the occupied West Bank.
Racist survey
The court did not rule on the claims by the companies that the light rail system was being built for the benefit of all local residents, without discrimination. However, the court’s comments about the project being designed to “serve many districts of Jerusalem and all its inhabitants, including tourists” indicates a lack of understanding of the underlying nature of the service, going beyond its obvious utility to the illegal settlements.
The court’s comments echo the conclusions of a dubious survey undertaken by Veolia itself. Last year even Israeli municipal officials branded the questions posed during that survey as “racist.” Jewish respondents were asked, for example, if they would be comfortable sharing the service with Palestinians.
In addition, statements made by Ammon Elian, a spokesperson for the CityPass consortium to which Veoila and Alstom belong, show that the project will entrench the status quo of segregation. With the exception of one stop, the line has been explicitly designed to avoid servicing parts of Jerusalem with a Palestinian majority.
It is also unlikely that Palestinians will use the light rail system when local bus routes are more convenient for their journeys and much cheaper.
Wriggling out of ethical code
Veolia and Alstom both participate in the UN Global Compact, a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to operating in an ecologically and socially responsible manner. Its first two principles state that businesses should support and respect the protection of international human rights within their spheres of influence, and make sure they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
In its petition, AFPS claims that Veolia violated its own code of ethics, which refers to the principles in the UN Global Compact. But in its submissions to the court, Veolia countered these accusations by claiming that “the code of ethics is not a contract and therefore has no legal effect.”
Veolia contended that the reference to the Global Compact in its code of ethics refers exclusively to the relations between the company and its employees. The court found that Veolia had only expressed its intention to comply with the obligations contained in the code of ethics, instead of committing itself to respecting these obligations.
Meanwhile, Alstom argued that “the Global Compact is simply an invitation to participants to respect, inter alia, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Its own championing of a code of ethics bound it “merely [to] obligations of care and diligence, rather than obligations to produce specific results.”
Furthermore, the court found that the Global Compact does not include a specific definition of human rights and that it uses terms that amount merely to encouraging firms to behave in a particular way.
Veolia and Alstom advertise their commitment to the ten principles of the Global Compact on their websites. Rather than holding the companies to account for violating their commitments laid down in the Code of Ethics and the Global Compact, the court accepted the plea by the companies that they are not bound by these commitments.
The court’s findings on the status of ethical codes constitute a judicial failure to treat these publicly-adopted standards of conduct as having legal consequences. Corporations, in approving these standards, are expressing a clear willingness to be held to account for their conduct. Moreover, it is simply baffling that Alstom and the court failed to find any of those standards applicable to the Jerusalem light rail project. This flies in the face of significant evidence of the impact of the system on Palestinians’ human rights.
If these aspects of the ruling are not challenged now or in future, then it will be all too easy for companies to publish codes of ethics for the purposes of public relations alone, without ever being legally required to implement those codes at all levels of their business, and within their whole supply chain.
Daniel Machover is a lawyer, based in the UK, and co-founder of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights.
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland