{"id":58106,"date":"2015-05-18T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=58106"},"modified":"2015-05-12T20:12:24","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T19:12:24","slug":"brazil-cancels-2-billion-contract-with-israeli-security-firm-for-2016-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/05\/brazil-cancels-2-billion-contract-with-israeli-security-firm-for-2016-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Cancels $2 Billion Contract with Israeli Security Firm for 2016 Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rio_de-janeiroOlympics-420x315<\/a><\/p>\n

12 May 2015 – <\/em>Brazil\u2019s government has excluded an Israeli \u201csecurity\u201d company\u00a0from working at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro following a campaign by Palestine solidarity activists.<\/p>\n

In October 2014, the Israeli\u00a0firm\u00a0International Security and Defence Systems (ISDS)\u00a0announced<\/a> it had won a $2.2 billion contract with the Brazilian government to coordinate security at the huge\u00a0sports event. The Times of Israel<\/em> described<\/a> the deal as \u201can unprecedented achievement for Israel,\u201d while senior figures from\u00a0the company stated\u00a0it\u00a0had already begun work.<\/p>\n

But on 8 April a division dealing with large events at\u00a0Brazil\u2019s justice ministry\u00a0denied that ISDS had been awarded any contract.<\/p>\n

A letter from the ministry stated:\u00a0\u201cAny contract made by Rio 2016 won\u2019t result in compromises by the Brazilian government.\u201d The campaign against ISDS, which was supported by some of Brazil\u2019s\u00a0labor unions,\u00a0is interpreting<\/a> this as an acknowledgement of its\u00a0grievances.<\/p>\n

Julio Turra, executive director of CUT, the largest workers\u2019 union in Brazil, says\u00a0in a press release<\/a>: \u201cWe are glad that\u00a0the government distances itself from ISDS. It would be illegal and shameful to hire a company that develops its technologies in complicity with Israeli crimes and that accumulates complaints about its participation in Central American dictatorships.\u201d<\/p>\n

This boycott success comes on the heels of another recent and very significant\u00a0win\u00a0in Brazil for activists urging boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. At the end of 2014, in response to a separate campaign, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul canceled<\/a> a contract with the Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems<\/a> to develop a major aerospace research center.<\/p>\n

Bloody past<\/strong><\/p>\n

The campaign against the ISDS contract focused on lobbying the government to cancel any contract with ISDS on the grounds that the company had close ties with the Israeli military, as well as a long and sordid history in Central and South America.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1982 in Tel Aviv by a former colonel in the Israeli army, ISDS has provided security and \u201ccounterterrorism\u201d training to many Central American states, including paramilitaries in Honduras and Guatemala, throughout the 1980s.<\/p>\n

ISDS helped train and arm<\/a> the Contras in Nicaragua who tried to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government. In the\u00a01989 book, The \u201cTerrorism\u201d Industry<\/em>, Edward Herman and\u00a0Gerry O\u2019Sullivan document<\/a> how\u00a0ISDS also trained and helped form anti-terrorism \u201csquads\u201d within the Guatemalan military to target\u00a0opposition forces and grassroots organizing, while providing the military with electronic surveillance, arms, helicopters, and airplanes. Furthermore, ISDS trained Honduran death squads, including the notorious Battalion 3-16, which conducted kidnappings, killings, and torture against\u00a0political dissidents.<\/p>\n

Not done<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Palestine solidarity activists are celebrating Brazil\u2019s decision, they are now turning their focus to the Olympics Committee, which has named ISDS as an \u201cofficial supplier\u201d for the games.<\/p>\n

Maristela Pinheiro, a member of the Rio de Janeiro Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian People stated:\u00a0\u201cThere will be for sure a strong campaign against the supplier deal between ISDS and the 2016 organizing committee and we\u2019ll keep monitoring Coesrio [the government agency responsible for the Olympics]. The games can\u2019t be intensifying repressive practices in our country, or endorse illegal and immoral actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Large sporting events, like the Olympics and the World Cup, are magnets for military and security firms that are hired to pacify, place under surveillance\u00a0and remove poor and other \u201cundesirable\u201d segments of the population from the festivities. ISDS is just one of several Israeli and other international companies that have profited from this routine in the past.<\/p>\n

Due to Palestine solidarity activists, the company will not be enjoying as much profit as it had hoped to reap in Brazil\u00a0next year.<\/p>\n

_________________________________<\/p>\n

Charlotte Silver is an independent journalist in San Francisco, formerly based in the West Bank.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 electronicintifada.net<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Join the<\/em><\/strong><\/span> BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS<\/span> <\/em><\/strong>campaign<\/em><\/strong> <\/span>to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n

DON’T BUY<\/strong> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/strong> BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel.\u00a0\u00a0 DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 May 2015 – Brazil\u2019s government has excluded an Israeli \u201csecurity\u201d company from working at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro following a campaign by Palestine solidarity activists who are now turning their focus to the Olympics Committee, which has named ISDS as an \u201cofficial supplier\u201d for the games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}