Bay Area BDS. Going from failure to failure

Although boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) was first introduced at the now notorious Durban Conference in 2001, it took much longer for the ugliness of BDS to clearly manifest itself in the Bay area.  In 2009, a handful of anti - Israel activists from a variety of marginalized groups photographed themselves vandalizing Israeli products at Trader Joes, in an effort to intimidate the independent grocer into discontinuing the items.

 

The work of BDS bullies:Vandalized products at Trader Joes

The reaction from the community and from all levels at Trader Joes was, shall we say “Fast and Furious”?

A statement from Trader Joes Vice President of Marketing, Jon Basalone, in response to inquiries made it clear that the company would not capitulate to a pressure campaign.

“Our response is that we sell products, and do not use our products as political tools or to make any statements about any political causes. We have no intention of removing any products based on pressure from any group, no matter what they support or don’t support. As always, we believe our customers are smart, and they are capable of making decisions about what they purchase. Let me know if you have any more questions or need more information.”

Individual Trader Joes store managers responded with special promotions.  The luscious tangy Israeli  Pastures of Eden feta was touted as “Cheese of the month.” Floor to ceiling displays of Israeli couscous, adorned with Israeli flags and free recipes graced stores.

Zionist groups responded to the boycott by giving out free samples of Israeli products outside of Trader Joes, encouraged by store managers that offered them an  “employee discount” on their purchases. A  "buy-cott"  was declared.  The community pulled together, and across the country,  from coast to coast, Trader Joes sold out of all their Israeli products.

The rout was so terrible, so complete, that the BDS holes slunk away, tail between their legs, and never bothered Trader Joes again.

Other limited actions targeting grocers in the Bay area fell flat as well.  Targeting retail establishments  was nearly impossible. If activists kept their actions under cover to prevent an equal and opposite response, they deprived themselves of the self-congratulatory publicity that their movement thrives on.  Organizations  like QUIT and IJAN made a halfhearted attempt to target Safeway, the Berkeley Bowl, Victoria’s Secret.  It went nowhere. Giving up on creating change, the activists focused on creating “youtube moments”, with increasingly ridiculous song and dance routines.  Jump the shark tactics.

By 2010,  the BDS movement had turned to food coops as their next soft target.  With only a minimal expenditure to “buy in”,  the food coop membership could easily be padded with  supporters.  .  Achieving success only at the Washington State Olympic co-op, whose exceedingly  low 5 dollar membership rate (free to seniors, disabled and low income) allowed  it to be easily hijacked by special interests,  the tactic  racked up an impressive amount of failure before it was cast to the wayside. Bay area coops in Davis and Sacramento went to extraordinary measures to keep BDS  off their local, organic and sustainable  plates.

In 2011,  local activists  turned their attentions to the CalPERS and CalSTRS state pension funds. After a year of vigorous lobbying they failed to get even ten percent of the votes needed to get their referendum on the ballot.

Even the passage of  SB160, the divestment resolution at UC Berkeley, touted as a tremendous victory for BDS,  was moderated by language distancing itself from the greater goals of the  "BDS movement", and  (horrors!) contained language recognizing Israel's existence as a state.

Divestment is solely a tactic being used in support of justice and human rights, and should in no way be misconstrued as support for any other goals or beliefs related to the BDS movement and their leaders.

WHEREAS, the BDS movement calls on a cultural and academic boycott, which hurts more people than just policymakers, is counterproductive to academic and cultural growth, and is an inherently different tactic than divesting from companies directly involved with human rights violations

 

and WHEREAS, newspapers that label this bill as divestment from Israel should be considered misleading as it does not seek to divest from the country as a whole and endorses no such action; 

 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the ASUC should not be construed to support a significant portion of the BDS movement including but not limited to their call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel and the strong undertones essentially calling for a one-state solution

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the ASUC President author an open letter to the public explaining that this bill in no way divest from the state of Israel and should not be labeled as “Israeli divestment”. 

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that while the ASUC supports specific and targeted divestment from companies contributing to human rights violations, they also support international law stipulating Israel’s right to be a state  with equal rights for all its citizens.

SB 160 was eventually voted "unconstitutional"  with the ASUC Judicial Council  unanimously ruling that the ASUC Senate lacked the authority to divest ASUC funds.

Finally, this year,  the Sonoma board of Supervisors  voted unanimously to extend Veolia's contract to operate bus service for the county. This marked a tremendous defeat for  the North Coast Coalition for Palestine BDS group, that had spent countless hours lobbying to defeat Veolia.

From brews to shoes, Israeli consumer products abound in the Bay area. BDS. If it can't make it here, it can't make it anywhere.

That's a good thing.

BDS fails of the Week: the local edition.

Whole lot of Bay Area BDS fails this week.

First, courtesy of Rebecca Armstrong Pierce, a local anti-Israel activist and occasional Mondoweiss writer, via Twitter

Apparently BDS attempts to intimidate a local store-manager into de-shelving Israeli products failed  miserably. Aldea is at 20th and Mission, folks.  A buycott and a round of thanks are in order.

Thanks for sharing, Rebecca.

The campus divestment movement suffered yet another setback at UC Davis as the Aggies for Israel  fought back against the BDS bullies, and prevailed. The vote was 5-5, with 3 abstentions. The resolution ultimately failed when the Senate Vice President declined to break the tie.

And finally,  Sonoma county has renewed its contract with transportation giant Veolia, in spite of a massive pressure campaign led by the North Coast Coalition for Palestine. Interestingly enough,  the coalition declared "victory' in their campaign last November.  They even had a party.   Oops.

.
Guess they're right.  Denial isn't just a river in Egypt. For the BDS cru, its a life-style choice.

Scenes of Israeli Apartheid. Fail

How many times have you heard anti-Israel activists talk of "segregated" buses in Israel?  Have you ever noticed they can not show you any evidence?  There is a reason.  Its an absolute lie.

Courtesy of Avi Meyer, via twitter

For a glimpse at the "segregated" Veolia light rail system, check out this clip.


I see a beautifully diverse group of people riding together. I see signage in both Arabic and Hebrew.  There is no"segregation".

Another Apartheid fail, courtesy of Arsen Ostrovsky,  also from Twitter.

Time for one more fleeting glimpse into the world of Israeli apartheid via the fine folks at Israellycool

Israel.  Her diversity is her strength. May she continue to go from strength to strength, and continue to make us proud.

Veolia exits transportation industry. BDS movement claims victory.

Has Anna Baltzer  built a career on falsehoods?   Born as Anna  J. Piller,  some reports indicate she changed  her name to avoid having her anti-Israel activism embarrass her family.   Now going by Anna Nardie in some circles,  she still enjoys stretching the truth to its breaking point.  Her latest claim: Veolia's decision to give up its transportation related services worldwide to focus on energy, water and environmental was somehow a victory of the BDS movement. 

But it wasn't.

 From Marc Goldberg at the Times of Israel:    The Phantom BDS Victory

The Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has a curious history of claiming phantom victories. The latest article written by the BDS site in the US; ’Stop the Occupation’, joyfully claimed a victory in the war against Israel when Anna Baltzer, sporting the title National Organizer wrote;

“Big news! We just received confirmation that Veolia Transdev — a long-standing target of boycott and divestment Palestine solidarity campaigns worldwide along with its partial owner Veolia Environment – has sold off all bus services in Israel/Palestine! Until last week, Veolia Transdev, through its Israeli subsidiary Connex, operated bus lines for settlers on segregated roads in the Palestinian West Bank, and other lines throughout Israel. Today it operates none.”

 

Indeed this is absolutely true, but then Anna Baltzer walked off the cliff into fantasy land when she wrote;

“This marks one of the most significant, tangible victories to date for the international boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Veolia represents the global flagship BDS target, having lost more than $16 billion in contracts following campaigns across continents citing Veolia’s complicity in Israel’s gross violations of Palestinian human rights.”

 As early as December, 2011, Veolia announced its intention to shift its focus.

From the Railway Gazette,  not particularly known as a  politically slanted, highly biased organ of the World Wide Zionist conspiracy,

Veolia Environnement has confirmed its intention to sell its share of Veolia Transdev as part of a programme to reduce its debts, which will see the sale of €5bn of assets over the next two years. 

At an Investor Day held in Paris on December 6, Veolia Environnement Chairman & CEO Antoine Frérot announced that the company would concentrate on its water, environmental services and energy services divisions. The utility firm would now seek buyers for its 50% stake in Veolia Transdev. 

In May 2010 Veolia Environnement concluded an agreement with state bank Caisse des Dépôts to merge Transdev and Veolia Transport. This included a long-term intention to float Veolia Transdev through an IPO, probably in 2012.   

BDS fail has become a vibrant meme throughout social media.    BDS fraud should stand right along side  it.  Anna Baltzer again has shown us, yet again- the only appropriate response to BDS claims of "victory" is to meticulously check their facts. Heaven knows- they aren't going to do it.

UPDATE  from the Israel Action network


Transdev’s Group Communication Director, Bruno Negro, came forth to publicly confirm this fact stating, in an email to IAN, “In August of 2013, Transdev sold its entire bus operation in Israel to an Israeli bus company. The sale is final and has been approved by the Israeli Transportation Ministry. The sale was in the works for some time as part of Transdev’s global strategy to consolidate operations, decrease debt, and fund further growth in the U.S. and other selected countries. It was not due to any additional factors, political or otherwise.” It should also be noted that the company continues to proudly operate the Jerusalem Light Rail that serves all residents of the city.

Anti-Israel activists still attempting to pick up Loose Change at Occupy Oakland

The Reut Institute considers the Bay Area one of the hubs of the delegitimization of Israel, but increasingly it appears that those attempting to marginalize Israel have become, well....marginalized.  A widely promoted anti-Israel rally in front of the Israel Consulate in San Francisco last week attracted only a handful of people. Attempts to bolster attendance at Bay Area anti-Israel events are beginning to reek of desperation.

This email is making the rounds.

 On WED MARCH 13 at 5:30 PM we will be marching to PARATRANSIT headquarters in Downtown Oakland from Oscar Grant Plaza.
  The contract for Paratransit in Oakland is held by a company called Veolia, who also holds the contract for segregated, settler only bus lines that run inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We will march to Paratransit not with the intention of shutting them down or disrupting services for the day, but more to air their dirty laundry and pressure them to pull out of the West Bank.
    This march is part of a larger day of happenings beginning at 4pm and going till about 9 that we are calling "A Feast to the Global Resistance" where we will gather at Oscar Grant Plaza for food, films, community, etc. The day marks the 4th anniversary of the shooting of Oakland activist TRISTAN ANDERSON by Israeli Border Police. Tristan survived (he was shot in the head with a tear gas grenade during a protest in Palestine in 2009) and will be leading the march from his wheelchair.

    **We hope that others from the disability community will support the day's events and join Tristan in the march on the anniversary of his shooting.**

    This march is being called by Justice 4 Tristan, a small loose group of friends of Tristan, who are also folks from Occupy Oakland. We do not expect any kind of confrontation or problems. Our intentions are towards a positive, community gathering type of vibe for the day. Also, we are definitely activists who don't take out permits and don't march on the sidewalk.

    Wed March 13
    4:00- Feast and Gather [at Oscar Grant Plaza]
    5:30- March
    6:30- 9:00- Film Clips and Skype Calls
    from Resistance Movements around the World [back at Oscar Grant Plaza]

The anti-Israel movement has been attempting and failing to gather the loose change from the tattered remains of the Occupy movement for sometime.    Attempting to lure participants with the offer of  a free "feast" is a new touch, however.

UPDATE: Emerging clips from tonights rally and march in Oakland once again point to the increasingly irrelevancy of the local anti-Israel movement.    About an hour into the event, the plaza was still quite empty: Several young pro-Israel peace activists showed up, and were viciously assaulted by the rally organizers.  Their crime- writing "Am Yisroel Chai"- the Jewish people live- on the sidewalk  This  clip has been updated to include a brief interview with Hannah, the young woman repeatedly assaulted by the purported "peace activist" Update An anonymous contributer has tentatively  identified the assailant as Gabby (Gabrille) Silverman.  Where have we seen her before?  Perhaps from her mug shot which appeared in the online edition of the San Francisco Chronicle Gabrille Silverman was among 20 people arrested Saturday. San Francisco police officers arrested 11 men and nine women Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012 when the group marched through the city's Financial District in black clothing and tossed projectiles at police officers.   Photo: San Francisco Police Dept. Final Update We'll let Gabby have the last word, because, well, Zionists are like that. From the Facebook page she created for the event ,  A feast to the global resistance: Gabby Silverman.  Stay classy, girl.

Documenting the failure of the BDS Campaign against Veolia

A report  issued by Christian Middle East Watch  and UK Lawyers for Israel  asserts that boycott campaigns against Veolia have been a resounding failure.  Veolia has been repeatedly targeted by the BDS cru activists for daring to provide transportation services in Israel and in the disputed territories.

(BDS'ers lie?  Really?? Who'd ever have guessed?)
From the JC.com

David Lewis, the lawyer who led the project’s research, submitted 18 Freedom of Information requests to local councils that had been targeted by BDS campaigners, asking them how contracts on which Veolia had bid were awarded.

In every response, he was told that all contracts were decided for sound commercial reasons despite claims by boycotters that they had successfully pressured councils not to contract with Veolia.

Some of the councils did do business with the company...

The report concludes that local authorities have acted correctly in ignoring political pressure, and additionally that the emotive rhetoric used by BDS campaigns is unhelpful and often misleading.


Nick Gray, director of Christian Middle East Watch, said: “The BDS campaign is very vocal, very active, and very little is done to combat what they do. This report is the beginning of a way to fight back.”

From the Report's Executive Summary:

Our research included 17 situations where BDS campaigns had pressured local authorities to break their legal obligations in spending public money by asking them to deny Veolia the opportunity to bid for contracts or even to break existing contractual arrangements. We found that the BDS campaigns had failed in every case to achieve their aims.

In order to evaluate the true results of the BDS Veolia campaign in the face of dramatic claims of success at every turn, we sent freedom of information (FOI) requests to 18 councils that (a) had been the subject of a local BDS anti-Veolia campaign, and/or (b) had recently either accepted or rejected a Veolia bid for a future contract, and/or (c) were due to consider a Veolia bid in the near future, and/or (d) had voted on an anti-Veolia resolution, and/or (e) were the subject of claims of success by the BDS movement. Our FOI requests revealed that every one of these contracts was decided on straight commercial grounds and that political considerations were not applied in rejection of Veolia’s bids.

In spite of the lies, the BDS campaign against Veolia has been an abject failure. What was it that Einstein siad about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

Los Angeles Transportation committee Endorses Veolia Contract

Hot on the heels of their BDS fail in Sonoma, its yet another fail for the Hate Israel cru. In spite of their intense lobbying efforts, tonight the Transportation committee of the Los Angeles City council endorsed a five-year, $160-million contract for Veolia and sent it on to full city council for a vote.

Veolia has been targeted by the BDS cru for daring to provide transportation services within Israel and the disputed territories.

A broad coalition gathered in support of renewing the Veolia contract, including union leaders, members of the Jewish community and representatives from Veolia, who together exposed the real agenda of the BDS movement.

In the words of BDS Grand Marshall Omar Bargouti, BDS is meant to be "euthanasia" for Israel.

Its not quite over yet- and the full city Council has yet to vote on the contract.

Stay tuned...

UPDATE:

On her blog "Body on the Line" Anti-Israel activist Marcy Newman expressed her dismay with the result, admitting 'In the end, we lost', and blaming the "insurmountable Zionist hold on American politics."

She writes:

"In general, it was quite a disappointing meeting. Most of the council members there were either flipping through paperwork (which may or may not be related to what were addressing today) or played on their cell phones."

Latest Day O'Rage against Veolia Los Angeles

Fresh from their BDS fail in Sonoma County, the BDS'ers have moved their energies south. The object of rage is still Veolia- this week, Los Angeles is in their cross hairs. The Los Angeles Transportation Committee is holding its first public hearing regarding its contracts for the operation of short run bus routes, which are currently held by Veolia

Israel supporters:

WHEN:
Next Wednesday, September 12th. The hearing begins at 2pm but arrive EARLY

WHERE:
L.A. City Hall (Press Conference on East Side of Main St.)
200 North Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Transportation Committee Meeting in Room 1010 (10th floor) of City Hall (Large white building on the west side of Main St.)

WHY:
All who attend and wish to speak will be granted the chance and your voice could make the difference. Remind the Committee that the last thing on the boycotters’ mind is human rights, peace or justice and that the stated goal of the BDS movement in the words of their own leadership- is the elimination of Israel. Remind them that their duty is to provide the very best transportation services to the public, and that foreign policy judgements are beyond the scope of their committee.


If you cannot attend, please call the Transportation Committee members(Monday & Tuesday especially, offices are open between 9:00am and 5:00pm):

Paul Koretz (213) 473-7005
Bill Rosendahl (213) 473-7011
Tom La Bonge (213) 473-7004
Bernard Parks (213) 473-7008
Jose Huizar (213) 473-7014

Thanks to our friends down south, and keep us informed regarding the proceedings.

More Denial from the BDS crowd

In which alternate reality is a failure to achieve ones goals considered a successful action?

From the webpage of a group from the UK "Jews for Justice for Palestinians":

"In an email Action Alert (dateline 16 August 2012), Anna Baltzer of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation draws attention to a very successful action in Sonoma County, California"

A very successful action ?
The Sonoma Human Rights commission rejected their request to cancel Veolia's contract. Rejected as in No. Nada. Thanks but no thanks.

See
BDS Flops in Sonoma

No victory for BDS proponents in Sonoma County

Latest Divestment Effort Results in Yet Another Failure for BDS Movement

The Wheels on the bus : Veolia BDS fail in Sonoma

Regarding the "success" of the Sonoma Veolia action. Hmmm. As someone deeply committed to the side of light and truth, the best I can do is wish Anna, Dalit and Sydney many more years of such continued "success"

Apparently, the Jews for Justice for Palestinians have based their conclusion on an email from Anna Baltzer that reads in part (my comments are bold):

Last month, our newest coalition member group North Coast Coalition for
Palestine caught the attention of corporate America, multinationals, and official representatives of the State of Israel when they challenged renewal of a local bus operating contract with Veolia, a French conglomerate heavily implicated in the Israeli occupation.

In a stirring 5-hour session of testimonies, Sonoma County, CA residents
put the Israeli occupation and its corporate enablers on trial.

What Anna has conveniently forgotten, is that many of those offering "the stirring hours of testimony" were there simply to expose the BDS anti-Israel agenda. Many of the people speaking rejected her request that Veolia's 20 year commitment to providing bus service to Sonoma county be dropped because of a conflict thousands of miles away. At least 4 of the people speaking were long-term Veolia employees, desperately concerned that their jobs were being put in jeopardy because of someone else's narrow political agenda

It was historic...

No, not really. It was just one in a series of BDS fails.

The diverse, unpaid group of Palestinians,
Jews, artists, teachers, students, veterans, and activists...

Dalit Baum is salaried. Sydney Levy is salaried. Anna Baltzer is salaried. And they aren't even Sonoma County residents. They are paid professional shills who jet around the country promoting an anti-Israel agenda.

were simply asking for the local Commission on Human Rights to recommend that the Board of Supervisors investigate Veolia prior to renewing contracts in 2014.

And the Commission said "No".

Here's where it gets interesting and where Anna Baltzer tips her hand. She writes:

"This is what the future of our movement could look like -- local communities putting the occupation and its US institutional supporters on trial in courthouses, town halls, and municipal departments across the nation, in truly grassroots and democratic campaigns with global reach."

Could that be the real BDS goal? To Anna Baltzer the Sonoma Human Rights Commission are as much pawns in her little game as Veolia. They exist as a vehicle, as a host organism to spread her hate-filled program. The whole goal of this carefully orchestrated BDS "movement" is to hijack our civic institutions to amplify an anti-Israel agenda. BDS is a parasitical movement, happy to sacrifice its host to achieve its goal. Its not about achieving any tangible result- its about the level of noise created.

The Wheels on the bus : Veolia BDS fail in Sonoma

By 5:00, the line was snaking out the door of the Santa Rosa Hearing room. BDS'ers worked the line, distributing talking points.



Their ultimate goal last night was to convince the Sonoma Commission on Human Rights to issue a recommendation urging the county to cancel a contract with transportation giant Veolia.

By the time the hearing of the Sonoma Commission on Human rights began, the 95 person hearing room and an adjacent overflow room were filled to capacity. A petulant Allison Deger (Formerly from UC Berkeley's SJP, now an editor at Mondoweiss) arrived late, and was locked out. Her repeated attempts to sneak in were thwarted by a security guard. Eventually, as people came and went, everyone was allowed in and given a chance to participate.

It was clear from the very beginning that the Commissions' mandate was human rights in Sonoma county- and that they did not have jurisdiction on foreign policy issues, nor did they have the resources to full investigate complex international allegations. To the credit of the Commission, there were willing to hear both sides. The North Coast Coalition for Palestine was given a half hour to present their program, followed by 45 minutes of public comment. Then Veolia presented their side, again followed by public comment.

Nick Walrath and his mother Therese Mughannam-Walrath speaking for the North Coast Coalition for Palestine repeated the same tired and discredited lies we've heard so often. Therese claimed that Palestinians were literally "driven out" of the land to "make room for Jews" and spoke of Jew- only roads. Anna Baltzer from the US campaign and Dalit Baum of Global Exchange also presented. Remarkably, when asked about the second Intifada, Dalit Baum managed to speak for nearly five minutes without mentioning the campaign of terror launched upon Israeli civilians. Nearly 10,000 Israeli casualties were swept under the rug as if they didn’t exist.

Many of the anti-Israel speakers were seasoned activists. Jane Jewell, Hassan Fouda, Tom Pessah, Allison Deger, Sydney Levy, Dalit Baum, Deppen Webber, Anna Rogers, and Henry Norr all contributed to the noise level. Strangely, Henry Norr spent much of his allotted time proclaiming his Judaism. Yes, this is the man who spent last Yom Kippur- the holiest day in the Jewish calendar- hosting an anti-Israel film at a church in Fremont. Clearly a man who embraces his religious heritage. The anti- Israel cru commuted in from as far away as Yolo county, with Dave Mandel and Mikos Fabersunne making an appearance fresh from their Veolia BDS fail in Davis.

Allan Moldawer and Ruth Otte from Veolia initially used their time to introduce information on their company. Veolia is non-political. Instead, they asserted “We are passionate about getting people where they need to be. We offer essential services to human beings.” Importantly, Veolia has been in Sonoma County for 22 years, operating and maintaining 49 buses and 29 paratransit vehicles. 81 unionized employees of Veolia live and work in Sonoma.

The Veolia team was also able to expose the shoddiness of the BDSer’s research, exposing their lies about the Jerusalem Light Rail system.

From the BDS presentation materials:

“The tramway links West Jerusalem to illegal Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. The tramway cements Israel's hold on occupied east Jerusalem and ties the settlements even more firmly into the State of Israel.... Veolia published an advertisement recruiting operators for the tramway requiring Hebrew to be mother tongue standard, no mention of Arabic, a clear indication that the tramway was expected to be used primarily by Jewish Israelis, not Palestinians. Full army or civic service is also required ie: no Palestinians. Since passengers have to pay for tickets local observers reported that few Palestinians do indeed use the tramway"

This information was blatantly false, Veolia asserted. One half of the Light rail engineers employed by Veolia are Palestinians. There are 6 stops in Jewish areas, and 6 stops in non Jewish areas. Surveys of customer satisfaction show 74.5% of Palestinians are satisfied with the Light Rail system. Israeli support was at 58%. Signage in the system is in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

It was easy to disprove the claims of segregation with photos like this:



Perhaps most importantly, Veolia exposed the real nature of the North Coast Coalition, and of the entire BDS agenda. This “movement” is neither about peace nor justice. Rather it is a coordinated worldwide effort to attack companies doing business in Israel regardless of the nature of the business or whether the business is meeting essential human needs It’s a failing movement. In spite of the claims to the contrary, not one Veolia Contract has been cancelled anywhere because of BDS.

And there was still more public comment. The anti-Israel cru pulled out their favorite canards once again- the long discredited accusations of Jews-only roads, of ethnic cleansing, of apartheid and segregation. And the pro-Israel community spoke of the complexity of the issue, how divisive it was to their community, and how ultimately, with failing schools, hunger and homelessness in Sonoma, this discussion simply wasn’t an appropriate use of the Commissions limited time. The Commission was reminded, time and again, of the real goal of BDS Movement - the end of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people and its replacement with an Arab-majority state in all the territories of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

Ultimately, the Sonoma County board of Supervisors , and not the Human Right Commission have final say over whether or not the Veolia contract is renewed. Though the Veolia contract is not up for renewal until 2014, it is clear the BDS’ers were anxious for a much needed victory to prop up their failing movement. It appears that this is yet another BDS fail.

UPDATE

The invariable "even when we lose we win" statement can be found in the "J Weekly"

“We came out of this meeting feeling very positive,” said (Lois) Pearlman, one of the NCCP’s Jewish members. “By the end of the meeting, there were four commissioners who at least felt it was worth investigating, worth learning more.”

Another BDS Fail : Veolia in the running for Woodland-Davis Water Project

Thanks to our friends at Israelstreet for the information.

It looks like its another BDS fail, this time from the central valley of California. The Davis-Woodland Clean Water Agency has voted unanimously–4 to 0 –to ignore the BDS’ers and to include Veolia in a bid. for a multimillion dollar project to bring water to the arid communities of Central California.

The Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency (WDCWA) WDCWA is in the early stages of a project to bring surface water to Woodland and Davis. Project objectives – which include improving water quality, water supply reliability, and the quality of treated wastewater discharge – were developed in response to challenges posed by aging water systems, more stringent drinking water regulations, and stricter wastewater discharge permitting standards, among other things. As part of that process, the WDCWA opened the project to bidders. Only three companies responded, including Veolia Water North America.

Veolia is large multinational French company which has different transportation and environmental subsidiaries worldwide, including Israel and the disputed territories. The primary target for BDS activists is the Veolia connection with the Jerusalem Light Rail system and Veolia’s ownership of Connex, a local bus company. Because of this, Veolia is in the cross-hairs of the BDS’ers (note to self: They are targeting Veolia contracts in the North Bay as well)

Last year the BDS cru demanded that the WDCWA exclude Veolia from bidding because of its “human rights violations”. The WDCWA wisely decided that international affairs were beyond its scope yet agreed to a “compromise”. They required the proposed bidders to respond to an “ethics questionnaire”. The companies responses are here

The BDS’ers sent around frantic emails, requesting

“Send emails to the members of the Board... before April 16, urging them to consider 1) Veolia Environnements international and domestic violations of its published code of corporate conduct, which Veolia has stated applies to all the subsidiaries of its corporate family; 2) its violations of the principles of the UN Global Compact Guidance on Responsible Business in Conflict-Affected and High Risk Areas, which it participated in developing; 3) and point out that local government agencies around the U.S. have been unhappy with Veolia’s business practices, operational short-cuts, cost-exceedances, environmental permit violations, and unfair labor practices. Make the emails brief...”

The Water Board made its decision on Thursday, April 19 to allow Veolia to bid on the project, in spite of 12 , count em 12 anti-Israel letters (Why does a British or a Dutch activist feel they have the right to tell the Central Valley Water Board how to vote on this decidedly local issue? Why does a Jewish Voice for Peace member in Boston feel she has the right to tell our local community how to conduct its affairs? ) Local ISM Head Paul Larudee also weighed in- at least he’s only an hour ago from the proposed project.



WDCWA staff gave its report–aand concluded that Veolia Water North America is a wholly different subsidiary from the Veolia subsidiaries in Israel. Oops. Looks like the BDS cru were so busy demonizing Israel, they forgot to do their research.

The Conclusion of the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency:

"We evaluated the Veolia ethics policy against the CEICI Blueprint recommendations and determined that the policy and related procedures substantially meet the recommendations.

The Agency also is aware of criticisms by a pro-Palestinian group against Veolia relating to the operation of bus and light rail systems in Israel. Those operations are not by Veolia Water West Operating Services, Inc. or Veolia Water North America Operating Services, LLC or any of their subsidiaries and therefore the charges fall outside the scope of the Agency’s Request.
From staff’s perspective, business operations in Israel by a Veolia company other than the companies that the Agency would be transacting with are not sufficient reason to disqualify the entire Veolia-Kiewit-MWH team. The companies in the team are highly qualified and generally practice good business ethics."

Or, to make it easier for you. BDS fail. Again.

Read about the hearing here