Huge BDS victory as CRH pulls out of toxic Israeli assets, ends complicity with Israeli crimes

A report released today by Ireland’s largest multinational CRH confirmed the global cement giant has divested from its 25% stake in the Israeli cement market. The company has been a focus of a sustained campaign calling for such a divestment from the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) and other groups for over a decade, due to role its Israeli subsidiary Nesher Cement plays in supplying materials for the building of Israel’s illegal separation wall, checkpoints and settlements.

In the report CRH stated that it had “completed 13 divestments in 2015, the largest of which was the disposal of CRH’s 25% equity stake in its Israeli operation.”

That 25% stake was held in the Mashav group, the holding company for Nesher Cement, the sole producer of cement in Israel. Nesher is involved in the building of the separation wall in the West Bank which annexes Palestinian land to Israel, and has been declared illegal by the International Court of Justice. Nesher’s actions support and sustain the ongoing Israeli military occupation of Palestinian land. Nesher Cement is also used in the construction of illegal colonial settlements in the occupied territories, checkpoints that impede travel and commerce for Palestinians, and more than 700 kilometres of Israeli-only roads in the West Bank (See the Who Profits? website for details of Nesher’s involvement).

For more than a decade the IPSC has been campaigning for CRH to divest and end its complicity in Israel’s serious human rights violations and war crimes. The issue of CRH’s complicity due to it’s Israeli investment has been consistently raised in the proceedings of Annual General Meetings by IPSC members who are also shareholders in the company, as well as in colourful, creative and lively demonstrations outside these meetings. In 2012 the IPSC presented a 10,000-signature strong petition to the CRH Board calling for divestment, and also filed a complaint with the OECD. Last year IPSC shareholders unfurled a banner inside the AGM reading “CRH: Stop Profiting from the Destruction of Palestine” and asked the AGM to observe a minute’s silence for the thousands of victims of the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza. Other actions included a travelling mock checkpoint roadshow which highlighted CRH’s role in the wall to the Irish public, working with Palestinians on the ground to highlight the issue locally – particularly in Bi’lin village – and bringing the issue to the Russell Tribunal on Palestine.

IPSC Chairperson Martin O’Quigley said: “This is an important victory for Palestinians whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed by the unceasing construction of the Apartheid Wall, which steals Palestinian lands, divides communities, destroys the social fabric and makes normal life impossible. The wall and Israel’s colonial settlements were declared illegal by the World Court over a decade ago. It is disappointing that it has taken CRH so long to divest itself from its shameful investment in these toxic Israeli assets and to stop profiting from the occupation of Palestine, but it is better late than never.”

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