Russell Tribunal on Palestine

"May this Tribunal prevent the crime of silence".., Lord Bertrand Russell.

The British philosopher and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell was so perturbed by the Vietnam War, that he established, in 1966, an International War Crimes Tribunal to investigate violations of international law being committed in Vietnam. A number of eminent intellectuals, philosophers and writers, including: Jean-Paul Sartre, Guenther Anders, James Baldwin, Simone de Beauvoir,Stokely Carmichael and Isaac Deutscher, joined the Tribunal.

TheTribunal became known as The Russell Tribunal. Although it had no legal status, it defined itself as "a court of the people, a Tribunal of conscience" with the purpose of exposing to the wider public, violations of international humanitarian law.

The Bertrand Russell Foundation has supported the establishing of a Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP). Members of the Tribunal's jury include: American author and poet Alice Walker, professor of international law and former Special Rapporteur for both UN Commission on Human Rights and International Law Commission John Dugard, Nobel Peace laureate from Northern Ireland Mairead Corrigan Maguire, writer and former government minister from South Africa Ronald Kasrils and former member of the US Congress and 2008 presidential candidate for the Green Party Cynthia McKinney.

The RToP is engaged in exposing violations of international law by Israel in the OPTs (occupied territories, i.e., Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem). And there is a New Zealand connection.

The second session of the RToP took place in London, in November 2010. It examined multinational corporate complicity in Israel's violations of international humanitarian laws.

The Tribunal heard "compelling evidence of corporate complicity in Israeli violations of international law, relating to: the supply of arms; the construction and maintenance of the illegal separation Wall; and in establishing, maintaining and providing services, especially financial, to illegal settlements, all of which have occurred in the context of an illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. It is clear from the evidence of witnesses that this conduct is not only morally reprehensible, but also exposes those corporations to legal liability for very serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law."

The Tribunal is calling for shareholders to disinvest from such corporations. Parliament has just been presented with a Petition requesting that Parliament ask the Guardians of the Superfund to disinvest the Fund from:

1) G4S, a multinational British/Danish corporation, supplies scanning equipment and full bodyscanners to several military checkpoints in the West Bank, all of which have been built as part of the Separation Wall, whose route was declared illegal by the ICJ in its Advisory Opinion of 9. G4S operates in settlements, providing equipment for prisons for Palestinian political prisoners and for installations of the Israeli police in settlements.

2) Elbit Systems, a leading Israeli multinational, has an intimate and collaborative relationship with the Israeli military in developing weapons technology first used by the Israeli Army in its active combat operations, before marketing and selling the technology to countries worldwide. For example, Elbit supplied the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (otherwise known as Drones) that were extensively and illegally used in the Gaza conflict. The Norwegian Pension Fund was divested from Elbit Systems as a result of this complicity in human rights violations.

3) Caterpillar, based in the US, supplies specifically modified military D9 bulldozers to Israel, which are used in: (i) the demolition of Palestinian homes; (ii) the construction of settlements and the Wall; and (iii) in urban warfare in the Gaza conflict; in all cases causing civilian deaths and injuries, and extensive property damage not justified by military necessity.

The Church of England disinvested from Caterpillar some time ago.

4) The Israeli Banks: Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi and Israel Discount Bank. They have branches in some illegal settlements and grant mortgages to settlers to buy property in illegal settlements.

The petition is asking that we New Zealanders not be profiteers from other people's oppression.

For more infornation, visit www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com and www.whoprofits.org All of the qoutations in the article above, come from www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com

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