Boycott Israeli Goods campaign Veolia - Boycott Israeli Goods campaign

Veolia

Veolia, a large French multinational, is helping to build and operate a tramway linking illegal settlements in East Jerusalem with Israel. Not only do the settlements contravene article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention forbidding an occupier transferring its own civilians into the territory it occupies, but in most cases the establishment of the Israeli settlements involved war crimes too. The tramway tightens Israel’s hold on occupied East Jerusalem, ties the settlements more firmly into Israel and undermines chances of a just peace for the Palestinian people.

In the occupied Jordan Valley Veolia has been supporting illegal settlements by taking their refuse at its Tovlan landfill site. Veolia has now compounded its offence by actually selling Tovlan to an illegal settlement, whilst maintaining an advisory role.

Veolia also operates bus services connecting illegal Israeli settlements to Israel. Palestinians were, until recently, forbidden from using the apartheid roads on which the buses travel and Palestinian use of these services is still severely restricted.

Veolia must be made to halt these activities which enable Israel to maintain and tighten its grip on the occupation. Until then, we encourage a boycott of Veolia – a firm complicit in the ongoing occupation and dispossession of the Palestinian people.

Scroll down for a full guide to the issues and how you can support the campaign.

Ask your local council to exclude Veolia from public contracts. By law a company can be excluded from contracts on grounds of grave misconduct. What could be graver than aiding and abetting war crimes? See here for a sample letter.

Ask local businesses and places of worship using Veolia to switch to another rubbish collector. Veolia Environmental Services, Onyx or Cleanaway skips are all Veolia.

Protest to the Natural History Museum and the BBC at their choice of Veolia as sponsor of Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Veolia postcard

Veolia petition

Why boycott Veolia

Contents:

- Veolia’s support for Israel’s illegal settlements.

- Veolia is one commercial entity.

- The “Derail Veolia” (or “Dump Veolia”) campaign.

- Important campaign successes.

- Useful References.

- Map of the Jerusalem tramway first line.

Veolia’s support for Israel’s illegal settlements

The Veolia parent company is Veolia Environnement, a French multinational. Veolia Transport, a subsidiary of Veolia Environnement, is a leading partner in the CityPass consortium, contracted to build a light-rail tramway linking west Jerusalem to illegal Jewish settlements in occupied east Jerusalem . Once built, the rail system will cement Israel’s hold on occupied east Jerusalem and tie the settlements even more firmly into the State of Israel. And not only the settlements in east Jerusalem: the “Ammunition Hill” station of the network will operate as the feeder station for settler traffic from Ma’aleh Adumim, a large Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and from Jewish settlements in the Jordan Valley.

The line is due to open in 2011, with Veolia responsible for the operation. With its involvement in this project, the company is directly implicated in maintaining illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory and is playing a key role in Israel’s attempt to make its annexation of the Palestinian territory of east Jerusalem irreversible. Further, as a willing agent of these policies, Veolia is undermining the chances of a just peace for the Palestinian people.

Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the annexation of East Jerusalem are illegal under international law. Numerous UN resolutions and the 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the wall have confirmed this. The settlements violate Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention: “…The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” as well as Article 53 forbidding destruction of property. In some cases in East Jerusalem these violations amount to war crimes, i.e. “grave breaches” of the Convention (see Articles 146 and 147), as they involve extensive appropriation of Palestinian property not justified by military necessity. These grave breaches are being facilitated by Veolia’s part in the construction and future operation of the tramway serving the settlements. The tramway also constitutes a significant alteration of the infrastructure of the occupied Palestinian territories contrary to the Hague Regulations of 1907, Section 3, also part of international law.

In April 2010 the UN Human Rights Council declared the tramway and its operation to be illegal (A/HRC/RES/13/7 of 14 April 2010). The resolution was passed 44 to 1, with the UK, France and all the EU members of the Council voting in favour. The operation of the tramway is precisely what Veolia has a contract to do.

Veolia’s is recruiting operators for the tramway through an advertisement requiring Hebrew to mother tongue standard, no mention of Arabic, a clear indication that the tramway is expected to be used primarily by Jewish Israelis, not Palestinians. Full army or civic service is also required, i.e. no Palestinians.

Thus, through its involvement in the building and future operation of this tramway linking Israel’s illegal settlements with West Jerusalem, Veolia is facilitating Israel’s ‘grave breaches’ of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and is complicit in its perpetuation of those breaches. In other words, Veolia is involved in aiding and abetting on-going war crimes. It is also facilitating, exacerbating, aiding and abetting Israel’s breach of the Hague Regulations.

Veolia also runs two bus services serving the same function as the tramway: supporting and consolidating illegal settlements and tying them more closely into Israel. These are services 109 and 110, operated by its local company Connex. These services link the settlements of Beit Horon, Giv’at Ze’ev, Mevo Horon and Ramot Alon to Israel. Part of the route was until recently an Apartheid road on which Palestinians from the West Bank were forbidden to travel, even though it passes through the West Bank. In June 2010 the ban was lifted, but with restricted access and exit it is unclear whether West Bank Palestinians can now use the services.

Veolia’s support for settlements does not stop there. Through its subsidiary TMM it operates the Tovlan landfill site in the occupied Jordan Valley which takes refuse from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. There has also been a report of Tovlan receiving refuse from Israel itself, the occupier dumping its rubbish on the occupied.

Veolia’s participation in the tramway project breaches its obligations with respect to codes of conduct and conventions such as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2000) and the UN Global Compact (2000). The latter’s first two principles state that businesses should support and respect the protection of international human rights within their spheres of influence and make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses. Yet by supporting Israel’s illegal settlements Veolia flagrantly violates both of these provisions.

Veolia is one commercial entity

Veolia Environnement has four divisions – water, waste management, energy and transport services. In 2005 the company’s four divisions adopted a single name, Veolia, and a new logo. As the Veolia website states, this move ‘signalled the desire of the entire company to link Veolia divisions in a coherent way and increase its visibility’. (Please note the use of the word divisions). By 2007 Veolia reported that it had revenues of $47bn and employed around 320,000 people. Veolia’s revenues and profits are calculated as ‘a whole’, and the corporation is quoted on Euronext Paris and the New York Stock Exchange. Indeed, even when reporting results, Veolia regards its subsidiaries as ‘divisions’ of itself and, significantly, Veolia regards its subsidiaries’ contracts, including those with local authorities, as its own. This is clearly illustrated in their statement that “The company [Veolia Environnement] won and renewed multiple contracts in its priority development zones, including: … Shropshire in the UK in the Environmental Services (Waste Management) division.” See the Veolia press release. Its subsidiaries such as Veolia Environmental Services (UK) refer to Veolia as a whole as “our company” and Veolia Environnement as “our Paris Head Office”.

It is evident that Veolia treats itself as a single entity and profits and prospers as such. This is also clear in the company’s own marketing and public corporate structure where it treats itself as a coherent whole. As this is the case, the conduct of one division is the conduct of Veolia as a whole and affects each division accordingly. In short, if one division of Veolia is involved in activities of grave misconduct and profits from such conduct, then the parent company must necessarily be implicated in such misconduct and most certainly profits from such misconduct. That, in turn, means that Veolia as a whole – all of its divisions and subsidiaries – are implicated in such misconduct.

The “Derail Veolia” (or “Dump Veolia”) Campaign

As Veolia is a multinational with operations in many countries, this is an international campaign.

Excluding Veolia from public contracts

Under European Community regulations a company can be excluded from bidding for a public contract, or being awarded one, on the grounds of grave misconduct. The main thrust of the Derail Veolia campaign has been to demand that public authorities (mostly city or district councils), exercise this discretion in respect of Veolia companies on the grounds that aiding and abetting war crimes amounts to grave misconduct. The British version of the European Directive is the Public Contract Regulations (2006) [section 23(4)(e)]. Ask your local council what contracts it has with Veolia and when they terminate. You can be sure that Veolia will try and bid for the replacement contract. Start your campaign with the council two years or more before termination as some councils award replacement contracts quite early, and your campaign will need time to have effect. Even if your council has no contract with Veolia, or only a long term one, you can ask for Veolia to be excluded from all future contracts until its gives up support for Israel’s illegal settlements.

In UK, besides the campaign methods of letter writing, contacting council members, presentations at council meetings, involving the media, petitions, demonstrations, etc., legal challenges have been mounted in some cases by clients living in the local authority area with the help of solicitors from “Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights” acting on their behalf. Campaigners thinking of going down this route should contact PSC info@palestinecampaign.org first.

Asking companies using Veolia’s services to switch contracts to another service provider

These contracts are usually with Veolia Environmental Services for waste collection or management. Businesses and shops using Veolia can be identified by the Veolia Environmental Services (may also be marked Onyx or Cleanaway) rubbish skips in their yards. Some national or regional businesses with many local establishments may have one central contract with Veolia. Public contract regulations will not apply, but companies need to consider the effect on their reputation of doing business with a company like Veolia, complicit in war crimes.

Asking churches, mosques and other places of worship using Veolia Environmental Services for refuse collection to switch to another provider

These contracts are likely to be local ones, so this is a way local congregations can take action. Discussion of the issue will be a good opportunity to explain the whole Israel/Palestine conflict and BDS campaign. Christian denominations and supervisory bodies of other faiths can be contacted centrally too and asked to persuade their places of worship to take action.

Disinvestment from Veolia

Managers of pension funds, church funds and ethical investment funds can be asked not to invest in Veolia Environnement, the parent company. Ethical investment advisory groups associated with such funds can also be contacted.

Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition and other sponsorship

Veolia has been sponsoring the Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition and Exhibitions for both 2009 and 2010, and may be chosen as the sponsor for 2011 too. See http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/index.jsp . Entries are received from many countries. The exhibitions are on for many months at the Natural History Museum in London and then go on tour in Britain and other countries. The 2010 exhibition opened in London in October 2010 and will continue until 11 March 2011.
The exhibition presents an opportunity to protest against Veolia’s support for Israel’s illegal settlements and against the choice of a company complicit in war crimes as a sponsor. Two well supported demonstrations have already been held (April and October 2010). The latter included an imaginative “alternative exhibition” of photos of the occupation, etc.

The French Court Case

This was one of the earliest initiatives. Veolia Environnement (and Alstom, which as a member of the City Pass consortium has built the tramcars for the Jerusalem light rail transit) has been taken to court by the French NGO AFPS under a French law under which contracts found contrary to public morals can be declared null and void. After several years of legal prevarication by the two companies, the Court is beginning to get down to the substance of the case, but it’s a long process.

Writing to the Chairpersons and Chief Executive Officers of the Veolia Companies

Veolia Environmental Services for waste collection and management; Veolia Water for water supply; and Veolia Transport for bus and coach services (and in other countries metro and light rail transit services too). Veloway is Veolia Transport’s subsidiary for city cycle hire schemes.

Important Campaign Successes

Edinburgh, Richmond, Portsmouth, Winchester & East Hants, South London WastePartnership and London Borough of Ealing: Since late 2010 Veolia has lost waste management contracts with all these authorities after vigorous local campaigns for exclusion.

Tower Hamlets (London) Borough: The council passed a motion in February 2011to review all contracts with Veolia, not to place any more contracts with the company and to terminate any relationship with Veolia.

Swansea: In June 2010 the council passed a motion to exclude Veolia from all future contracts: “This Council therefore calls on the Leader & Chief Executive not to sign or allow to be signed any new contracts or renewal of any existing contracts with Veolia or any other company in breach of international law, so long as to do so would not be in breach of any relevant
legislation.”

West Midlands (UK): After a successful local campaign, Veolia Environmental Services lost the contract for waste management with Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.

Stockholm Metro (Sweden): Veolia Transport had been running the Stockholm metro for many years. In 2009 it lost the replacement contract after a high profile public campaign. This was a big blow to Veolia as the contract was worth several billion Euro. Veolia’s finance manager for Sweden was sacked. Stockholm City Council did not admit that the campaign was responsible, but it was widely acknowledged that this was the case.

Melbourne Metro (Australia): After an effective campaign, Veolia Transport failed to win the contract for the Melbourne light rail transit. For Veolia, another big contract lost. Again a widely acknowledged victory for the campaign, despite the City Council’s denial. Local authorities prefer to avoid controversy and as an easy way out can claim normal commercial considerations for their decision.

Bordeaux (France): In 2009, Veolia transport lost a 750 million Euro contract for the biggest urban network in France.

Dublin City (Ireland): Earlier in 2010 Dublin City Council instructed its City Manager not to grant or renew any contracts with Veolia.

Useful References:

Campaign materials: http://www.salim.org.uk/veolia–general.html

Local resident explains why Palestinians will use buses not the light rail – includes comparative ticket prices (9-11-10)

Deal in principle to sell Veolia’s stake in the light rail transit to Egged (15-10-10)

Veolia whitewashes illegal light rail project; doubtful benefit to Palestinians (26-8-10)

Veolia: Swansea City Council passes historic resolution to bar future contracts with Veolia (17-6-10)

Veolia tries to spin its involvement in the occupation (22-4-10)

Pressure continues on Veolia and Alstom to halt light rail project (5-2-10)

Veolia and Alstom continue to abet Israel’s rights violations (24-11-09)

[Deal with Dan later fell through] City Pass aware light rail will be discriminatory

French company runs Israeli bus services to settlements (11-3-09)

Time to hold Veolia to account (10-2-09)

Principled Dutch ASN Bank ends its relations with Veolia (26-11-06)

Technical details of the tramway and contract

Map of Road 443 and settlements served by Veolia bus services Connex 109 and 110

On Palestinians’ access since June 2010 to Road 443 on which Veolia bus services run:

http://un-truth.com/human-rights/do-the-court-ordered-changes-to-road-443-help-palestinian-movement (25-5-10). For a better map: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article58392.ece .

ANNEX

Suggested text of a letter asking a public authority to exclude Veolia from a public contract

The line is due to open in August 2011, with Veolia responsible for the operation. With its involvement in this project, the company is directly implicated in maintaining illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory and is playing a key role in Israel’s attempt to make its annexation of the Palestinian territory of east Jerusalem irreversible. Further, as a willing agent of these policies, Veolia is undermining the chances of a just peace for the Palestinian people.

In April 2010 the UN Human Rights Council declared the tramway and its operation to be illegal (A/HRC/RES/13/7 of 14 April 2010). The resolution was passed 44 to 1, with the UK, France and all the EU members of the Council voting in favour. The operation of the tramway is precisely what Veolia has a contract to do.

Thus, through its involvement in the building and future operation of this tramway linking Israel’s illegal settlements with West Jerusalem, Veolia is facilitating Israel’s ‘grave breaches’ of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and is complicit in its perpetuation of those breaches. In other words, Veolia is involved in aiding and abetting on-going war crimes. It is also facilitating, exacerbating, aiding and abetting Israel’s breach of the Hague Regulations.

Veolia also runs two bus services serving the same function as the tramway: supporting and consolidating illegal settlements and tying them more closely into Israel. These are services 109 and 110, operated by its local company Connex. These services link the settlements of Mevo Horon, Giv’at Ze’ev and Har Shmuel to Israel. Until recently part of the route was an Apartheid road on which Palestinians from the West Bank were forbidden to travel, even though it passes through the West Bank. In June 2010 the ban was partially lifted to comply with an Israeli court order, but at most West Bank Palestinians can still only use the Veolia buses between two stops about 5kms apart, and quite possibly not at all.

In March 2011 the Veolia Transport Division of Veolia Environnement merged with Transdev to form Veolia Transdev. The merged company is 50% owned by Veolia Environnement, with the Chairman/CEO of Veolia Environnement also the Chairman of Veolia Transdev. Veolia Environnement therefore still bears very substantial responsibility for and retains effective control of Veolia Transdev’s wholly owned subsidiary Veolia Transport Israel.

Veolia Transport Israel is trying to sell its 5% stake in the CityPass Consortium and its 80% stake in the tramway operating company to the Israeli company Egged. But part of the deal is for Veolia Transport Israel to provide Egged with technical assistance in running the tramway for 5 years, so Veolia will still be involved in and profit from the tramway operation. Veolia says that it is selling its stakes to take advantage of a good offer rather than trying to distance itself from services to settlements.

Veolia’s support for settlements does not stop there. Through its subsidiary TMM, Veolia Transport Israel has been operating the Tovlan landfill site in the occupied Jordan Valley for many years. During this time Tovlan has been supporting Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank by taking their refuse. There has also been a report of Tovlan receiving refuse from Israel itself, the occupier dumping its rubbish on the occupied. Veolia says that it is selling Tovlan to a local buyer and may have already done so, but far from ending Veolia’s complicity, the deal will compound and perpetuate it, for the intended sale is to Massu’a, the nearby illegal Israeli settlement. Moreover Veolia will continue its involvement by providing the settlement with advice concerning Tovlan. [Veolia’s involvement with Tovlan is not affected by the Veolia Transport/Transdev merger, for the subsidiary concerned is part of Veolia Environnement’s Environmental Services Division.]

In 2005 Veolia Environnement’s four divisions adopted a single name, Veolia, and a new logo. As the Veolia website states, this move ‘signalled the desire of the entire company to link Veolia divisions in a coherent way and increase its visibility’. By the end of 2010 Veolia had revenues of £30 billion and employed around 317,000 people. Veolia’s revenues and profits are calculated as ‘a whole’, and the corporation is quoted on Euronext Paris and the New York Stock Exchange. Indeed, even when reporting results, Veolia regards its subsidiaries as ‘divisions’ of itself and, significantly, Veolia regards its subsidiaries’ contracts, including those with British local authorities, as its own. This is clearly illustrated in their statement that “The company [Veolia Environnement] won and renewed multiple contracts in its priority development zones, including: … Shropshire in the UK in the Environmental Services (Waste Management) division.” See http://www.veoliaenvironnement.com/en/information/press-releases/press-release-details.aspx?PR=660 .

Further evidence that Veolia is one commercial entity is provided by a recent letter from Veolia Environmental Services (UK), which refers to “ascertaining the status of our involvement with the Jerusalem Light Railway. All of your comments have been passed to the relevant departments within our company for their consideration.” From the comments a few lines later it is clear that “relevant departments” included the Paris Head office, i.e. the head office of the parent company. The letter goes on to refer to “our colleagues who are more closely linked to this project.” It is abundantly clear from this that for Veolia Environmental Services (UK) ‘our company’ is the entire Veolia group, the Paris office of Veolia Environnement is Veolia Environmental Services (UK)’s Head Office, other Veolia Group companies are departments of Veolia as a whole, and all personnel within the Veolia Group are colleagues of Veolia Environmental Services (UK).

This approach is further reflected in the employment policies, as here: http://www.veolia.com/veolia/ressources/files/1/2329,Mobility-of-personnel.pdf This shows Veolia’s commitment to allowing staff to move freely among the various divisions of Veolia Environnement, providing further evidence of one corporate entity. See, in particular: page 29 where it says that an employee’s company service is based on their start date within the group; page 40 where it says that international transfers are written up in an amendment to the employment contract; and page 45 where it says that at the end of an expatriation assignment your original company will make it a priority to find you a new assignment in the division and that, whilst on expatriate assignment, your career advancement will continue to be monitored in the same way as other Veolia Environnement division employees.

Further, Veolia Environnment’s 2008 document “Ethics, Commitment and Responsibility” http://www.veolia.com/veolia/ressources/files/1/2288,ethics-programme_en.pdf, provides more clear evidence of one commercial entity. The Forward “Our Corporate Commitment” describes the document as a guide for all our 336,013 employees worldwide, but it is one they must follow and so amounts to instructions. “4.1 Safety and Morale in the Workplace” states “Employees must comply with instructions and procedures issued in these areas by- – - – -Veolia Environnement – - -.” This is an unambiguous indication of the parent company’s control of its subsidiaries’ employees. The “Organisation” section states boldly that “All employees must comply with the Veolia Environnement “Ethics, Commitment and responsibility” programme. The section “Organisation: 1. Programme Scope of Application” states that “The Programme applies to all companies controlled by Veolia Environnement, that is to say all companies in which Veolia Environnement directly or indirectly owns or controls over 50% of the voting rights.” This is a clear statement of the parent company’s control over VES (UK) and Veolia Environmental Services (Israel). “Guiding principles” states “Our Divisions- – - all represent Veolia Environnement”, while “Social Responsibility”, section 3 of “Guiding Principles, includes “offering its employees – - – -long-term local employment”, which indicates that it is Veolia Environnement, the parent company, that is the real employer, even if the employee signs a contract with the local subsidiary.

It is entirely evident that Veolia treats itself as a single entity and profits and prospers as such. This is also clear in the company’s own marketing and public corporate structure where it treats itself as a coherent whole. As this is the case, the conduct of one division or subsidiary is the conduct of Veolia as a whole. In short, if one subsidiary of Veolia is involved in activities of grave misconduct and profits from such conduct, then the parent company must necessarily be implicated in such misconduct and most certainly profits from such misconduct. That, in turn, means that Veolia as a whole – all of its divisions and subsidiaries – are implicated in such misconduct.

Under the Public Contract Regulations (2006) a contracting authority may exclude an economic operator from bidding for a contract or may reject any such bid where it is found that the individual or organisation in question has “committed an act of grave misconduct in the course of his business or profession” (section 23(4)(e)). This is an important provision that needs to be applied rigorously.

Veolia’s activities clearly constitute misconduct sufficiently grave to warrant the exclusion of its subsidiaries from public contracts. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine what ‘misconduct’ could be more ‘grave’ than the aiding, abetting, facilitation or exacerbation of war crimes and human rights violations.

Accordingly, in light of the foregoing, please confirm as soon as possible that you will now exercise your discretion to exclude Veolia from bidding or renewing all public contracts with immediate effect, and in particular the upcoming contract – - – - -.

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