PALESTINIAN NEWS NETWORK – The Brazilian state of Bahia decided on April 2 to end its cooperation agreement with Israeli water company Mekorot. The decision comes after pressure from campaigners from the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which works to end complicity with Israel’s violations of international law.
Civil society campaigners and social movements denounced in various occasions the agreement signed in 2013 by Bahia’s two water utility companies, Embasa and CERB, due to Mekorot’s role in denying Palestinians their water rights. Regional legislator Marcelino Galo, vice-president of the state commission on environment, draught and water resources, demanded a revision of the agreement. This process culminated in the announcement giving the Stop Mekorot campaign a boost.
This became the latest in a series of contracts Mekorot lost around the world from grassroots pressure that exposed its role in water apartheid against Palestinians. Pedro Charbel, Latin America campaigns coordinator for the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the Palestinian leadership of the BDS movement, welcomed the announcement:
“Embasa and CERB did the right thing by ending this cooperation agreement with Israel’s Mekorot: It served to legitimize Israeli water apartheid without even giving any benefits to Bahia. Today, Bahia joins Buenos Aires, Lisbon, the Netherlands and São Paulo in ending ties with Mekorot. We call on all public entities to cut ties with Mekorot and end all forms of complicity with Israeli and international companies profiting from and enabling violations of Palestinians human rights.
Water wars in South America are not new. The French corporations primarily want it all to sell back to us in little bottles or to manage farming and droughts on a larger scale (IE California). They already do awful things to the poor in South America regarding rights and water quality. There can only be room for improvement. Sadly, with the Jews, that is not always the case…. they have a talent for taking things lower than low…
Dang South American countries have to learn their lesson again about who is master and owns them, from the looks of it. Meanwhile, looks good on them.
Good. I am glad some one is doing something about Israel crimes against humanity.