Photos and Video: New Yorkers protest against G4S, for release of Palestinian prisoners

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New York activists protested on Friday, 1 April outside the NYC office of G4S, the British-Danish security corporation that provides security systems, control rooms and equipments to Israeli prisons, checkpoints, police training centers and the Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing with Gaza. Because of its involvement in the imprisonment of oppression, Israeli apartheid and even the siege of Gaza, a Palestinian and international boycott campaign has highlighted G4S’ role, demanding that G4S get out of Palestine and that institutions and businesses end their contracts with the corporation.

G4S is also involved with the detention of migrants, including children, in the United States; deportations and juvenile detention in the UK; and repressive actions in Canada, South Africa, Australia and elsewhere. After international pressure, including losses of contracts in Jordan and Colombia, G4S announced that it will sell off its Israeli subsidiary and get out of the business in Palestine within one to two years. However, Palestinian BDS organizers have emphasized that it is critical to keep up the pressure, both to make G4S stick to its commitment and because Palestinians are currently suffering due to G4S’ security systems.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organizes weekly protests outside the offices of G4S in New York, to support Palestinian prisoners and demand G4S get out of the business of providing security equipment to imprison Palestinians.

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The protest also highlighted the struggles of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners, including Sami Janazrah, Imad Batran, Abdel-Rahim Sawayfeh, Abdul-Ghani Safadi, all on administrative detention without charge or trial and demanding their release; Mohammed Daoud, a re-arrested former prisoner who has had five years imprisonment reimposed without charge or trial; and Nahar Saadi, Abdullah Mughrabi and Essam Zeineddine, all demanding their release from solitary confinement and return to general population.

Photos and footage by Joe Catron