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HOW CAPE GATE IS INVOLVED WITH ISRAEL
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Cape Gate is a South African steel manufacturing company with a track-record of labour exploitation and worker mistreatment. Cape Gate is also involved in Israeli human rights abuses and violations of international law.
In 2009 StopTheWall, a Palestinian-based human rights organization, issued a report (click here to read) outlining Cape Gate's illegal involvement (through its Israeli subsidiary "Yehuda Welded Mesh") in Israeli military checkpoints, Israel's illegal Separation/Apartheid Wall and Israel's illegal settlements. StopTheWall details how Cape Gate has been involved, specifically, in:
- Building the Israeli fence and wall surrounding the Palestinian Gaza Strip;
- Supplying fences for Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall being constructed in the Israeli Occupied Palestinian West Bank (in 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall was in violation of international law);
- Supplying fences for the fencing of Israel's separate roads (built on Israeli occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank), including the Cross Shomron road (road no. 5), which leads to the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel, and the Israel Tunnels Road, which connects the illegal Israeli settlement of Gush Etzion and Jerusalem;
- Supplying fences used in the illegal Israeli settlements of Barkan, Ariel and Karnei Shomron in the Israeli occupied Palestinian West Bank.
On Wednesday, to coincide with the South African protest, a letter will be delivered in Palestine by StopTheWall to the South African Consulate in Ramallah.
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CAPE GATE EXECUTIVE ALSO HEAD OF PRO- ISRAELI LOBBY GROUP
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In 2011, the Mail&Guardian Newspaper, carried an article that included information on how the current chairman of Cape Gate, Nathan Friedman, is also the chairperson of the pro-Israeli lobby group, the SA-Israel Forum (an organization, that it was revealed, carries out boycott-busting trips to Israel in an attempt to break the increasing international isolation of the Israeli regime). Click here to read the M&G article and click here for the DailyMaverick article. |
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OWNER OF CAPE GATE ALSO PRESIDENT OF WORLD ZIONIST ORGANIZATION.
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In 2012, in a book titled "The Case for Sanctions Against Israel" (and featuring chapters by Slavoj Zizek, Naomi Klein, John Berger and others) Dalit Baum and Merav Amir (two Israeli human right activists) reveal how the late founder and owner of Cape Gate, Mendel Kaplan, was also the former president of the pro-Israeli World Zionist organization. This book is available in South Africa at Exclusive Books (click here), Kalahari.net (click here), and also as an e-book on Amazon.com (click here). To read the relevant chapter in the book, covering Cape Gate's involvement with Israel, click here.
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TAKE ACTION: APPROACH HARDWARE STORES, BUILDING FIRMS ETC. TO BOYCOTT CAPE GATE
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Join us in appealing to local hardware stores, construction companies and other entities not to purchase from Cape Gate until Cape Gate ends its support for Israel and meets the demands of workers. Cape Gate with its offices in Europe, the UK, US, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and elsewhere around the world supplies shops, stores and companies both in and out of South Africa with wire and steel products including gates, fences, nails etc. Approach your local hardware store and find out if they are purchasing from Cape Gate and if they are, make them aware of how Cape Gate treats workers and is also involved in illegal activities with the Israeli regime (remember to communicate with us any of your successes!). If you are a business or other entity that is considering cancelling your relations with Cape Gate we would be happy to answer any queries that you may have. Also, please let us know if you are a business or store that has already terminated your relations with Cape Gate.
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DONATE TO
BDS SOUTH AFRICA
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JOIN BDS SOUTH AFRICA'S EMAIL MAILING LIST
To join BDS South Africa's email mailing list (& receive these newsletters) send a blank email message to alerts@bdssouthafrica.com
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PROTEST AGAINST S.AFRICAN COMPANY "CAPE GATE" THAT IS EXPLOITING WORKERS AND SUPPLYING MATERIAL FOR ISRAEL'S "APARTHEID WALL"
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Join us on Wednesday in a protest against the South African steel manufacturing company, Cape Gate, that is complicit in exploiting South African workers as well illegally supplying material for the construction of Israel's Separation ("Apartheid") Wall and illegal settlements. Workers, environmentalists, activists and community members will be demanding that Cape Gate:
1. Respect international law and end relations with Israel (Cape Gate through its Israeli subsidiary "Yehuda Welded Mesh", supplies material to, and profits from, the construction of Israel's notorious, "Apartheid Wall"). Cape Gate also supplies material to and for the construction of Israel's illegal settlements;
2. Immediately discharges to ex-employees the "pension surplus funds" owed to workers for the last 18 years now (and already approved by the Financial Services Board), including full compensation for the unclaimed funds by families of the deceased workers;
3. Award to the ex-employees their company shares that were promised by Cape Gate (but never awarded) over 18 years ago;
4. Afford workers and ex-employees the due process of medical checks that should have been carried out by Cape Gate, and that these workers be awarded Occupational Health Compensation due to them in the cases of damage to health (due to employment by Cape Gate);
5. Report to the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance (VEJA) and to surrounding communities Cape Gate's carbon emission levels; Cape Gate has, till today, refused to issue a report to VEJA and the Vanderbijlpark community regarding Cape Gate's carbon emissions and pollution levels (the request for such information and report was informed by continuous chest pains and lung respiratory related infections experienced by members of communities surrounding Cape Gate);
DETAILS FOR WEDNESDAY 04 DECEMBER PROTEST
DATE: Wednesday, 04 December 2013
PROTEST MARCH STARTS: 9AM, Boipatong (Corner Thaka Banna & Lekoa)
MARCH CULMINATES WITH SPEECHES: 12h30 at Cape Gate Head Office
(3 Nobel Boulevard, Boipatong/Vanderbijlkpark, Gauteng)
CONTACT DETAILS FOR MORE INFO: 0842119988/ 0842918510 / 0838787894
TRANSPORT AVAILABLE FROM: Sebokeng, Evaton, Roshnee, Sasolburg
(Info for transport: 0785563392)
PRIMARY ORGANIZERS: Vaal Community Assembly, Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance (VEJA), Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions against Israel in South Africa (BDS South Africa), Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA), African National Congress Youth League (ANC YL), Young Communist League (YCL), South African Students Congress (SASCO), South African Youth Alliance (SAYC) and others...
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FACTS AND INFORMATION ON ISRAEL'S ILLEGAL SEPARATION/APARTHEID WALL
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NAME: Israeli supporters claim that Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall is simply a Separation "fence" or "barrier". However, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in 2004, explained that words such as “fence” or “barrier” are "not accurate" and that the only correct term to use could be "Wall". Palestinians and human rights activists refer to Israel's Separation Wall, as the "Apartheid Wall".
COST: The cost of Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall is estimated at R20 billion ($2 Billion), and each kilometer costs approximately R10 million ($2 million).
ROUTE: Israeli supporters claim that Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall is merely a "border" between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian West Bank. However, the Israeli Separation/Apartheid Wall is not being built on, or in most cases near the 1967 Green Line, but rather cuts deep into the Palestinian West Bank, in and around Palestinian villages and expanding Israel’s theft of Palestinian land and resources. In total, 85% of the Israel's Wall is located inside the Occupied Palestinian West Bank.
LEGALITY: In 2004, the world's highest court, the International Court of Justice declared that Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall is in violation of international law (click here to see an infographic).
STRUCTURE: Where Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall is not made up of 8 meter high concrete slabs, it consists of fences, ditches (up to 4m deep), razor and barb wire coils, sand trace paths, an electronic monitoring system, two-lane asphalt patrol roads and buffer zones which all combined result in the width of Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall reaching up to 100m in width (click here to see an image).
CONDEMNATION BY HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Human Rights Watch and several other bodies have termed Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall as a violation International Law.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Amnesty International has dubbed Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall as a "Wall of Injustice".
INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS: The Red Cross has condemned Israel's construction of its Separation/Apartheid Wall as a violation of the Geneva Conventions and contrary to International Law.
WORLD BANK: Experts from the World Bank have warned that Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall will bring economic and social catastrophe to Palestinian townships.
SYGMUNT BAUMAN, JEWISH SOCIOLOGIST AND PHILOSOPHER: In 2011, Sygmunt Bauman, the Polish-Jewish sociologist and one of the greatest philosophers of our time, castigated Israel harshly saying that Israel was "taking advantage of the Holocaust to legitimize unconscionable acts [against the indigenous Palestinians]" and compared the Separation/Apartheid Wall to the walls surrounding the Warsaw Ghetto, in which hundreds of thousands of Jews perished in the Holocaust.
EFFECT ON PALESTINIANS
CREATING GHETTOS AND BANTUSTANS: Several Palestinian towns, for example that of Qalqilyah with 45 000 residents, is completely surrounded on all sides by Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall effectively imprisoning Palestinians townships into open air prisons/ghettos.
DESTRUCTION: Over 150 Palestinian stores and stalls have been destroyed by Israel to build its Separation/Apartheid wall. Once completed, 12% of Palestinians will be living in a closed military zone or surrounded on three or four sides by Israel's Separation Wall. They face increasingly unbearable living conditions - the loss of land, markets, movement and livelihoods.
HEALTH AND MEDICAL CARE: Upon completion, Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall will prevent over 130,000 Palestinian children from being immunised, and deny more than 100,000 pregnant Palestinian women (out of which 17,640 are high risk pregnancies) access to healthcare. In addition, almost a third of Palestinian townships will suffer from lack of access to healthcare. After completion, many Palestinian residents may lose complete access to emergency care at night. In Palestinian towns near Jerusalem (Abu Dis and al-Eizariya), for example, average time for an ambulance to travel to the nearest hospital has increased (due to the construction of Israel's Wall) from 10 minutes to over 110 minutes.
WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES: The World Council of Churches has demanded that Israel halt and reverse the construction of its Separation/Apartheid Wall and has called on "member Churches, Ecumenical Councils of Churches, Christian World Communions and specialized ministries of churches to condemn the [Israeli Separation/Apartheid] wall as an act of unlawful annexation."
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY: Upon visiting Bethlehem in 2006, Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that the Israeli-built wall is “a sign of all that is wrong in the human heart”.
BOOKS: In 2011 the British comedian, Mark Thomas, wrote a book following his "walk" along the route of Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall titled "Extreme Ramblings". (This book is available at Exclusive Books, click here for more info).
GRAFFITI: One of the most famous graffiti artists to have left his mark on Israel's Separation/Apartheid Wall is UK graffiti artist, Banksy, who has painted with other artists a set titled "Santa's ghetto" in Bethlehem. Banky's book, "Wall and Piece" is available at Exclusive Books (click here), via Kalahari.net (click here) and on Amazon.com (click here)
ROGER WATERS OF PINK FLOYD: In 2006, Roger Waters of the legendary music band Pink Floyd spray-painted "Tear down the wall" on the Israeli Separation/Apartheid Wall, a phrase from Pink Floyd's 1979 album "The Wall" (which was banned under Apartheid in South Africa). In a subsequent article published by the Guardian Newspaper in the UK, Waters explains that "artists were right to refuse to play in South Africa's Sun City [under Apartheid]... And are right [today] to refuse to play in Israel until the day comes – and it surely will come – when the Israeli Wall of Occupation falls".
SOUTH AFRICAN OPINON ON THE ISRAELI WALL
SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT: In 2004, the South African government submitted an affidavit to the International Court of Justice arguing that Israel's "Apartheid" Wall was "illegal and in violation of international law".
SOUTH AFRICAN LETTER PAINTED ON ISRAELI WALL: In 2011, Justus van Oel commissioned South African anti-apartheid activist, former UDF leader and current board member of BDS South Africa, Professor Farid Esack, to compose a letter to the Palestinian people on behalf of South Africans. The result was a 1,998-word letter written in a single line and stretching over 2,6 Kilometers. Click here to watch the YouTube video.
FINAL WORD
USA PRESIDENT, GEORGE BUSH: In 2005 the-then President of the United States, George W. Bush, said "I think the Israeli wall is a problem."
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