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Moroccan human rights organisations demand dismissal of "G4S"

February 15, 2014 at 1:28 pm

Moroccan human rights organisations and associations have demanded the dismissal of the Israeli company, “G4S”, from Morocco stating that they intend to call on representative institutions and official bodies to take the necessary measures to prevent certain parties and their partners that have carried out war crimes and crimes against humanity from carrying out any activities in Morocco.


14 Moroccan human rights organisations including “Morocco-Palestine Solidarity Association”, “National Working Group to Support Palestine”, “Moroccan League for the Defence of Human Rights”, “Moroccan Association for Human Rights,” and ” Moroccan Organization for Human Rights”, have said they will also call on Moroccan institutions, companies and contractors who do business with “G4S” without knowing who they are, to sever all ties with the company.

Simon Osadon, a member of the National Working Group to Support Palestine, said in a seminar held on Wednesday in Rabat that “G4S Israel” mentions on its official website that it works in prisons containing “security prisoners” which were found to be Palestinian political prisoners. “G4S” controls the security systems and central control rooms in Ketziot prison which holds 2,200 Palestinian political prisoners, Megiddo prison which holds over 1,200 prisoners and Damun prison which holds over 500 Palestinian politicians and illegal detainees from the West Bank – some of whom are administrative prisoners and most of whom have not received a trial.

Simon also added that according to their website, the company also installed defence systems on the walls surrounding Ofer prison in the West Bank near the Giv’at Ze’ev settlement where 1500 Palestinian political prisoners are held. It also operates the compound’s central control room that also includes a military court that tries detainees from the West Bank on a daily basis.

In addition to this, Simon explained that “G4S Israel” provides full security for the central control room of the HaSharon-Rimonim prison compound which is typically a criminal prison, but also has a wing for Palestinian political prisoners.

“G4S Israel” also provides the security systems for the “Abu Kabir” Detention and Interrogation Centre in Jaffa, “Kishon” Detention and Interrogation Centre in Haifa and the “Russian Compound” Detention and Interrogation Centre in occupied Jerusalem. In these centres, Palestinian prisoners are usually detained for several years without trial and human rights organisations have gathered evidence of their torture in such centres.

This is the reality of the multi-national “G4S” company as well as other companies such as “Caterpillar”, “Siemens”, “Alstom”, and “Veolia” which aid the crimes of the Zionist apartheid regime and continue to exist and invest in Morocco.