IPSC steps up campaign to have Veolia's LUAS contract ended

national | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Friday April 09, 2010 21:04 by Fintan Lane - IPSC media officer 087 1258325

IRELAND-PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

PRESS RELEASE, 9/4/10

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) in Dublin will be staging a solidarity demonstration with the anti-Veolia motion being put before Dublin City Council on Monday evening, 12th April. The demonstration will start at 6pm outside City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin 2. The IPSC is asking human rights activists and supporters to come along for an hour and show their support for this motion, which if passed, will represent a European capital city saying 'No' to complicity with Israeli apartheid against the Palestinian people. Veolia, which runs Dublin's LUAS service, is active in Palestine/Israel in building the infrastructure for Israeli apartheid.

The motion to be voted on at Dublin City Council on Monday evening calls on the City Manager not to renew or sign any new contracts with Veolia unless the company disengages from the work it is doing in Israel. For the full text of the motion, which is being proposed by Cllr Joan Collins, click on the following link: http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/ipsc/displayEv...D=834

According to Dr David Landy, chairperson of the IPSC: "We hope the councillors will listen to the Palestinian people and vote in favour of this motion to exclude Veolia from all future business, while that company is involved in the apartheid tramline in the West Bank. This tramline encircles and suffocates the Palestinian people of East Jerusalem, while linking the illegal settlements to Israel."

He continued: "The Jerusalem Light Rail is strategically designed to serve the interests of Israeli settlers in the vicinity of Jerusalem and will result in substantial hardships for Palestinians in the area. The construction involves the seizure of Palestinian land and the destruction of Palestinian houses. Veolia is in violation of International Humanitarian Law and is directly complicit in Israel’s brutal occupation. This is not the type of company that our city should be doing business with."

"Dublin City Council has used Veolia Water as consultants. We trust that when this motion passes, this will cease and that Veolia will be excluded from any further contracts. In passing this motion, Dublin will follow the examples of Sligo and Galway, and of many cities and councils across the globe. Dublin was a bastion of the global anti-apartheid movement, and can once again show that it is in the forefront of the new anti-apartheid campaign, and that our city stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine."

PRESS RELEASE ENDS

For further information, phone Dr David Landy (IPSC chairperson) at xxxxxx, or Dr Fintan Lane (IPSC media officer) at 087 1258325.