A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
(Full Story)
Search This Blog
Back to 500BC.
==========================
Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Monday, December 31, 2018
HSBC divests from Israeli arms maker Elbit
Banking giant HSBC is divesting from the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems following a grassroots campaign.
“HSBC has taken a positive first step in divesting from Elbit Systems,
the notorious manufacturer of drones, chemical weapons, cluster bomb
artillery systems and other technology used in attacks against
Palestinian civilians, and to militarize walls and borders around the
world,” Ryvka Barnard of War on Want said on Thursday.
CAMPAIGN VICTORY!
After tireless campaigning by members of PSC alongside @WarOnWant, @CAATuk & other organisations, banking giant @HSBC_UK has announced it has divested in full from Israeli weapons manufacturer @ElbitSystemsLtd!
STATEMENT: https://bit.ly/2SioGnn
The campaign group said that HSBC confirmed its decision in an email to
War on Want and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign last week.
“Doing business with companies like Elbit means profiting from violence
and human rights violation, which is both immoral and a contravention of
international law,” Barnard added.
Elbit Systems has already been excluded from pension and investment
funds around the world over its involvement in supplying surveillance
systems and other technology to Israel’s separation wall and settlements
in the occupied West Bank.
A 2017 report by
War on Want revealed how HSBC and other UK financial institutions are
complicit in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people by financing
arms deals and owning shares in arms makers.
For more than a year, UK campaigners have held pickets at
HSBC branches, dubbing it “the world’s lethal bank” – a play on an HSBC
ad campaign marketing the global behemoth as “the world’s local bank.”
Despite HSBC’s move, Elbit, one of Israel’s biggest arms manufacturers,
remains a favorite of governments that purport to champion human rights.
In 2014, the Obama administration awarded Elbit a lucrative contract to provide surveillance equipment as part of US efforts to militarize its border with Mexico.
And the European Union has plowed millions
of dollars of “research” funds into Elbit, despite the revelation of
how the company manufactures banned cluster weapon systems.
In 2015, Elbit scored a $150-million contract to provide “advanced systems” jointly to the militaries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Last year, Australia’s famous Royal Flying Doctor Service pulled out of a joint venture with Elbit, a move Palestine solidarity campaigners celebrated as a victory.
Now campaigners are seeing HSBC’s move as an important milestone towards holding Israel accountable.
Ben Jamal, director of the UK’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign, called
HSBC’s decision “proof positive that collective campaigning works.” He
noted that people all over the UK “were involved in pushing HSBC to
divest from Elbit through pickets, email campaigns and other actions
designed to pressure the company.”
“HSBC’s announcement demonstrates the effectiveness of boycott,
divestment and sanctions as a tactic against Israel’s continued flouting
of international law and human rights,” Jamal added.
War on Want is demanding that HSBC follow up by divesting from other war
industry firms including Caterpillar, which makes militarized
bulldozers Israel uses to demolish Palestinian homes, and BAE Systems,
“whose weapons are used in war crimes by Israel, Saudi Arabia and other
repressive regimes.”