A campaigning group set up by ICAHD UK and Corporate Occupation / Stop the Demolitions
Protecting Palestinian Families is a campaigning group whose particular focus is on the effect of Israel’s policy of destroying Palestinian homes and livelihoods on children and their families. This campaign group operates under the umbrella of Stop the Demolitions.
In detailed correspondence with NSPCC officers and Trustees, compelling reasons for dropping JCB as a donor were given but went unheeded by the NSPCC.
The campaign group recognised fully the excellent work NSPCC does and applauded the charity’s aim to “Give a voice to children when no one is listening” and to “fight for every childhood.” But British children should not benefit at the expense of Palestinian children and their families. Nor should a charity accept money from a company complicit in war crimes.
NSPCC calling for it to demonstrate a truly ethical position, cease to take money from JCB and prove that every child matters.
NSPCC has been informed about all of the following facts related to their donor, JCB.
In 2019, the Shoal Collective and Corporate Occupation have drawn on ICAHD’s work, investigating the critical matter of corporate complicity in house demolitions. They produced evidence that JCB bulldozers were generally used to carry out demolitions in vulnerable farming or Bedouin communities in the Jordan Valley or the South Hebron Hills. The bulldozers were most often used to destroy people’s homes or animal structures, olive and fruit trees. They were also used to destroy wells, and community freshwater systems, cutting off villagers from water sources. This report showed that JCB equipment:
- Affected at least 29,483 people
- Displaced at least 123 people
- Displaced at least 39 children
- Destroyed at least 6,784 olive & fruit trees
- Destroyed at least 20 water systems
Full details of JCB and their actions in Palestine / Israel may be found here.
In 2020, the UN issued a database listing some of the major companies working in the illegal Israeli settlements. JCB was one of only three UK companies listed by the UN.
In 2020, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights lodged a formal complaint under OECD guidelines, spelling out how JCB has breached its human rights duties.
On 12 October 2020, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) announced that UK National Contact Point (a government body which is part of the Department for International Trade) has just published its Initial Assessment decision on the human rights complaint against JCB under the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
The UK National Contact Point has accepted that key aspects of the LPHR complaint are "material and substantiated", in relation to the use of JCB's heavy machinery in Israel's illegal demolitions and settlement-related construction in the occupied Palestinian territory that result in serious human rights violations.
This news strengthens the arguments that ICAHD UK has made to the NSPCC in our call for it to stop taking tarnished money from JCB. In addition, it also adds weight to our campaign for JCB as we have called for it to stipulate to its Israeli customers that JCB equipment is not to be used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and structures.
Read the LPHR press release here.
Protecting Palestinian Families works with Stop the Demolitions under the umbrella organization Corporate Occupation - a movement dedicated to tracking the companies complicit in the occupation of Palestine. In doing so, Corporate Occupation provides an invaluable resource for the BDS and wider solidarity movement.