Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Sheffield company illegally supports racist state

steve | 24.05.2005 00:07 | Anti-racism | Repression | Social Struggles | Sheffield | World

Sheffield Company A4e recently won a contract with Israel which breaks international law because it involves working in the illegally occupied area of East Jerusalem. The article below explains in more detail.

You can call A4e on 0800 345 666 or contact Jenny Caven at jcaven@a4e.co.uk.

A4e Head Office, Bessemer Rd, Attercliffe, Sheffield, S9 3XN. Tel: 0114 2203040. Fax: 0114 2812929.

The front page of A4e's website boasts of its contract with Israel
The front page of A4e's website boasts of its contract with Israel


Article from Middle East International online
http://meionline.com/features/348.shtml

How Britain helps Israel From Ali Abunimah in Washington

April 14th, 2005 — The British government assisted a leading company in the UK to obtain a lucrative contract with Israel which violates British policy and international law on the status of occupied East Jerusalem, an MEI investigation has revealed.

Under the contract, signed with the Israeli Ministry of Finance on 1 February, Sheffield-based consultancy firm A4e will establish an employment centre in Jerusalem and operate programmes as part of the "Israel Works" welfare reform scheme.

Israel Works, modelled on a programme in the American state of Wisconsin, is the brainchild of Israeli Finance Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, who on 29 March called on Israel to formally annex more of the occupied West Bank. A4e has worked closely with the British government in the past. In 2003-2004 it managed over £200m of public sector funding on behalf of a range of UK government agencies. It claims to be one of the fastest-growing companies in Britain and boasts that it "places a lot of importance on corporate social responsibility".

"Jerusalem was our first-choice location and I am delighted we secured the pilot area," said A4e's CEO Mark Lovell on 1 February in a press release posted on the website of the British embassy in Tel Aviv. "Jerusalem has similarities to areas like Manchester, where we have achieved results in the UK over the last ten years," he added.

Lovell said nothing of the fact that Manchester, whatever similarities it may possess to Jerusalem, is not under foreign military occupation. Nor is it the subject of numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions. The Israeli Finance Ministry's public affairs office confirmed to MEI on 24 March that the scheme to be operated by A4e "includes neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem". Separately, this was confirmed by Iris Ginsburg, an official in the budget department of the Finance Ministry.

Under international law East Jerusalem is occupied territory and is emphatically not part of the state of Israel. After the 1967 war Israel illegally expanded the city's municipal boundaries, confiscated large tracts of Palestinian-owned land and has, in violation of international law, established vast Jewish-only settlements in the occupied section of the city. In 1980, Israel extended its domestic law to East Jerusalem, prompting the Security Council to pass Resolution 478, which declared:

"All legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and in particular the recent 'basic law' on Jerusalem, are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith."

London and Jerusalem

In its formal policy statement on Jerusalem, the British government reaffirms its support for the unanimously passed Resolution 478 and elaborates that it "recognizes that Israel exercises de facto authority in West Jerusalem and, from 1950 to 1967, recognized that Jordan exercised de facto authority in East Jerusalem". "Since the war of 1967," the statement continues, Britain "has regarded Israel as being in military occupation of East Jerusalem, and in this connection subject to the rules of law applicable to such an occupation, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949... the provisions of Security Council Resolution 242 on the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the 1967 war applies to East Jerusalem."

In deference to this policy, the British embassy in Tel Aviv has no jurisdiction over East Jerusalem and is supposed to undertake no activities there. British interests in the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem, are represented by a separate Consulate-General in the Shaykh Jarrah district that maintains relations with the Palestinian Authority.

Yet MEI's investigation shows conclusively that the embassy in Tel Aviv assisted A4e to obtain the Israeli contract covering East Jerusalem. In an email response to MEI on 17 March, Peter Stephenson, the director of the UK Trade and Investment office (UKTI) at the Tel Aviv embassy confirmed that the British government had assisted A4e in winning the Israeli contract. A4e "have shown commendable commitment in this [bidding] process and UKTI have been very supportive of their efforts. A4e have come to us for advice on a number of issues relating to working in Israel and we have been delighted to offer this," Stephenson wrote.

MEI wrote to Mark Lovell to ask whether A4e would work in Occupied East Jerusalem. Sara McKee, the company's market development director, replied on 21 March:

"A4e is still in the early stages of planning the implementation of the Pilot Welfare-to-Work Programme in Israel, with our first employment centre due to be opened in a few months. At this stage we have yet to receive confirmation of the exact areas of our intended operation. We expect to receive such confirmation in due course. In the meantime, we continue to maintain contact with the British embassy."

Despite a direct request from MEI, A4e offered no assurance that it would refuse to work in East Jerusalem or any Israeli settlements.

MEI referred McKee's reply to Peter Stephenson at the British embassy and asked for a clear assurance that A4e would not be working in East Jerusalem in light of the fact that it had received such extensive assistance from British officials.

After an initially evasive response, which merely referred MEI back to McKee's vague statement, Stephenson wrote on 23 March: "We have already advised A4e that, as British government policy clearly states, we cannot and will not support any work emanating from this winning bid if it covers operations in East Jerusalem and the surrounding settlements that have been annexed to the city by Israel."

Turning a blind eye?

The evidence, however, is that the British embassy did help A4e to obtain work in which it will profit from Israel's illegal annexation and occupation of East Jerusalem. Basic knowledge of Israel's policy on Jerusalem and simple enquiries to the Israeli government would have been sufficient to establish that "Israel Works" covers East Jerusalem and thus, in breach of international law and UK policy, extends Israel's administrative and legal structures into the city. Had the British embassy made these enquiries it would, by its own policy, have had to refrain from rendering any assistance or support to A4e.

It is unclear whether the British embassy failed to ask these questions due to some unusual lapse or whether it turned a blind eye in order to advance the commercial interests of a private company. In either case, British actions on the ground come at a particularly sensitive time, when Israel continues to announce aggressive plans to expand the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, east of Jerusalem, with the stated intention of encircling the city and making it harder for international law requiring an Israeli withdrawal from it to be implemented.

The actions of the Tel Aviv embassy also undermine Britain's high-profile bid, showcased at the London conference "in support of the Palestinian Authority" on 1 March, to act as an honest broker in the peace process and a champion of Palestinian rights and independence.


A4e statement on working in Israel.

A4e's press release on Israel (pdf).

steve

Comments

Hide the following comment

REMOVE MY NAME

21.08.2005 17:14

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that I no longer work for A4e and am not a contact for the company. Please remove my name as soon as possible from this article and any association with it.

thank you

J Caven

J Caven


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech