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.

Resistance Against the Illegal Sale of Israeli settlement products in the UK

05.02.2009 20:37 | Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco | Anti-militarism | Palestine | South Coast

This week activists have responded to an international callout for actions against the import of Valentine's day flowers.

On Saturday activists gathered at Carmel-Agrexco, Middlesex, to picket the main supply point for Israeli imports into the UK.

See Photos And Reports 1| 2| 3|and original press release On Thursday morning a group of fifteen women blockaded the warehouse again to prevent the transport of flowers to British supermarkets Links : Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign | Palestine Solidarity Campaign | Who Profits |

Previous Actions: Carmel Agrexco's Depot Shut Down in Commemoration of the Nakba | Fortress Carmel Agrexco breached by Peace Activists | Video - Carmel Agrexco protest during Camp for Climate Action | Weekend of Action Against Carmel Agrexco | Activists Blockade Carmel-Agrexco's UK Headquarters for the Third Time | International Actions against Israeli Apartheid| Solidarity Actions in the West Bank, Gaza and the UK



The lawfulness of Israeli settlement produce is neither a ‘grey area’, nor an exclusively ‘political issue’. Making money from war crimes and crimes against humanity is a criminal offence. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are by their very nature a war crime, and the apartheid system which accompanies them is a crime against humanity. A secret Israeli government report was recently leaked by Israeli human rights group Yesh Din to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz (see here ). It details Palestinian landowners who have been pushed off their land by Israel’s settlement program.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

While the police are unwilling to prosecute the companies involved in this illegal business, convicting people of peacefully disrupting serious criminal activity presents something of a problem. This has become most evident at Agrexco. Agrexco is a 50% state owned company, which imports products both from within Israel and the West Bank. Over the past three years activists have routinely disrupted Agrexco’s activities at their depot in swallow field way, Hayes. Protestors have stormed the depot, blockaded the gates, and have dumped builders rubble and horse manure at the entrances. However, despite a steady increase in the frequency of the disruptions, police seem reluctant to arrest.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

On one action a police officer told an activist that the police were not going to “play ball”. By “play ball”, he meant having Agrexco’s criminal activity exposed in court. In 2006 seven activists were tried for disrupting Agrexco’s business. For the trial, the court ordered Agrexco to disclose trading records which proved that Agrexco had been trading with the West Bank settlements of Tomer, Mehola, Hamra, Ro'i, Massua, Patzael, Mekhora, Netiv Ha-Gdud and Bet Ha-Arava.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

In January Activists occupied Ahava cosmetics store at Monmoth Street in central London. Ahava’s ‘dead sea cosmetics’, are manufactured on an illegal settlement called Mitzpe Shalem in the West Bank, using minerals extracted from Palestinian areas of the dead sea.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

There has also been a peoples decommissioning a weapons factory ITT/EDO MBM in Brighton, which makes components used in Israeli bombs. Nine people were arrested after what police estimate to be £250, 000 worth of damage was done to the factory.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

These actions also form part of a wider call to boycott all Israeli produce in light of Israel’s persistent violation of international humanitarian Law. Israel recent massacres in Gaza highlights the need for an international movement capable of holding Israel to account.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

There has been a call out for a week of direct action against settlement businesses including Ahava and Agrexco between the 7th and the 14th of February. Join us in the demonstration at Agrexco HQ in Hayes, Middlesex, on Saturday 7th - from where we know for certain that masses of Israeli lowers will be despatched to florists and supermarkets in the days before Valentine's Day. We need lots of people there to show Agrexco we mean it, and to hold Israel accountable. Bring imaginative placards.How to get thereBuses will leave from Victoria station London at 11 a.m., returning by 6. Phone 0207 7006192, or email psc.admin@palestinecampaign.org to book a return place (£8, £6 concessions).By road. The Agrexco HQ/Depot is in Swallowfield Way, Hayes, Middlesex, near Heathrow airport.

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

bad link

07.02.2009 15:24

The hyperlink for Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign is bad in above article - can that be fixed?

Brian B


website address

07.02.2009 18:05

www.bigcampaign.org

...


Israeli flowers

07.02.2009 21:47

How do we tell where they have come from?
If anyone has an answer for this one I'd like to know!
Does anyone have a list of where the supermerkets buy them from?

Surely it would be a really good move if ALL israeli flowers were 'made unpleasant' for valentines day!

Spraying them with something foul / something that made them wilt/shrivel?

its not stopped the initial sale but it sends a message.

Bob


pics at

08.02.2009 13:48

boycott agrexco


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