BDS Newsletter #16 - June 2009

[Stop the Wall] - This edition of the Stop the Wall BDS newsletter covers the many BDS protests and new campaign launches that occurred in France, USA and Canada. New groups took up BDS this month in Canada and Germany. Several victories are also covered, among them Veolia and Dexia Israel.

BDS NEWSLETTER

Edition: 16 - June, 2009

CORPORATE NEWS

Derail Veolia/Alstom victories!
Several victories occurred this month, as the Derail Veolia/Alstom campaign makes progress. Early in the month, it was reported that French transport giant Veolia will abandon the light rail project that will connect Jerusalem with several illegal Israeli settlements built on Palestinian land. Reports indicate that Veolia also wants to pull out of the 30-year contract to operate the train and is reportedly trying to sell its five percent stake in the City Pass consortium of Israeli bus companies. This was partly attributed explicitly to the ongoing boycott campaign. [MORE]

The campaign also made progress in Australia, where Connex (Veolia) was “dumped” after 4 month boycott campaign in Melbourne. [MORE]

It has also been reported that Tehran will drop Veolia from city transport network. Following pressure from BNC, the mayor of Tehran announced that Veolia would no longer have a key role in city's urban transport system. This victory in Iran, along with others in France, UK, Sweden, and Holland, have cost Veolia an estimated $7 billion in lost contracts and were key in pushing the company to leave the Jerusalem light rail project. [MORE]

Ongoing Campaigns

Dexia Israel stops financing Israeli settlements
The Belgian-French financial group Dexia announced it will no longer finance Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories through its Israeli branch, Dexia Israel. [MORE]

Activists in France launch broad campaign against Agrexco
Under the banner “Not a single euro of public money should be used against the Palestinian people!” activists in France have launched a campaign to fight the installation of the Israeli company Agrexco in Sete. [MORE]

Bil’in village continues its legal battle against Canadian companies
Bil’in village’s legal battle against two Quebec-based companies for constructing Israeli settlements on Palestinian land continues. After a week of hearings at the Quebec Superior Court, Bil’in’s lawsuit is now being considered by Justice Louis-Paul Cullen. A response from the judge is expected in the coming months. [MORE]

Caterpillar faces demonstrators in shareholders meeting
For the sixth year in a row, protests marked Caterpillar Corporation’s annual shareholder’s meeting in Chicago on June 10th. A number of peace and Palestine solidarity groups gained access to the meeting itself through the purchase of corporate shares, while others rallied outside the building, educating passersby about the crimes Occupation forces are committing with Caterpillar equipment. A supporting protest was also held outside Caterpillar offices in Portland Oregon (USA). [MORE]

Produce boycott crosses the Atlantic
On Saturday, June 20, activists gathered at Trader Joe’s grocery stores in Oakland and San Francisco to demand that the company stop carrying Israeli goods. Protesters removed Israeli products from the shelves, distributed leaflets about Israeli apartheid, and handed out coupons for customers to give to cashiers asking the store to stop stocking Israeli herbs, couscous, and cheese. [MORE]

Beach day protestors grab headlines in NYC
As part of its on-going rebranding campaign, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism held a Tel Aviv Beach Party in Central Park, New York City, on 21 June, 2009. Members of CODEPINK protested at the event and drew both public and media attention away from the effort to celebrate Tel Aviv’s 100th anniversary and to promote the Israeli tourism industry, instead bringing the spotlight onto war crimes and the BDS movement. [MORE]

Latest News

Coordination and call for targeted BDS measures move ahead in Germany
From June 19 to 21, Pax Christi Germany held their annual conference on Palestine, this time entitled “Reason of state and international law” at the academy of the German Protestant church in Bad Boll. The conference was noteworthy for a number of reasons, among them the focus on concrete BDS actions and the growing of support for the Palestinian struggle in Germany. [MORE]

Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) joins BDS movement
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) voted to join the growing international campaign in support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), at its first Annual General Meeting this weekend. This decision makes IJV the first national Jewish organization in the world to do so. [MORE]

Israeli telecommunication in India
Israel's ECI Telecom was awarded a $70 million contract by India's Tata Teleservices (TTSL) last week, to deliver fixed-broadband access network across India. ECI has already begun providing TTSL with the service in India, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Vizag, Vijayawada, Surat and Baroda. [MORE]

Secondly, Ceragon's solutions will support Tata Teleservices in expanding its GSM mobile network to cover a population of nearly 400 million people. [MORE]

Africa-Israel under scrutiny for settlement construction
Africa-Israel is the latest target of a boycott campaign by Palestine solidarity activists because of the company’s involvement in the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. American and European financial institutions hold a substantial stake in Africa-Israel Investment, investigations reveal. [MORE]

No to Eircom deal with Israeli company Amdocs
On Friday 26th June, Irish politicians handed in a petition to Eircom Headquarters calling on Eircom not to sign a proposed deal with an IBM-led consortium which includes the Israeli telecommunications billing company Amdocs. Signatures to the petition were collected by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) and the Irish Anti War Movement (IAWM). [MORE]

Amdocs adds to Finland telecommunications relationship
Billing software developer Amdocs Ltd. has signed a six-year agreement with Finland-based telecommunications company Elisa Corporation. [MORE]

Motorola moves forward on MIRS sale
The global corporation Motorola will open an information center for investors interested in acquiring MIRS Communications Ltd. The center will be opened on July 15 after investment bank Merrill Lynch Israel has completed its estimate of MIRS' value and formulated a strategy for the sale. [MORE]

Nochi Dankner in London property talks
After earning NIS 2 billion in his short-term investment in Credit Suisse Group AG), Nochi Dankner has marked his next target: income-producing property in the UK. IDB Holding Corp. controlled by Dankner, is examining an investment of hundreds of millions of shekels in UK real estate, which is currently in deep crisis. IDB unit Property and Building and Harel are in talks to jointly acquire land in London's financial district. [MORE]

Gilat to provide Papua New Guinea communications network
Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. will provide a broadband satellite communications network in Papua New Guinea. The country has a population of more than six million people. The satellite communications firm will also help provide services to the financial sector in the country. [MORE]

NICE Systems in China and Canada
NICE will supply an IP video security system for all 21 stations on the planned first metro line for Xian City, China. The Xian Metro rail system is expected to be in operation by the end of 2010. [MORE]

In Canada, BCAS selected NICE Inform and other NICE solutions to manage emergency communications at all of its emergency dispatch sites, upgrading from an existing implementation of NICE recording technology. [MORE]

Alvarion wins mobile WiMAX deal in Italy
WiMAX systems developer Alvarion Ltd. has signed an agreement to deploy a mobile WiMAX network in Italy. [MORE]

Israeli companies seek UN business opportunities
Fifteen of Israel's leading companies attended a three-day United Nations seminar in New York this week, meant to introduce their products to the organization's acquisition committees, in what may prove to be a business opportunity worth hundreds of millions of dollars. [MORE]

Israeli companies to bid on Turkish mining clearing contracts
The Turkish paper "Sunday's Zaman" reported that leading international corporations are bidding in a tender to clear mines along the 877-kilometer Turkish Syrian border. Some of the bidders are Israeli companies. The winner will have the land along the Syrian border for agricultural use for 44 years. [MORE]

Italy's Enel expands its relationship with Amdocs
Amdocs announced on June 9, 2009 that Enel, Italy's largest energy provider, has deployed contact center and agent interaction products from Amdocs. [MORE]

MILITARY AND ARMS TRADE NEWS

French activists protest at Paris Air Show
A group of French activists from the BDS France campaign held a non-violent protest against the Israeli presence at the Paris - Le Bourget Air Show. Le Bourget Air Show is one of the largest weapons and aerospace technology fairs in the world. The protest took place outside the Israeli pavilion, where several Israeli arms companies had come to sell their military technologies to potential European buyers. [MORE]

Ongoing Campaigns

Spain to Drop Investigation into Israeli War Crimes in Gaza
The Spanish High Court is to halt its investigation of seven Israelis (including one former defence minister) in connection with the assassination of Hamas commander Salah Shehada, which also killed a number of civilians - 9 of them children. A law due to be introduced by the Spanish government will undermine universal jurisdiction, making it impossible to investigate cases that do not involve Spaniards. [MORE]

India Halts Trade with Israeli Military Industries
New Delhi has suspended all arms trade with Tel Aviv after blacklisting Israel Military Industries (IMI) over corruption allegations. [MORE]

Latest News

IAI wins a number of contracts
This month, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) won a large number of contracts. First, it has been awarded multiple orders of 34 units for its advanced Multi-Mission Radar (MMR) type EL/M 2084. ELTA Systems Ltd., a group and wholly owned subsidiary of IAI, is the prime contractor and developer of the EL/M 2084. [MORE]

IAI signed a contract worth tens of millions of dollars to provide a foreign customer with the GRIFFIN 3, the Next Generation Laser Guided Bomb (NGLGB) Kit. The GRIFFIN 3 Kit is an advanced guidance kit which is attached to a general purpose or penetration aerial bomb [MORE] . This is in addition to a contract to develop and supply the land-based Barak 8 Air and Missile Defense (AMD) System to a foreign customer. [MORE]

Also reported was a contract to supply a HAROP Loitering Munition (LM) system to a foreign customer. The contract is estimated to be worth over $100 million [MORE]

The company has been awarded a contract worth tens of millions of dollars for six Super Dvora MK-III fast patrol boats by an Asian customer. [MORE]

Finally the IAI Plug-In Optronic Payload 300 - Long Range (POP-300LR Observer), has been selected by a European customer for use in a coastal surveillance program. [MORE]

Elbit Systems buys stake in defense developer
Defense electronics company Elbit Systems Ltd. will invest $18 million for approximately 19% of the shares in defense products developer Mikal Ltd. The Mikal Group, founded by Abraham (Miko) Gilat, owns Soltam and ITL Optronics. [MORE]

ITL wins multi-million dollar contract from US Army
ITL Optronics Ltd. announced that it has just landed a 8.2 million dollar contract for the delivery of electro-optical systems to the US Ground Forces. The deal was closed through its US subsidiary, Fraser-Volpe LLC. This follows another major US win, estimated at 14 million dollars, since ITL’s purchase of Fraser-Volpe in December 2007. [MORE]

Armored vehicle company Hatehof closes deals of NIS 320m
Armored and rescue vehicle company Hatehof Ltd. reported today that it received final approval for several recently announced deals. The deals include an option to increase the orders by 80%. The value of the deals is NIS 320 million. [MORE]

Arotech unit gets US Army subcontract
Arotech Corporation unit FAAC Inc., won a $12.8 million subcontract for Mobile Training Facilities (MTF) as part of the US Army's Common Driver Trainer (CDT) Program. [MORE]

Ness wins Latin American defense deal
IT service provider Ness Technologies Inc. has won a multi-million dollar contract to provide its NessControl command and control system to a major Latin American government. NessControl will be implemented for the country's special forces. [MORE]

Israel sells reconditioned fighter-jets to Columbia
The state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries has delivered its first batch of indigenous Kfir fighter-jets to the Colombian Air Force, Middle East Newsline reported. The delivery, which took place on June 22, was that of upgraded Kfirs, deployed by Israel in the 1970s and retired 20 years later. [MORE]

Magal awarded $8.5 million in contracts
Magal Security Systems Ltd. announced that during May 2009, it was awarded a total of approximately $8.5 million in purchase orders to protect two airports and several nuclear power stations in South East Asia, to reconstruct a border in Israel and to extend an existing airport project in Eastern Europe. [MORE]

Aeronautics and Shikun u'Binui in major Azeri deals
Two of the Israeli companies participating in President Peres' delegation to Azerbaijan are very close to signing major contracts there. Aeronautics Defense Systems Ltd. is expected to set up a factory in the former Soviet republic, while Arison unit Shikun u'Binui Holdings Ltd. is expected to build highways there. Both companies are in the delegation with President Peres on his visit to Azerbaijan. [MORE]

IDF may face 936 lawsuits over Gaza operation
According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, Palestinian attorneys are preparing some 936 lawsuits against the Israeli Military over war crimes committed its military assault on Gaza. [MORE]

FREE TRADE AND GOVERNMENT AGREEMENTS

Ongoing Campaigns

EMG, Egypt sign gas deal at higher price
EMG partner Maiman: Egypt has reached new price arrangements with all exporters of Egyptian gas, to secure higher income for the Government of Egypt. Ampal-American Israel Corporation announced today that it has been advised by East Mediterranean Gas Co. (EMG) that EMG has signed an amendment to the Gas Sales & Purchase Agreement with its natural gas supplier on the repricing at a higher price, as well as periodic price adjustments, and new gas delivery targets. [MORE]

Latest News

European union trade relations upgrade conditional on settlement freeze
European Union officials announced on June 15, 2009 that they would delay any improvement in trade relations with Israel after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered conditional support for a Palestinian state in an address Sunday night but did not declare a freeze on Israeli settlements. [MORE]

Spain-Israel announcing joint Eureka initiative for projects between Spanish and Israeli companies
Spain and Israel have been invited to submit joint project proposals for the Eureka Initiative. [MORE]

Israel, Russia to collaborate on nanotechnology
Israel and Russia have set up a joint working group for the establishment of a nanotechnology venture with Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano), a giant in the field. Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Rusnano CEO Anatoly Chubais announced the venture at the 12th Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. [MORE]