Edinburgh City Wants out of Israeli Water Contract, but Bottles out, Afraid of Legal Action

martyn

18 years ago

Edinburgh City Council Bottles Out of Boycott of Israeli Water Company
Labour Group Votes Unanimously for Boycott
SNP & Lib Dems Afraid of being Sued by Israeli Criminals, Eden Springs
Tories Say Thacherite South African anti-Boycott ‘Law Must be Obeyed’
Nobody on Council had a Good Word to Say about Israel

BOTTLED water is facing the axe at city schools and council offices in a bid to save costs and help the environment.

A return to tap water will be considered when the council’s £117,000 contract with Eden Springs to stock water coolers comes to an end in 2009.

Various groups are calling for a boycott of the firm, which has an Israeli parent company accused of "pillaging" Syrian natural resources to create profit.

Mayanot Eden operates in the Golan Heights, a border plateau captured by Israel from Syria in the Six-Day War in 1967. At a full council meeting on Thursday, the Labour group led calls to cancel the contract, which it linked to the struggle against apartheid.

The Lib Dem/SNP administration indicated it would like to scrap the contract, but warned of a claim for damages by the contractor. Council chiefs are now to seek changes to the law, which prohibit the rejection of tenders on ethical grounds.

But Labour group leader Ewan Aitken said: "I have stood at the Golan Heights, and I could not say to people that I hid behind a legal technicality. We are ready to stand up and be counted."