| In a major victory for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian liberation, British private security company G4S has just sold off its remaining businesses in apartheid Israel. G4S has long helped Israel to operate prisons at which Palestinian political prisoners are held without trial and subjected to torture. They’ve also provided equipment and services to illegal Israeli settlements and the Israeli military. In 2012, Palestinian prisoners’ and human rights organizations launched a BDS campaign against G4S, leading such high-profile entities as the Church of Sweden, the United Methodist Church, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to divest from G4S. This pressure was so effective that the company divested from Israel’s prison system, military checkpoints, and illegal settlements in 2016. Yet G4S remained invested in Policity, Israel’s police academy. Allied Universal, G4S’s parent company, finally sold off its stake in Policity this spring. This final sell-off was driven in large part by the organizing of BDS campaigners in Quebec, who consistently and courageously pressured a major Quebec fund manager (and shareholder in Allied Universal) to demand G4S end its complicity in Israeli apartheid. JVP chapters also played an important role in driving the divestment campaign at the local level. In 2014, the JVP-Triangle NC chapter participated in #DurhamDropG4S, which successfully pressured Durham County to not renew its $1 million contract with G4S. According to Jade Brooks, a Triangle local leader at the time of the campaign, “Fighting and winning that campaign allowed us to build lasting relationships of political trust and do meaningful political education about the connections between the violence and fear G4S was responsible for in Palestine and the violence and fear perpetuated by private security officers here at home, especially towards Black people, people of color, and poor people. This win reminds us that BDS campaigns are an important tactic to build base, build leaders, and build the movement for a free Palestine!” We couldn’t agree more. |
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 
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