A network of seventeen Palestinian human rights NGOs, including Stop the Wall, today launched a campaign to mobilize the international community to end the expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem by the Israeli occupation.
The Civic Coalition for Jerusalem is calling for a ‘blacklist’ of corporations supporting the occupation of Jerusalem, and is asking activists all over the world to research companies in their own countries to go on the list:
“We call on international solidarity to mobilise to support Jerusalemite Palestinians, by naming and shaming the companies and governments that support the occupation and who stand idly by while the occupying power rides roughshod over Palestinian rights. We call on solidarity to put Jerusalem at the heart of the campaign against the occupation. We call on the international community to answer the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel to support Palestinian rights in Jerusalem.”
Companies can be blacklisted in seconds using the online reporting system on the Coalition website, www.ccdprj.ps/stopexpulsion. The Coalition will then contact the company concerned to get clarification on their policy. If the company insists that they will support the occupation regardless of Palestinian rights, they will be blacklisted and details distributed to activists.
Targets include media outlets advertising properties in settlements and contractors carrying out infrastructural and other work for the occupation authorities. Top the bill is Veolia, the French company working on the construction of the Jerusalem Light Rail project to link up the illegal settlements.
According to the Civic Coalition’s human rights bulletin for May just released, seven Palestinian homes were bulldozed in Jerusalem last month, part of a sustained campaign of demolition since January. The demolitions are part of a wider picture: the Israeli master plan for Jerusalem explicitly aims to keep the Palestinian population at no more than 30% of the total population of Jerusalem. This is being achieved through rapid settlement expansion, punitive restrictions on Palestinian communities, demolition of Palestinian homes and withdrawal of ID cards.
The Coalition will be blacklisting multinational corporations who provide their services to assist the occupation of Jerusalem, and coordinating with activists internationally to hold their governments to account over Israel’s impunity.
Information about the Stop the Expulsion campaign is available on the Civic Coalition website.
This year, the occupation authorities have been pushing ahead with a policy of removing Palestinians from areas around Jerusalem. In February of this year, the Occupation destroyed homes that sheltered 30 people from the Jahalin Bedouin community who where living in villages located in the enclave northwest of Jerusalem, driven out to make way for the construction of the Apartheid Wall. Construction of the Wall continues in localities across Jerusalem, carving through communities separating workers from their jobs, children from their schools, and families from each other.
The full call from occupied Jerusalem
Jerusalem is under attack: besieged by settlements and occupied by Israeli forces. The Palestinian population are being subjected to a programme of slow transfer, through home demolitions, land confiscations and withdrawal of identity cards. The issue of Jerusalem has been pushed off the agenda of the political process, to be dealt with when all other issues have been resolved. The leaders of the Israeli occupation are taking advantage of this opportunity to move quickly to cement their control over the city.
Since the start of the Annapolis talks, over forty Palestinian homes have been demolished in Jerusalem, while plans for thousands of new units have been announced for the Israeli settlements in the city. The occupying forces are racing to complete construction of the Wall as they move to cut Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank: work is ongoing in ten separate localities. Huge new infrastructure projects are underway to support the settlements, including the East Jerusalem ring road and the Jerusalem Light Rail. These measures constitute a sustained, systematic and flagrant breach of international law, and a grievous attack on Palestinian rights. The measures are being carried out by the occupying power through force, rendering negotiations meaningless. The forced expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem is underway, under eyes of the international community.
Jerusalem is the Palestinian capital, and at the heart of the Palestinian case. There can never be justice in Palestine as long as Israeli leaders are allowed to defy international law in pursuit of their vision of annexation and expulsion.
We call on international solidarity to mobilise to support Jerusalemite Palestinians, by naming and shaming the companies and governments that support the occupation and who stand idly by while the occupying power rides roughshod over Palestinian rights. We call on solidarity to put Jerusalem at the heart of the campaign against the occupation. We call on the international community to answer the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel to support Palestinian rights in Jerusalem.
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