Derail Israeli Apartheid: IPSC Day of Action focusing on Veolia

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | press release

Thursday March 25, 2010 12:00

by Freda H - IPSC

On Saturday 27th March the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign's monthly Boycott & Divestment action will focus on Veolia (the operators of the LUAS and several waste management projects) who are complicit in the building of a colonial-settler only light rail system in occupied East Jerusalem and who operate an Israeli landfill in the West Bank.

We are asking supporters to assemble at the St. Stephen's Green Luas stop at 1.00pm where we will be giving information to the general public about Veolia's operations in illegally occupied East Jerusalem, and asking the residents of Dublin to lobby their councillors in support of a motion at Dublin city Council that is asking the City Manager not to sign or renew any further contracts with Veolia until such time as they cease their involvement in Jerusalem's Apartheid Rail system and in the illegal Tovlan landfill in the West Bank.

Joan Collins and People Before Profit put a Motion down for the Council meeting on Monday 12th April - we are asking our supporters to please contact all Councillors on Dublin City Council and urge them to support the motion.

IPSC Chairperson Dr. David Landy speaking about Veolia's complicity in Israeli Apartheid said; "Veolia is building the sinews of apartheid in Israel. Their tram line will run through East Jerusalem, cutting the Palestinians there off from the rest of the West Bank and connecting the illegal Israeli settlements surrounding Jerusalem with Israel. This tramline, like their infamous bus route on route 443 in the West Bank is likely to be an Jewish-only transport system, built on Palestinian land. Such projects not only cement a growing apartheid system in the West Bank, they make the prospect of peace ever more distant."

Dr. Landy continued, "Benjamin Nethanyahu's government has recently outraged international opinion by announcing an intention to expand these illegal settlements around Jerusalem. Veolia's tramline is enabling this settlement construction. This motion before Dublin City Council could not be better timed, and we hope that Dublin City Council, like Galway and Sligo councils before it, passes this motion and takes a stance for peace and against apartheid in Israel/Palestine."

Full details of the motion and Veolia's operations in illegally occupied Palestine along with a sample letter to councillors can be found here:

http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/ipsc/displayRe...D=289