2023-11-03 22:27:03
Policy
In recent days, calls to boycott the Carrefour brand for its support of the Israeli army have been circulating on social networks. Behind the food packages distributed to soldiers, a look back at the historical links between French employers and the colonial state of Israel.
Photo credits: Collectif Palestine Vaincra
While the State of Israel has killed more than 9,000 people in Gaza since October 7, and continues to impose a water, electricity and fuel blockade on Palestinians, the Carrefour company recently showed support clear to the Zionist state. On social networks, the brand boasted of having distributed thousands of food packages to soldiers of the Israeli army. The Israeli branch of the company declared on his social networks at the start of the week: “Proud to participate in the national effort alongside Carrefour employees and good citizens who volunteer to prepare personal packages for IDF soldiers.”
A policy of support for the State of Israel which is in reality not new. In 2022, the group announced that it had entered into a contract with two Israeli companies: Electra Consumer Products and Yenot Bitan. This contract allowed, among other things, the opening of Carrefour franchise stores in several Israeli settlements. A report published by seven NGOs and unions, details precisely the implications of Israeli companies with colonization, and shows in particular how the sister company of Electra Consumer Products plays an active role in colonization: all the groups’ subsidiaries are involved in the construction of colonial infrastructure (roads, transport, housing, water distribution, telecommunications). For example, Electra Logement built 141 housing units in the Har Homa colony.
This opening of new franchises in occupied Palestine, which adds to the list of thousands of franchises that Carrefour holds around the world, was encouraged by the French government and claimed by numerous press releases from the French embassy in Israel.
One hundred French companies established in Israel with government support
This involvement of Carrefour is like a long list of French companies complicit in Israel’s colonial crimes. EDF, Total, Orange, Bouygues, Dior, Renault: there are one hundred French companies present in Israel which have a combined turnover of 134 million thanks to their presence in the territory. Emmanuel Lechypre, economic columnist on BFMTV cynically explained a few weeks ago that “France is mainly present in the field of infrastructure”. In other words, France and its companies like Total and Vinci support the construction of colonial infrastructures.
French banks are also active supporters of Israeli economic activity. A rapport explains that in 2004 “four French banks – BNP Paribas, Société Générale, LCL (subsidiary of the Crédit Agricole group) and Natixis (subsidiary of the Banques Populaires – Caisse d’Épargne group) – brought together within a consortium of international banks led by Deutsche Bank, signed four loan agreements worth 288 million euros for the benefit of Israel Electric. A loan allowed Israel Electric to supply the settlements with electricity. Worse still, the company participated in cutting off electricity in territories in occupied Palestine and in particular in Gaza – thanks to the complicity of French banks!
The involvement of French employers in the colonization inflicted by the State of Israel on the Palestinian people goes hand in hand with the political and financial support of the French government for the State of Israel. Since 2017, France has sold weapons to Israel for the sum of 111 million euros. This unfailing support, beyond trade and diplomatic agreements, is accompanied by a brutal criminalization of support for Palestine in France.
Building a great solidarity movement with Palestine using the methods of the labor movement
Faced with the massacres in Gaza, solidarity continues to grow throughout the world. London, New York, Rabat: hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to demand an end to the bombings in Gaza. In this context, there are numerous calls to strengthen the boycott campaign against the State of Israel, organized internationally for decades by the BDS (boycott divestment sanction) campaign which defends the boycott of companies that participate to the Zionist project.
Historically, the boycott has been a lever of action to denounce colonialism. To fight against apartheid in South Africa, thousands of people around the world refused to consume products that came from the country. A boycott campaign which had weakened the regime since it was accompanied by an international movement in defense of civil rights. A logic which shows that it is possible to defend the boycott not as a practice of individual consumption, but as a lever to build mobilization and in this case, a means of strengthening the fight against the State of Israel. Current calls to boycott companies like Carrefour thus seek to point out the responsibility of imperialist governments and companies in the ongoing massacres in Gaza and the West Bank.
At present, calls to boycott Israel and all complicit companies can constitute points of support to amplify the mobilization in solidarity with Palestine, and should seek to involve the labor movement and its methods. A connection that Anasse Kazib, spokesperson for Révolution Permanente, called for a few days ago on Instagram: “Boycotting Carrefour to enrich Auchan is not enough. The question of the strike, in addition to the question of the boycott, is central. There should be a strike by Carrefour employees to denounce that the company’s actions in Israel will not be carried out in the name of the workers. If tomorrow there is a strike to denounce the position of their boss, but also the pharaonic profits and inflation on food profits, it could even involve other sectors. “.
A perspective already supported by Belgian and English workers who have mobilized against the transport of weapons to Israel and who, if it spread internationally, would lay the foundations for a mobilization capable of putting a stop to it. to the criminal policies of Netanyahu and the complicit imperialist bosses.
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