A Dutch NGO has revealed that Dutch company Lima Holding BV is involved in the construction of the Israel’s illegal Apartheid Wall.
Lima Holding, which operates in Israel under the Riwal brand name, provides mobile cranes for putting into place the up to 9-metres high concrete elements that make up the Wall. The company admits its involvement in the building of the Wall and argues that its activities are of a purely “commercial order”.
The findings were unveiled by United Civilians for Peace, a Dutch NGO platform dedicated to promoting justice and peace in Palestine and Israel.
Lima Holding is 100 per cent owned by two Dutch holding companies: D.Schalekamp Beheer BV and MDN Holding BV. Dick Schalekamp owns D.Schalekamp Beheer, while Doron Livnat, an Israeli businessman living in the Netherlands, owns MDN Holding.
Schalekamp and Livnat are two of the three owners of Schalekamp Beheer BV, the holding company that runs the Riwal Group’s activities in countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and France.
In its 2004 ruling on the apartheid wall, the ICJ stated not only the illegality of the Wall but made clear that states are âunder an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by such construction.â The involvement of a Danish company in the building of the wall puts the Danish government in an embarrassing position and opens up the possibility that legal action could be brought against it to halt Lima Holding’s participation in the illegal construction.
This gives activists in the Netherlands, Denmark and France a large range of options to act – from lobbying, to divestment, pickets and legal action.