Protesters take a stand against multinational company Veolia’s right to bid for government contracts.
Image: Ben Finch
Protesters gathered outside Islington Town Hall on Tuesday night to demonstrate against possible council involvement with a multinational company with contracts in Israel.
The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) is currently offering a £4.7 bn contract for goods and services which Veolia Environnement is competing for.
The authority serves Islington and six other boroughs, and is responsible for collecting and disposing of refuse across North London.
Veolia has been accused of aiding Israel in building illegal settlements in the West Bank by providing infrastructure, transport and waste disposal to settlers. Because of this, protesters from the ‘No 2 Veolia Action Group’ say that the company should not be allowed to bid for government procurement programmes.
Anne Dyas, 59, a protester from Barnet, said: “Veolia is guilty of grave misconduct. It breaks international law. It’s assisting with Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied territories.
“It’s in contradiction of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention. If it’s the EU’s and our government’s decision that the settlements are illegal, where is the consistency? Why are we giving public contracts to companies that are assisting with this?”
The NLWA say its position is constrained by EU competition law, which they have to abide by. A spokesperson said: “The legal position is very clear and these are not issues that the NLWA can or will in any way take into account.
“Rather, in undertaking this procurement the authority will do so in accordance with procurement legislation and ensure that a fair and proper competition is run with the winner being the bidder who will offer the best overall package for the benefit of north London residents.”
A spokesperson for Veolia said: “Veolia Environnement has a presence in Israel through its operating local subsidiaries owned by Veolia Israel. In relation to the Occupied Territories, there are no current plans to undertake any further activities or to service the Israeli settlements situated therein.”
Islington Council declined to comment.
The quote from the Veolia spokesperson constitutes a serious lie. In fact, Veolia UK and Veolia Israel are both subsidiaries of Veolia and the company acts as one global unit. Veolia is extremely busy servicing the illegal occupation of Palestine. They run a tramway from East Jerusalem out to the illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land, they run buses on apartheid roads for the use of settlers only, they service the Israeli army bases in the Jordan Valley, taking away their waste and dumping it in landfill on Palestinian land. How is that not being involved?
The first paragraph of your otherwise excellent report misses the point. The objection to Veolia is not that it has contracts “in Israel”, but that those contracts involve linking Israel to its illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. As the Geneva Conventions forbid occupiers to transfer population to conquered areas, this makes Veolia complicit with a war crime. The No 2 Veolia Campaign would have no problem with Veolia if it simply had contracts “in Israel”.
Thank you for this article, unfortunately it includes a few factual errors.
1) the illegal settlements Veolia is serving are in the occupied East Jerusalem and West Bank. By definition they are not in Israel but in occupied territory.
2) Veolia is listed and formed as ONE ENTITY, its not subsideries.
No doubt both Veolia and the NLWA are fully aware that by confusing Israel with illegal settlements they imply the issue is location and thus under the 1988 Act an exclusion is prohibited.
The legal position is indeed very clear, but not the way the NLWA sees it: the legal advice from the NLWA’s solicitirs has been comprehensively refuted by Hickman & Rose for the No 2 Veolia Action Group. The NLWA refuse to take this into account, laying themselves open to a legal challenge by the losing bidder(s) should Veolia be awarded the contract(s) – a disastrous scenario for the NLWA, for the 7 boroughs they represent and for the individual councillors on their board.
Veolia’s response is deliberately misleading: it is the activities of Veolia itself (not subsidiaries) in the Occupied Territories (not Israel) that are objected to, and those are ongoing. They built and now operate the Jerusalem Light Tramway connecting Jerusalem to illegal settlements; they run bus services that do likewise; they operate a landfill site in the OT but serving the settlements.
Not mentioned in the article is that Veolia are in financial trouble, making a 30-year contract with them a risky proposition even if they were models of probity.
I hope this protest succeeds in keeping Veolia out of North London. We need to stand up to Apartheid and occupation in the occupied Palestinian territories. Our Government does nothing to rein back Israel’s settlement project and its siege on Gaza. So civil society must act.