Visit the Wood Group Campaign site
STOP POWERING ISRAELI APARTHEID is a campaign organised by Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign with support from a wide range of partners and supporters including trade unions, environmentalists and grassroots activists in Scotland and Palestine.
Wood Group is a global oil and gas company with its headquarters in Aberdeen. The company works in 50 countries across the world, including Israel, and has stated that it is “…safe to say that Wood Group does business in a number of parts of the world where there are distressing conflicts which cause hardship and inequity”[i]. In line with this irresponsible badge of honour, Wood Group is constructing a gas-fired power station in Israel; a power station that will fuel the institutions and enforcement of the Israeli apartheid state.
The actions which Wood Group has taken in the construction of this power station will be directly fuelling the ongoing apartheid policies, infrastructure and institutions of the state of Israel. Wood Group should be made aware of its complicity in the ongoing dispossession and oppression of the Palestinians and should cease immediately providing Israel with the means to implement apartheid. Wood Group should immediately withdraw from Israel and refrain from seeking future contracts with apartheid Israel.
In November 2010 Wood Group signed a contract with Dorad Energy to build a natural gas power station in Ashkelon, Israel. This contract is worth approximately £563 million and the 800-megawatt power station will produce 8% of Israel’s electricity in the near future. The power plant is due to be completed in 2013. New gas fields have been discovered within Israel’s off-shore area and Wood Group are intending to expand their operations; Shlomo Cohen, the Group’s Israel manager last year stated that: “The company considers this project as a cornerstone for extensive operations in Israel”[ii]
Wood Group’s actions will directly contribute to the ongoing subjugation and dispossession of the Palestinian people. It has been established that the power station will provide energy to the Israeli Ministry of Defence, Mekorot (Israel’s national water company), and various private companies, including Keter Plastic[iii].
[i] Wood Group correspondence with Aberdeen SPSC
[ii] http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000640176&fid=1725
[iii] http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000794199&fid=1725