“Boycott Veolia” shouted dozens in the centre of Colchester

With chants of “Boycott Veolia” and ¨Your taxes support Israeli occupation¨ more than 40 activists from Colchester gathered in front of the town hall today. The protesters raised their voice against the 10 year contract of Colchester Borough Council with multinational corporation Veolia.

¨As a citizen I do not want my taxes supporting a company involved in illegal activities and grave violations of the human rights of thousands of people in Palestine¨ - explained one of the local people who joined the demonstration.

The pouring rain did not prevent the activists from addressing the busy with their Saturday shopping who showed understanding and interest into the issue. The protest is part of a larger campaign to review the current contract of Veolia, which is providing waste management and environmental services throughout the Colchester area. The campaigners received the vocal support of local MP Bob Russell who expressed his deep concern at the lack of ethical evaluation undertaken by Colchester Borough Council. The protesters previously contacted the local council, which indeed confirmed that no ethical evaluation had taken place.

“Veolia is a signatory to the UN Global Compact, a set of principles regarding business conduct. Yet its wide ranging and active involvement in Israel’s settlement regime and persistent failure to exercise due diligence show utter disregard for the human rights related principles of the Global Compact,” - wrote the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories Richard Falk, in a letter last week.

Hundreds of protests are taking place up and down the country in response to the ongoing occupation and gross violations of human rights commited by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people. This is especially urgent in the wake of the recent Israeli attacks of Gaza leading to the death of more than 160 civilians, many of whom are children.

PSC Essex with a massive Gaza banner on Demo 2012

With a six metre long banner members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign - Essex marched on the streets of London during the national student demo called by the NUS in response to the raisting tuition fees and privatisation of higher education. Although the official motto of the demo was "Educate, employ, empower", big part of the banners, plackards and shouts during the demonstration were in solidarity with Gaza under Israeli attack.

The banner was mentioned in several pubications. "It was good to see the students keeping some perspective with their massive Free Gaza banner, because as much as student debt sucks, I’d take it any day over becoming collateral damage in an Israeli air strike" - the Vice magazine commented. 

Several of the Essex activists joined the protest on the Batsheva dancing group in London. The group is known with it's participation in the campaign "Brand Israel", with which the country is trying to clean its immage whilst committing drastic human rights violations and perperuating an apartheid regime. "Our protest was part of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign to pressure Israel and raise awareness of the continuing repression of all aspects of Palestinian life, including cultural and artistic life" - says the FB page of the protest. One of the Essex protesters even managed to get into the theatre and sisturb the show.