100+ Unions, Movements and Solidarity Groups demand HPE’s inclusion in UN settlement database
HPE provides servers for the database for Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, which includes Israelis living in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Over a hundred trade unions, student associations, people’s movements and solidarity groups from across the world came together to send a letter to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Michelle Bachelet, demanding that Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) be included in the database of businesses complicit in Israel’s settlement enterprise. HPE provides exclusive servers to maintain the database for Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority. This includes the ‘Yesha database’ of Israeli citizens living in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The endorsers include Fórsa, Ireland’s largest public service union, as well as Sinn Féin and the Communist Party of Ireland; Central Única dos Trabalhadores, Brazil’s national Trade Union centre with 7.5 million members; UNISON, the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members, and Students Federation of India, India’s biggest students association, with over 4 million members.
Find below the letter sent to the OHCHR, followed by the endorsements.
Ms Michelle Bachelet,
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
October 30th, 2020
In February 2020, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published its much awaited database of businesses complicit in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. It listed 112 companies which provide equipment and services to maintain, build and expand illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem. The database is widely appreciated as a tool for ensuring that business enterprises respect Palestinian human rights. The Human Rights Council Resolution 31/36, which established this database, also requires that it be updated annually.
We, the undersigned organizations, urge the OHCHR, therefore, to include Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) in the next update of the database of businesses complicit in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.
HPE provides servers to the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority for the maintenance of Israel’s computerized population register, which includes the ‘Yesha database’ of Israeli citizens living in the illegal settlements in the OPT. Hence, HPE plays a substantial role in the maintenance of Israel’s settlement enterprise.
We urge the inclusion of HPE in the database for its complicity in and profiteering from Israel’s settlement enterprise, which amount to the practice of settler colonialism and apartheid.
In light of Israel’s ongoing de facto annexation and the planned de jure annexation of occupied Palestinian territory, both of which you have strongly condemned as illegal, it is more urgent than ever to ensure that corporations meet their obligation to respect human rights and do not sustain this illegal and criminal settlement regime. The Human Rights Council’s database is an effective accountability tool for this purpose, and the inclusion of HPE, and other similarly complicit corporations, is a necessary step in the right direction.
Endorsements:
Australia
Australian Friends of Palestine Association
Australians for Justice and Peace in Palestine
Australians For Palestine
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network
Australian Palestinian Professional Association (APPA)
BDS Australia
Byron Friends of Palestine
Casey Friends of Palestine
Christians for Peace, Newcastle
Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine
Federation of Italian Migrant Workers (FILEF) Sydney
Free Palestine, Melbourne
Friends of Hebron Sydney
Friends of Palestine (Western Australia)
Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network
Sydney University Staff for BDS
Women For Palestine
Belgium
Belgian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACBI)
Brazil
Central Única dos Trabalhadores: National Trade Union Centre with ~7.5 million members
Canada
Academics for Palestine Concordia
Canada Palestine Association, Vancouver
Finland
Finnish-Arab Friendship Society
France
Campagne BDS France
Germany
BDS Berlin
India
All India Students' Association
Badayl
Food Sovereignty Alliance
Indo-Palestine Solidarity Network
Janwadi Mahila Samiti (AIDWA, Delhi)
National Dalit Christian Watch
Student Christian Movement of India
Students' Federation of India (SFI): Largest students association with over 4 million members
Ireland
Action from Ireland (Afri)
Administration Managers Branch, CWU
Belfast and District Trades Union Council
Brazilian Left Front
Castlebar & District Council of Trade Unions
Centre for Global Education
Communication Workers’ Union:
CWU Dublin No. 2 Branch
Communications Workers Union Sligo District Ireland
Cork Area Managers Branch
Dublin Mails Managers Branch, Communication Workers Union
Dublin Postal Clerks Branch
Galway District Branch
Limerick Branch
Mallow Postal Branch
Mullingar Managers Branch
Mullingar Postal Branch
Sligo Area Postal Managers Branch
Communist Party of Ireland
Dublin Mails Managers Branch, Communication Workers Union
Dublin Postal Clerks Branch, CWU
eir National Managers Branch
Fórsa: Ireland’s largest public service union with 80,000 members
Gaza Action Ireland
Global Solidarity Committee, Irish Congress of Trade Unions
Irish Freethinkers and Humanists
Irish National Teachers' Organisation
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Justice for Palestine, Comhlámh
Mandate Trade Union
Newry & Mourne UNISON Branch 5091
Peace and Neutrality Alliance
People Before Profit
Sinn Féin
Students for Justice in Palestine DCU
The Workers' Party of Ireland
Trade Union Friends of Palestine
UNISON Northern Ireland
Italy
BDS Italia
BDS Torino
Comitato No Nato
G.A.M.A.D.I
Nowaroma
Rete Romana di solidarietà con il Popolo Palestinese
Un Ponte Per
Malaysia
BDS Malaysia
New Zealand
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
Northern Ireland
Quaker Service
Norway
Akademisk og Kulturell Boikott av staten Israel (AKULBI)
The Palestine Committee of Norway
Slovenia
Gibanje za pravice Palestincev
South Africa
Palestine Solidarity Association UWC
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
South African BDS Coalition
Sri Lanka
National Fisheries Solidarity
Switzerland
Association Switzerland-Palestine
BDS Switzerland
Collectif Urgence Palestine-Vd
Gerechtigkeit und Frieden in Palästina
The Netherlands
Article 1 Collective
Breed Platform Palestina
DocP/BDS Netherlands
Stichting Groningen-Jabalya
United Kingdom
BRICUP (the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine)
Craigavon Council of Trade Unions
Jewish Network for Palestine
Omagh Trades Union Council
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
UNISON: UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members
United States of America
BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group of DSA
CODEPINK
Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
Green Mountain Solidarity With Palestine
Jewish Voice for Peace
National Students for Justice in Palestine
Vermonters for Justice in Palestine
International/ Inter-regional
ECCP - European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine
World Beyond War