@Cover photo:Joe Catron of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Many Palestinian organizations led by Addameer, NGOs working with people imprisoned and tortured in Palestine, made an international call to force the UN to break their contracts with G4S. So far, the international organization is hiring the private company for the safeguards of officials as Ban Ki – moon, as well as developing international missions, reaching services worth 22 million dollars.
Yesterday November 29th,International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, it has been launched an advocacy campaign by sending the request and making actions in the United Nations offices in the field to make visible the opposition to continue benefiting an accomplice company of the systematic human right’s violation of the Palestinian people at by the Israeli government.
“In 2007, G4S signed a contract with the Israeli Prison Authority to provide security systems and other services for major Israeli jails.On February 23rd 2013, the Palestinian Arafat Jaradat died in Megiddo prison in Israel, following his alleged torture in the interrogation center Al Jalameh. The company provides security systems and controls to the central control room in Megiddo; in addition to managing the safety of equipment for Al Jalameh “explained War on Want, a leading organization in the boycott of G4S in UK. In addition to the participation of the Israeli prison system, G4S also provides equipment and services to the checkpoints (checkpoints) Israelis in the West Bank, part of the route of the illegal separation wall and the isolation of the besieged city of Gaza.
Is not only G4S, is the business of the war and its privatization
Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) are replacing armies and military personnel on more and more tasks and in greater proportion. This has become very evident in conflicts such as Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003). Indeed, war is privatized and it does so adapted to the XXI century, through multinational companies.
According to the research of NOVACT under the international coalition Control PMSCs, PMSCs are used in such sensitive functions as interrogations, combat operations and control of civilians. All without any international or national regulation to oversee the activities, requiring the repair of damages to victims of human rights violations or establish protocols for action, selection and training of personnel.
This lucrative business – G4S bill reaches 7,300 million pounds within a year – not only lives outside regulations but has direct impact on the work of the country regarding the protection of its citizens.In Afghanistan, for example, military and private security companies have perpetuated a model of militarized society with high levels of weapons and armed population destabilizing stage of transition begun last year.
Coinciding with the day of the action, NOVACT has released the report “The privatization of security during the Israeli occupation. The role and impact of private military and security companies and settlement civilian self-defense forces on Pelestinian Human Rights”.
The role of PMSCs in the occupied Palestinian territories has some peculiarities that differentiates it from other experiences, as it may be Afghanistan and Iraq. The main oddity is that the privatization process carried out by Israel is not based on the deregulation of the activity of these companies and other private contractors, as the settlers, but the permits and licenses to operate are supported by all a series of national laws and military orders.
