Sydney council shelves HP in Israel ban
Summary: A Sydney Council will shell out $3 million of an estimated $4 million to replace IT products including its Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Motorola fleets in its boycott of products linked to Israel.
A Sydney Council will shell out $3 million of an estimated $4 million to replace IT products including its Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Motorola fleets in its boycott of products linked to Israel.
The Greens-dominated council is set to ditch a string of companies from concrete suppliers to car manufacturers Holden and Volvo, which are alleged to support Israel's occupation of Palestine, according to News Limited.
Marrickville Greens mayor Fiona Byrne was involved in Marrickville Council's adoption of a ban on Israeli products in line with the Global BSD Movement in protest over Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
A council business paper revealed a hit list of companies to either be banned from doing business with council or have their existing contracts cancelled.
The companies include HP, Chevrolet (Holden), Volvo, Unilever and Motorola, plus ReadyMix and Fulton Hogan concrete companies.
The paper showed that the council would have to spend $3 million alone to replace its HP computers.
Marrickville councillors will vote next Monday on whether the boycott, passed in December last year, will include ripping up all current contracts and services and disposing of equipment, or be confined to future dealings.
The four Labor councillors will seek to get the support of three independents to beat the five Greens and vote down the policy.
Hewlett-Packard has been contacted for comment.
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Talkback
Australia imports the bulk of its oil from Vietnam (dictatorship), the UAE (dictatorship), Malaysia (partly free), and Papua New Guinea (partly free). Every time Australians get in the car, their money goes into the pockets of some really nasty regimes. Is the Merrickville Council going to boycott these regimes? That might actually do some good. But no, they're going to spend their taxpayers' money in a ridiculous boycott of the only democratic country in the middle east.
How about boycotting China, whose severely repressive regime is gutting occupied Tibet? No? Just democratic Israel? Seems as though there's an agenda here that has nothing to do with human rights or occupation, doesn't it?
bnaiman, I think what Youngofsa is trying to say, is "why should we worry about the biggest human-rights abusers in the world, when we can obsess over the tiny Jewish state instead".
I'm pretty sure there's a word for that. However he'll jump up and down in a moment and insist that it's not antisemitic to obsess, demonise and vilify the world's only Jewish state. Oh look (scrolls down the page) he already did it.
Oh that's the oldest argument isn't it. When you have someone of race backed into a corner, they shout racist, it's like you don't actually have a real argument. :/ As a white male I don't really have anything to shout except, people all over the world preach equality, then how about stop clinging to excuses such as these everytime you're criticised and deal with the criticism! I have no interest in repeating points I've already made as you obviously disagree with them.
I think the local residents should be allowed to protest the council and refuse to pay rates. They clearly aren't being applied to the useful matters that they are expected to handle like rubbish collection- so why should local rate payers have to foot the bill of grand-standing morons seeking national attention for their future political aspirations?
And honestly- where is the state government in all of this? Should local councils be allowed to blatantly waste money by replacing systems with no business case behind them, simply a moral conviction? I wouldn't run my household like that, and I certainly wouldn't want my business run that way- so how is it we are ok with our local council making these decisions?