Brazil cancels $2 billion contract with Israeli security firm for 2016 Olympics

[MikeWB]

... and we all remember who ran security during 9/11...


http://en.institutomanquehue.org/publications/commentary/brazil-cancels-contract-israeli-security.html

Brazil's government has excluded an Israeli "security" company from working at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro following a campaign by Palestine solidarity activists.

In October 2014, the Israeli firm International Security and Defence Systems (ISDS) announced it had won a $2.2 billion contract with the Brazilian government to coordinate security at the huge sports event. The Times of Israel described the deal as "an unprecedented achievement for Israel," while senior figures from the company stated it had already begun work.

But on 8 April a division dealing with large events at Brazil's justice ministry denied that ISDS had been awarded any contract.

A letter from the ministry stated: "Any contract made by Rio 2016 won't result in compromises by the Brazilian government." The campaign against ISDS, which was supported by some of Brazil's labor unions, is interpreting this as an acknowledgement of its grievances.

Julio Turra, executive director of CUT, the largest workers' union in Brazil, says in a press release: "We are glad that the government distances itself from ISDS. It would be illegal and shameful to hire a company that develops its technologies in complicity with Israeli crimes and that accumulates complaints about its participation in Central American dictatorships."

This boycott success comes on the heels of another recent and very significant win in Brazil for activists urging boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. At the end of 2014, in response to a separate campaign, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul canceled a contract with the Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems to develop a major aerospace research center.

Bloody past

The campaign against the ISDS contract focused on lobbying the government to cancel any contract with ISDS on the grounds that the company had close ties with the Israeli military, as well as a long and sordid history in Central and South America.

Founded in 1982 in Tel Aviv by a former colonel in the Israeli army, ISDS has provided security and "counterterrorism" training to many Central American states, including paramilitaries in Honduras and Guatemala, throughout the 1980s.

ISDS helped train and arm the Contras in Nicaragua who tried to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government. In the 1989 book, The "Terrorism" Industry, Edward Herman and Gerry O'Sullivan document how ISDS also trained and helped form anti-terrorism "squads" within the Guatemalan military to target opposition forces and grassroots organizing, while providing the military with electronic surveillance, arms, helicopters, and airplanes. Furthermore, ISDS trained Honduran death squads, including the notorious Battalion 3-16, which conducted kidnappings, killings, and torture against political dissidents.

Not done

    While Palestine solidarity activists are celebrating Brazil's decision, they are now turning their focus to the Olympics Committee, which has named ISDS as an "official supplier" for the games.

Maristela Pinheiro, a member of the Rio de Janeiro Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian People stated: "There will be for sure a strong campaign against the supplier deal between ISDS and the 2016 organizing committee and we'll keep monitoring Coesrio [the government agency responsible for the Olympics]. The games can't be intensifying repressive practices in our country, or endorse illegal and immoral actions."

Large sporting events, like the Olympics and the World Cup, are magnets for military and security firms that are hired to pacify, place under surveillance and remove poor and other "undesirable" segments of the population from the festivities. ISDS is just one of several Israeli and other international companies that have profited from this routine in the past.

Due to Palestine solidarity activists, the company will not be enjoying as much profit as it had hoped to reap in Brazil next year.

[yankeedoodle]

Great news.  Brazil is standing up to the jews.  Israel is trying to force Brazil into tacitly approving of Israhell stealing Palestinian land by trying to force them to accept an ambassador who runs the illegal settlements. 

Israel threatens Brazil with cold diplomacy unless it accepts settler ambassador
https://www.rt.com/news/327267-israel-brazil-ambassador-dayan/

Israel has warned Brazil that relations will deteriorate unless it accepts the former Israeli head of the West Bank settlement program as ambassador. The appointment was made four months ago and has still not been approved by Brazil's government.

The country has continuously failed to give in to diplomatic pressure, leading Israel to up the stakes and issue threats.

Brazilian refusals have gone on since August, when the political appointment was made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The main sticking point for Brazilian opposition to the appointment is the fact that Dani Dayan – the nominee – lives in the occupied West Bank, as well as being the former head of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria.

Like most of the international community, Brazil's leftist government believes the building of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land to be illegal. But condemnation at all levels has not resulted in any action on the part of Israel.

Reda Mansour, Israel's previous ambassador, left Brasilia last week, and now the Israelis are warning that if Dayan does not replace him, there will be consequences for bilateral relations.

"The State of Israel will leave the level of diplomatic relations with Brazil at the secondary level if the appointment of Dani Dayan is not confirmed," Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said in an interview to Israel's Channel 10, according to Reuters. Israel has refused to nominate another candidate for the position.

Hotovely then said Israel would continue to press Brasilia through various means, including the Brazilian Jewish community, as well as direct appeals from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is one of the more outspoken defenders of Israel's settlement-building in the West Bank.

According to Hotovely, as cited by the Jerusalem Post, this lobbying will take place with the aim of showing that Dayan is "a man who is respectable, worthy, and accepted across Israel's political spectrum."

Hotovely added that in the event of Brazil's refusal, there will be "a crisis in relations between the two countries, and it is not worth going there."

There has been no comment yet from President Dilma Rousseff on whether Brasilia would cave to Israeli demands, but a senior source in the Foreign Ministry told Reuters they "do not see that happening." And if Dayan is not, in fact, named the next ambassador, the only real alternative will be to have the next highest-ranking official acting in his stead.

Dayan for months remained silent, but on Saturday, in an interview to Channel 2, attributed Brazil's refusal to "classic BDS" – or boycott, divestment and sanctions. He believes the entire situation owes itself to pressure from Israeli activists, Palestinians and select circles in Brazil.

Tensions between the two countries have been on the rise since the last administration, when Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva worked to warm Brazilian ties with Iran. They rose further last year when an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman labeled Brazil "a diplomatic dwarf." This was after Brasilia recalled its ambassador from Israel as a show of protest over the continuing military offensive in Gaza.