Local News & Reports

On Saturday 26 July we were treated to a bewildering display of zionist culture on the pavement outside the EcoStream shop in Western Road. For about 10 minutes, a transgender disco performer – apparently in a display of solidarity with the beleaguered shop – lip-synched and danced suggestively to tinny recorded music, and attempted to seduce the mystified passers-by.

The zionist counter-demonstrators had earlier issued a press release announcing this stunt, prompting the Brighton Argus to send a photographer. The photographer duly turned up, looked suitably puzzled, took a few snaps, shrugged and made his escape. But the Argus coverage of the event, which appeared the following Monday, gave our boycott compaign clear prominence, and represented it as a serious political effort. How the zionists imagined their weird stunt would bolster the shop and its supporters is a mystery. The event provided us with some decent unsolicited publicity for our campaign – see below.

This story has now been picked up by the Daily Mail Online! To read the piece follow this link.

 

A Brighton resident and BHPSC activist has persuaded Southern Water to install an alternative water meter at her home, having earlier refused to allow them to install an Israeli-made one by sitting in a hole in the pavement and refusing to move.

BHPSC has been campaigning locally to stop Southern Water from installing Israeli-made water meters in thousands of homes in Sussex. The meters are made by Arad Technologies – an Israeli company that profits from, and is deeply complicit in, the illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank. We have been challenging Southern Water to explain how a company (Arad) that is so blatantly involved in ethnic cleansing and the appropriation of Palestinian water resources can have been awarded this lucrative contract, when the procurement process clearly contravened several of Southern Water’s own ethical and corporate responsibility policies. You can find out more about the campaign here.

Last month, Caroline and Edmond O’Reilly caused a bit of a stir by refusing to allow Southern Water to install the Arad meter at their home in Kemp Town in Brighton. The story was picked up by the Brighton Argus. Southern Water became “deluged” with phone calls and letters of complaint, and representatives of the company faced determined questioning at local meetings. The Member of the European Parliament for the Southeast, Keith Taylor, challenged the CEO of Southern Water in a series of high-profile exchanges of letters. Taylor’s letter – CEO’s reply.

Following Caroline O’Reilly’s refusal to allow the Arad meter to be installed, she exchanged letters with Southern Water staff, resulting in a significant climb-down by the company. Having previously insisted that the installation of the Arad water meter was compulsory and non-negotiable, the company then acknowledged the principled position she had taken up, and offered her an alternative meter – one that was not made by an Israeli company.

On Monday July 22nd, to the cheers of pro-Palestinian activists living nearby, Southern Water duly arrived at the O’Reilly’s house and installed the alternative water meter.

Caroline O’Reilly’s doggedness in the face of Southern Water intrasigence really paid off, giving hope to supporters of justice for the Palestinians across the city, who intend to follow suit by asking Southern Water to install an alternative water meter at their house rather than collude with the company’s disgraceful partnership with Arad Technologies.

After 8 months of weekly pickets of the Ecostream store in Western Road, BHPSC and local BDS activists have decided to widen the campaign to include local stockists of the products of parent company, Sodastream.
 
Sodastream’s main production facility is in one of the largest illegal Israeli settlements, Mishor Adumim, east of Jerusalem. SodaStream’s 2012 annual report to the American Stock Exchange lists the manufacturing functions taking place there as “metals, bottle blowing, machining, assembly, cylinder manufacturing, CO2 refills and cylinder retesting.” (Click here for an up-to-date review of Sodastream’s production facilities).
 
There is a growing international campaign focussing on Sodastream. In the forthcoming weeks and months we will be making local Sodastream stockists aware of the reasons why they should not be selling products of a company that profits from an illegal occupation by maintaining the economic viability of the illegal settlements.
 
In the Brighton area stockists of Sodastream’s products include hardware chain Robert Dyas (74 Western Road), kitchenware outlets Steamer Trading (35 Ship Street) and Lakeland (Churchill Shopping Centre), Argos and Asda. 

Find out more about the local campaign against Sodastream and EcoStream.
 

From our press release:

The Crown Prosecution Service has ‘discontinued proceedings’ against a local activist who was arrested in November 2012 for chaining himself to door handles of the EcoStream store in Western Road. This means that the trial has, in effect, been abandoned.

Andrzej was initially charged with ‘failing to leave private land’ and a trial date was set. However, the activist has been informed that the charges have been dropped ‘due to lack of evidence’. Andrzej did not formally contest the charges, stating that the action was taken to demonstrate that EcoStream is unwelcome in Brighton due to the location of its main factory in the illegal Israeli settlement of Mishor Adumim.

In a statement, Andrzej said: “This action was done as a part of the wider Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. After consulting with other activists I decided to chain myself to the doors of the EcoStream store in order to raise awareness of the company’s active role in the occupation of Palestine. This was especially important for me at the time because Israel had just started bombing Gaza and a ground invasion seemed imminent.”

Local campaigners for the boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel (BDS) hailed the decision to drop charges as a victory for the campaign. Barney Steele, a campaigner for Palestine Solidarity, stated that the action in November clearly demonstrated the strength of opinion locally. ‘Hundreds of local residents have signed our petition and contacted us to convey their support for the campaign against Ecostream. People really object to the prominent presence of a shop in central Brighton that is so closely complicit in the Israeli project of illegal settlement expansion and ethnic cleansing in Palestine’.

Find out more about this local campaign here – or find it on the pull-down CAMPAIGNS tab above.

We’ve been informed that the Crown Prosecution Service has “discontinued proceedings” against a local activist who was arrested back in November 2012 for allegedly chaining himself to railings outside the EcoStream store in Western Road. This means that the trial has, in effect, been abandoned. We’ve not yet been told why the case against our comrade was dropped, but will post further news as we receive it.

Find out more about the local campaign against the EcoStream store.