How Bill Gates Profits Off Of Israeli Apartheid

On Tuesday, Israel celebrated its Independence Day, and in good fashion, twitter celebrated it by calling out Israel’s practices of injustice against Palestine with an #IsraeliIndependenceEquals hashtag started by Rania Khalek, Steve Salaita, Reem, Jenien Barakat, Brady, Dina and Julie. It was during this hashtag that a friend of mine, Cherrell Brown, exposed me to an ugly truth; Bill Gates invests in, and profits off of the Israeli occupation!

What is Bill Gates’ connection to Israel’s occupation?

With a net worth of $72 billion, Bill Gates stands as the richest man, both in America and the world. Alongside his wife, Melinda Gates, Bill Gates started their charity, the Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the world. Recently, Bill Gates used his foundation to purchase $172 million worth of shares in G4S, effectively making it one of the company’s biggest shareholders.

After looking into this information, I was in disbelief that Bill Gates, a man who has built a charity dedicated to improving the world, with a particular emphasis on improving the lives of those that are marginalized, would be complicit in the Israeli occupation. But further research proved exactly what I had been told.

Who or what is G4S?

G4S (Group 4 Securicor) is the world’s largest private military and securitycompany with operations that span 125 countries. This private security company has a contract with the Israeli Prison Service where it provides and maintains security systems at five prisons, and detention centers, and also assists Israeli police, Israeli military checkpoints, the Ministry of Defense, the Israeli army, and the settlement businesses.

Mass incarceration & Israel’s violation of international law

It is estimated that 800,000 Palestinians have been arrested and imprisoned from 1967 til now. To date, there are more than 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners, along with new reports of 183 Palestinian children, currently held in Israeli prisons and being subjected to widespread torture, abuse, solitary confinement and coercion. The Defence for Children International Palestine reports that during 2013, there were more than one in five cases in which children were coerced into signing statements containing admission of guilt, in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. Palestinian children are also reportedly held in solitary confinement for weeks. In March alone, 202 Palestinian children were imprisoned and prosecuted, 24 of which were between the ages of 12 – 15 years old.

Addameer, the Prisoner Support and Human Rights organization, has reported that 72 Palestinians have died as a result of torture and 53 have died due to medical neglect inside Israeli prisons since 1967. Just last year, a 30 year old Palestinian man, Arafat Jaradat, died in an Israeli prison after being tortured. These horrific acts are happening in most of the prisons operated by G4S, and as long as Israel continues its mass incarceration of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, G4S, and its shareholders (to include Bill Gates and his foundation), profit.

If breaching the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by its treatment of Palestinian child prisoners wasn’t enough, Israel also violates Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention as it is clear in stating that detainees are to remain in the occupied country, not in the country of the occupier; a law that Israel has violated many times over by forcing the transfer of prisoners to

Israeli territory.

The irony

If you glance at the Gates Foundations website, you will see that they are, "guided by the belief that every life has equal value". The question now is, which lives are they referring to? You simply cannot tell children in Africa that their lives matter when your money aids in the mass incarceration of Palestinian children. This is contradictory to the mission and values of the foundation.

Make no mistake, through the Gates Foundation, Bill and Melinda have done incredible work, both in the U.S. and abroad. But their investment in G4S is contributing to the most oppressive conditions and pervasive human rights violations of Palestinians. Even the greatest, most admirable work in the world cannot allow us to ignore the atrocities taking place in Palestine. We cannot fight for quality education, health and fight against poverty in some nations and then financially profit off of the driving force that leads to these outcomes in other nations.

It was Anna Lappe that said, "Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want". With his money, Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation, has cast a grotesque vote for the cruel and inhumane treatment and oppression of Palestinians, and has made their grantees, whether they know it or not, accomplices in the violation of human rights.

As activists, freedom fighters, writers, truth speakers and advocates, we cannot remain blind and deaf in the face of truth, no matter how painful that truth is or who it involves. We have an obligation to act. I implore you to sign the petition and join Addameer and other human rights groups as they urge Bill Gates to divest from G4S. Now is the time to divest from blood money, mass incarceration and genocide, and recommit ourselves to investing in human rights.

FB: SoulRevision

Twitter: SoulRevision

Email: Kim@soulrevision.org

Israel, Palestine and America's Compassion

Unless you've been under a rock for the last couple of weeks, you know that there has been an ugly war going on between Israel and Palestine, possibly the deadliest since 2008/2009. In one airstrike, an Israeli bomb hit the home of Jamal Dalu killing his wife, sister, two daughters, daughter-in-law, four grandchildren and his grandmother.

As I watched the devastation of the war and the response, or lack thereof on social networks, my mind reminded me of Trayvon Martin, Hurricane Sandy and its' aftermath and how Americans rallied together to support and comfort one another; then I wondered, where is our compassion for Palestine?

Day after day various news reports rolled in on Gaza and I could not understand how people weren't moved by this war. One would think that the loss of lives is reason enough to be concerned, but, perhaps it's different when the lives lost aren't those of American citizens.

How can we live in America and see abuse, poverty, and injustice in other countries and be indifferent about it? Have we become desensitized to the ills of this world or is it that we just don't care until it directly affects us? Are our minds so narrow that we only focus on what's directly in front of us, making us incapable of being concerned with the sufferings of others?

We talk of being a great nation, but how can that happen if we fail to look beyond our own backyards.
To be this great nation, our compassion must extend beyond America and to our brothers and sisters in, what we may consider, foreign lands.To be a great nation, we must truly care for our neighbors, for all of humanity, all of the time; not just when wars or natural disasters happen. To be a great nation, our hearts must be in tune with the broader concerns of humanity and not just our individual concerns. 

We cannot prosper as a people, nation or world when we see people dying and we choose to look the other way because it doesn't 'concern' us. We must start caring enough to care for others.

America, put humanity at the forefront of your mind and let's see how far we can go, together.

Kim Moore
Email: Kim@soulrevision.org
Twitter: @SoulRevision

Humanity for Haiti

  

I am excited to say that I will be taking my company, Soul Revision Consulting, on the road... Destination: Saint Raphael, Haiti!

If you've been following this blog for a while then you know that I linked up with a phenomenal organization run by an amazing man! The organization is Help Us Save Us (HUSU), the man, Fred Joseph. While many have forgotten about Haiti, HUSU has made it their mission to focus their work in Saint Raphael, Haiti, assisting hundreds of orphans that have been displaced by the 2010 earthquake.

This July we will be working with approximately 300 orphans between the ages of 6-18 while running a summer camp and implementing various educational programs that include: music, acting, athletics, and ultimately host a talent show in which the kids can display everything that they've learned.



Founder of Help Us Save Us, Fred Joseph, with the kids



The earthquake that rocked Port au Prince, Haiti on January 12, 2010 left more than 1million Haitians homeless & without access to clean water & food. HUSU is diligently working to change all of this for Haiti's youth by building a children’s center that will provide impoverished children in Haiti with the opportunity to attend a week-long camp with activities such as: recreation, singing, dancing, chapel, sports, arts and crafts and more. We will have the chance to feed 500 children with three meals a day for one week each month; this is more than most Haitian children receive in a YEAR!

A typical wash day in Haiti. We have so much to be grateful for!

It has been a dream for me to lend my help to countries after natural disasters, so much so, that after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti I specifically asked God to put me in a position where I can pack up and go when developing and third world countries need assistance. God was gracious enough to answer that prayer this year by strategically placing HUSU in my path. I have traveled internationally many times, but it feels good to say that this is my first time traveling internationally for humanitarian work... and this is only the beginning.

If I could issue you all a challenge it would be this; find a cause greater than yourself and get involved. There are people all over the world who are waiting for individuals like us to help them. There are people who are depending on your gifts and talent, they need YOUR help! The best part is, all it takes is for you to care enough to want to make a difference.

I'm not saying you have to get involved with Haiti; there are plenty of countries that need help, even in the US!

Some of the kids in school

 

MLK has a quote that I keep at the bottom of my email signature that says, "An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity". Simply put, at some point we have to realize it's not about us, we have to lay aside our own agendas and realize there's a world out there that needs our help.

Take the time to ask yourself, what causes move me? What goes on in the world that I care about? Whatever it is, tap into that! Research ways to get involved. I've said this before but I'll say it again... You dont have to be a doctor or a firefighter to save lives. Get involved, donate your time, money and/or talents! Remember, none of us is here for ourselves; we are here for one another.

Let's change the world together!

I'll leave you with some lyrics to Michael Jackson’s song, Man In The Mirror...

"As I, turn up the collar on my favorite winter coat, this wind is blowin' my mind, I see the kids In the street, with not enough to eat... who am I, to be blind pretending not to see their needs"

For more information about Help Us Save Us or to donate, visit their website. You can also find them on twitter @HelpUsSaveUs & @FredJo26