Companies with links to illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank have won £10.7m worth of UK government contracts since Ed Miliband’s pledge to sanction businesses facilitating the settlements.
The foreign secretary said on 8 September that Andy Burnham’s government would “take action” against companies and individuals involved in settlement activities.
“To those who finance or facilitate illegal settlements, let me say this: you will face the full force of UK sanctions,” he said, adding: “Settlements are illegal.”
But businesses named and shamed by the UN for their involvement in Israeli settlements have since been awarded new public sector contracts, analysis by Tussell for Al Jazeera shows.
The vast majority were signed with Heidelberg Materials, a German-headquartered firm. It has been granted 14 UK contracts worth £10.4m since Miliband announced sanctions.
“Britain cannot credibly claim that it is imposing sanctions on Israeli settlements while letting contracts continue through the back door,” said former Labour leader and Your Party MP Jeremy Corbyn.
“The fact that public money is still going to firms that could be targeted under the government’s own sanctions regime… is outrageous and frankly insulting to the public.”
Heidelberg operates an Israeli subsidiary, Hanson Israel, which runs a quarry on land belonging to the Palestinian villages of Al-Zawiya and Rafat. In the UK, materials from Heidelberg will be used to resurface roads in Nottingham and Lincolnshire.
Two contracts worth about £87,900 were granted to Motorola Systems to provide communications for the police service. The US company is the sole provider of the Israeli military’s 4G cellular network, according to the Who Profits research centre.
Companies Fosun and Egis were also flagged in the Al Jazeera report for taking home contracts worth more than £100,000 each. Heidelberg, Motorola and Fosun did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment whilst Egis said it “formally expressed its disagreement” with being included in the UN database.
Novara Media contacted the UK foreign office for comment.
From Novara Media via This RSS Feed.