FT reports G4S could divest from Israel to avoid “reputational risk”

"G4S, the world's biggest security company by revenues, has confirmed it is planning to quit key contracts in Israel amid protests against its involvement in settlements within Occupied Palestinian territories."
Gill Plimmer, Financial Times 21 April 2013

The company employs 6,000 people in Israel, where it provides and maintains screening equipment for several West Bank military checkpoints. It also manages security systems at the controversial Ofer Prison in the Occupied West Bank.

But with sporadic international protests continuing both outside the FTSE 100's headquarters in London and internationally, the company said it would exit the contracts covering Ofer, the checkpoints and the West Bank police headquarters when they terminate in 2015.

"Having conducted a review in 2011, we concluded that, to ensure that G4S Israel business practices remain in line with our own business ethics policy, we would aim to exit the contracts which involve the servicing of security equipment at a small number of barrier checkpoints, a prison and a police station in the West Bank area," G4S told the Financial Times.

The move will nevertheless disappoint protesters, who have called on G4S to end all dealings with the Israeli prison authorities. The security company will continue to service security systems in commercial and government sites inside Israel, including jails housing Palestinian inmates, after 2015.

Analysts have raised the prospect that G4S could be tempted to divest the Israeli business altogether.

The BDS campaign against G4S is bound to continue until G4S withdraw completely and unequivically from complicity in Israel's illegal detention and torture of Palestinians including children.

Read the rest of the Financial Times report here