“Unilever Taking a Licking over Ben and Jerry’s”

 Video Of The Week - The Newest Version of an Age-old Lie - https://tinyurl.com/59vusv7

For the full article go to UK LAWYERS FOR ISRAEL https://tinyurl.com/2zrvhbhs

 The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has been asked to downgrade Unilever PLC’s “premium listing” if it does not assert effective control over its Ben & Jerry’s subsidiary.

A joint letter from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) and the Zionist Advocacy Center to the LSE’s Regulatory Complaints Department comments that Unilever appears to have a rogue division in the United States known as “Ben & Jerry’s Homemade” which has been structured to evade normal corporate governance practices.

The letter notes that Ben & Jerry’s has announced plans to engage in a boycott against Israel that expose Unilever to sanctions under various laws in the United States. Unilever has, however, claimed that its agreement acquiring Ben & Jerry’s recognised the right of Ben & Jerry’s independent Board to take such decisions in direct opposition to Unilever.

Although Unilever’s American subsidiary, Conopco, owns all of the shares of Ben & Jerry’s, Conopco waived its rights to choose nearly all of Ben & Jerry’s Board members. The majority of the Board is self-selecting and answerable to nobody. Conopco reserved the right to appoint Ben & Jerry’s CEO, but authority to set important policies was delegated to its unaccountable Board.

The UK Corporate Governance code states:

“For parent companies with a premium listing, the board should ensure that there is adequate co-operation within the group to enable it to discharge its governance responsibilities under the Code effectively. This includes the communication of the parent company’s purpose, values and strategy.”

Unilever’s position does not appear to comply with this requirement and similar requirements expressed in its own Code of Conduct and its Governance Report.

UKLFI also wrote directly to Unilever’s Chief Legal Officer drawing attention to these problems, but pointing out that Unilever could and should insist that the Ben & Jerry’s Board comply with Unilever’s Code of Business Conduct, as required by the acquisition agreement. This requires full compliance with the laws in force in the places where Unilever subsidiaries trade.

Unilever’s share price has fallen some 11% since Ben & Jerry’s announced its planned boycott, reducing its market capitalisation by over £11 billion. The New York Post has now reported that activist investor, Michael Ashner of Winthrop Capital Partners, has taken a stake in Unilever and is asking US regulators to look into possible violations by the company of its disclosure obligations in failing to report the material risks to its business and valuation arising from Ben & Jerry’s BDS plans.

Jonathan Turner, UKLFI’s Chief Executive, said: “Unilever needs to put its house in order. We have pointed out steps that it can take to mitigate the governance weaknesses resulting from the terms of its acquisition of Ben & Jerry’s. Investors and regulators should draw appropriate conclusions if it fails to take them.”

NEW ,VIEW OUR WEBSITE WWW.BRITISHISRAELGROUP.WEEBLY.COM

Experts Debate how Billion-Dollar Firms will Change Israel

Video Of The Week -Israel's Golan Heights Targeted by Iran https://tinyurl.com/4sybnuvy

For the full Article go to Times Of Israel - https://tinyurl.com/memrvpd7

A critical mass of mega-valued global tech companies based in Israel may create a whole new local ecosystem in the coming years

By SHOSHANNA SOLOMON 3 November 2021, 3:08 pm

The face of Israel’s future economy will be completely different from that of previous decades, experts say, because of a critical mass of billion-dollar tech companies, or unicorns, that have flourished within its borders.

“What we have seen since October 2020, when the surge in valuations of Israeli tech firms started, will lead to a seismic change of Israel’s economy in the coming 10 to 20 years,” Sagi Dagan, VP and head of the Growth, Finance and Strategy Division at the Israel Innovation Authority, said in an interview. The Israel Innovation Authority is in charge of fostering the nation’s tech ecosystem and setting out government policies.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has underlined the importance of technology and innovation for the survival of businesses, coupled with record-low interest rates and governments propping up their economies with cash injections, has triggered record investments in tech firms globally and has prompted a surge in the global creation of tech unicorns, privately held companies worth at least $1 billion.

Israeli-founded tech unicorns account for some 8% of this global phenomenon, as its entrepreneurs, once known for creating technologies and selling them off quickly to the highest bidder, are now holding on to their fledgling firms in a push to create large and hopefully profitable businesses.

“Israel accounts for some 8% of global unicorns, but for just 0.1% of the global population. So, we are punching some 100 times our weight in the world,” said Aharon Aharon, a former CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, in a phone interview.

Many of these Israeli founded unicorns are being set up in Israel and managed from Israel. “Twenty years ago, when Israeli startups got big investments from foreign investors, they would get a US manager and they would move their headquarters to the US to be close to their market and their investors,” said Dagan. “Today, this is not the case.”

The pandemic has shown that the closing of business deals and funding can be done completely remotely, and so founders are staying in Israel and growing their companies from here, employing not only core research and development teams of engineers and programmers but also sales and marketing staff, accountants and lawyers.

“This is very different from what was before, and very positive,” Dagan said. There is now a “critical mass” of giant tech firms in Israel, he said, the likes of which not many countries have. “You have the US, China, Israel, the UK, Singapore, and Tokyo. This concentration of firms in Israel will help draw even more unicorns, who will choose to set up their HQ locally. This is leading to the development of a whole new ecosystem, which specializes in providing services to these large tech firms – from managers to lawyers to consultants and banks.”

NEW ,VIEW OUR WEBSITE WWW.BRITISHISRAELGROUP.WEEBLY.COM

Abbas’ Message of Hopelessness at the UN

Video Of The Week -2700 Year Old Toilet Discovered in Jerusalem - https://tinyurl.com/3mt8y34m

For the full article go to JPCA - https://tinyurl.com/m57tkcb7

• PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ statement to the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2021, was almost identical to Yasser Arafat’s statement at the 2001 Durban Conference. Nothing has changed in the Palestinian message and narrative.
• Citing the “Nakba” (catastrophe), Abbas deliberately inverted history and ignored decades of organized violence by Arab groups and forces against Jewish communities, including massacres of Jews in 1920, 1921, 1929, 1936, and 1938, all aimed at terrorizing the Jewish residents and removing any Jewish presence from the area.
• He misled the General Assembly into believing that General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) created a “right of return” for Palestinians. The truth is that the resolution was a non-obligatory recommendation and did not create legal rights.
• In violation of UN resolutions and international conventions criminalizing the financing of terror, Abbas blatantly and unabashedly defended and justified the PA’s “pay to slay” policy that provides salaries to prisoners guilty of acts of terror and murder, knowing that such payments serve as incentives and encouragement for more acts of terror.
• To come to the UN General Assembly with delusional, misleading, and misguided accusations and threats does not serve the interests of peace and does not advance the chances of a return to peace negotiations one iota.

Anybody reading or listening to the PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ statement to the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2021,¹ could not but be transformed back to the almost identical statement made by then-head of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, at the 2001 Durban Conference.

Evidently, nothing has changed in the Palestinian message and narrative.

Abbas presented the same re-hashing of the familiar Palestinian accusations, clichés, and buzzwords of racism, colonialism, apartheid, nakba, and ethnic cleansing; unceasing whining about having been neglected by the international community; misrepresentation of, and delusional reliance on old, non-binding UN General Assembly resolutions, none of which have any legal authority or practical relevance; and finally their penchant for threatening – whether to continue their “peaceful popular resistance” of rocket-firing, terror infiltration, stabbings, ecological and agricultural terror, or complaining to international juridical bodies.

NEW ,VIEW OUR WEBSITE WWW.BRITISHISRAELGROUP.WEEBLY.COM

Israel Expose 6 Palestinian Terror NGO’S

Video Of The Week - Arab-Israeli Activist Defender of Israel - https://tinyurl.com/56bravw3

 For the full article from the “Algemeiner go to - https://tinyurl.com/924tucd8  

Israel on Friday designated six Palestinian civil society groups as terrorist organizations and accused them of funneling donor aid to militants, a move that drew criticism from the United Nations and human rights watchdogs.

Israel’s defense ministry said the groups had ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP), a left-wing faction with an armed wing that has carried out deadly attacks against Israelis.

The groups include Palestinian human rights organizations Addameer and Al-Haq, which document alleged rights violations by both Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank

 “(The) declared organizations received large sums of money from European countries and international organizations, using a variety of forgery and deceit,” the defense ministry said, alleging that the money had supported PFLP’s activities.

The designations authorize Israeli authorities to close the groups’ offices, seize their assets, and arrest their staff in the West Bank, watchdogs Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint statement.

Addameer and another of the groups, Defense for Children International – Palestine, rejected the accusations as an “attempt to eliminate Palestinian civil society.”

The United Nations Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories said it was “alarmed” by the announcement.

“Counter-terrorism legislation must not be used to constrain legitimate human rights and humanitarian work,” it said, adding that some of the reasons given appeared vague or irrelevant.

“These designations are the latest development in a long stigmatizing campaign against these and other organizations, damaging their ability to deliver on their crucial work,” it said.

Israel’s ally the United States was not given advance warning of the move and would engage Israel for more information about the basis for the designations, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

“We believe respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and a strong civil society are critically important to responsible and responsive governance,” he said.

But Israel’s defense ministry said: “Those organizations present themselves as acting for humanitarian purposes; however, they serve as a cover for the ‘Popular Front’ promotion and financing.”

An official with the PFLP, which is on United States and European Union terrorism blacklists, did not outright reject ties to the six groups but said they maintain relations with civil society organizations across the West Bank and Gaza.

“It is part of the rough battle Israel is launching against the Palestinian people and against civil society groups, in order to exhaust them,” PFLP official Kayed Al-Ghoul said.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said the “decision is an alarming escalation that threatens to shut down the work of Palestine’s most prominent civil society organizations.”

NEW ,VIEW OUR WEBSITE WWW.BRITISHISRAELGROUP.WEEBLY.COM

Israeli Philanthropist Evacuates 165 Afghan Refugees

Video Of The Week-How We Rescued Afghanistan's Women Cyclists - https://tinyurl.com/3e6pssm6

For the full article go to “ Jewish News” https://tinyurl.com/26jhjt6j

UCI partnered with Sylvan Adams, owner of the Israel Start-Up Nation for which Chris Froome rides, to help those fleeing the Taliban, including a number of female cyclists

Cycling’s world governing body has teamed up with an Israeli-Canadian philanthropist to help the evacuation of 165 people from Afghanistan.

The UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) announced it has assisted in the evacuation, which included a number of female cyclists, partnering with Sylvan Adams, owner of the Israel Start-Up Nation team for which Chris Froome rides.

Other organisations involved in the operation include the Asian Cycling Federation and FIFA to help a number of cyclists, artists, journalists and human rights campaigners leave.

The refugees are being resettled in Switzerland, Canada, France, Israel and the United States.

The UCI said it intended to make available its facilities at the UCI World Cycling Centre in Aigle for the 38 refugees being settled in Switzerland.

UCI president David Lappartient said: “It is very important for the UCI to make a commitment to the members of the cycling family who are suffering due to the current situation in Afghanistan, and I am delighted that our efforts in this respect are providing opportunities for the people concerned in decent living conditions.

 

“I would like to express my sincere thanks to the governments of Switzerland, France, Canada, Albania, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, and other countries which have worked on this.

 

NEW ,VIEW OUR WEBSITE WWW.BRITISHISRAELGROUP.WEEBLY.COM

Media Whitewashes Hamas ‘Workshop’ With Call for Israel’s Destruction.

 

Video Of The Week - "Female" Israeli Border Police troops https://tinyurl.com/3bf7wknp

From the Algemeiner by Akiva Van Koningsveld Oct 8^th 2021 go to https://tinyurl.com/6hckntdm

 

The nefarious intentions of Hamas — the US-designated Palestinian terrorist organization that has ruled the Gaza Strip with an iron Islamist fist since seizing control of the enclave in 2007 — are well-documented. In accordance with its antisemitic founding charter, Hamas’ foremost goal is to “obliterate” the Jewish state and “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of [British Mandatory] Palestine.”

The terror group’s notion of what a “Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea” would entail for Israel’s nearly seven million Jews was elucidated on September 30 at a convention dubbed, “The Promise of the Hereafter.” This gathering in Gaza was funded and attended by Hamas’ top brass, who discussed preparations for the future administration of what they called “post-liberation Palestine.”

The Associated Press (AP) on October 6 briefly mentioned the conference in an article ostensibly devoted to economic hardship that was titled, somewhat ironically, “Tens of thousands in Gaza line up for Israeli work permits:”

Hamas recently organized a workshop to discuss the management of natural resources in what is now Israel, once the militant group ‘liberates’ historical Palestine. Critics saw the event as evidence of Hamas’ disconnection from the daily hardships endured by Palestinians in Gaza, where employment hovers around 50%.”

While the author of the piece notes Hamas’ intention to “liberate” all of present-day Israel, he stops short of elaborating on the part of the “workshop” that focused on murdering, expelling, and prosecuting millions of Jewish Israelis — that is, except for the “educated Jews,” who would essentially be enslaved.

While the closing statement of “The Promise of the Hereafter” contained a paragraph about “securing Palestine’s resources” when the “campaign for the liberation of Palestine begins,” the document devotes significantly more space to plans to “purge” the territory encompassing Israel of “Jewish settlers” and “hypocrite scum that spread corruption in the land.”

In his own address to the conference, Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Al-Sinwar declared that the “liberation [of Israel] is the heart of Hamas’ strategic vision.”

The organizing committee of “The Promise of the Hereafter” effort will reportedly formally present its recommendations to Hamas’ leadership. These include, for example, sparing for a short time the lives of “educated Jews” who wil subjugated. Educated Jews and experts in the areas of medicine, engineering, technology, and civilian and military industry should be retained [in Palestine] for some time and should not be allowed to leave….

One can only guess why the AP opted to highlight Hamas’ strategy for managing an extinct Israel’s natural resources, but did not deem it newsworthy to include the terror group’s plans related to human beings.

Incredibly, the article contains other instances of anti-Israel bias.

It claims, for instance, that wages are “much higher” within the Jewish state’s pre-1967 borders than in the West Bank “in part because of Israel’s 54-year military occupation.”

But according to figures provided by the PA Central Bureau of Statistics, Palestinians who work in the PA-controlled parts of the West Bank earn, on average, a monthly salary of some $750. By comparison, in neighboring Jordan, the average salary is $530 per month. In fact, workers in the Palestinian Authority take home about 22 times the amount of Lebanon’s minimum wage.

Despite all of this, the AP makes Israel out to be the bad guy, even as thousands of Gazans were lining up for hours in the hope of obtaining Israeli work permits. And this just days after Hamas held a conference to plot the annihilation of the same country that is trying to alleviate the plight of the terror group’s current “subjects”: Palestinians.

NEW ,VIEW OUR WEBSITE WWW.BRITISHISRAELGROUP.WEEBLY.COM

VP Kamala Harris "Your truth must be heard"

Video Of The Week- Kamala Harris and 'Ethnic Genocide' in Israel https://tinyurl.com/7dnctn7r

US Vice President Kamala Harris applauded a student who accused Israel of "ethnic genocide," saying "your truth cannot be suppressed."

For the full article go to JP 29-09-2021, By TZVI JOFFRE https://tinyurl.com/n37rzk6s   

During a discussion with students about National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, US Vice President Kamala Harris did not challenge a comment by a student at George Mason University in Virginia who accused Israel of “ethnic genocide” and defended her right to say it.

The student, who identified herself as part-Yemeni, part-Iranian and “not an American,” also expressed outrage at US funding of the Iron Dome.

She said America affects her life “every day” due to military funding it gives to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

“You brought up how the power of the people and demonstrations and organizing is very valuable in America,” she said. “But I see that over the summer there have been protests and demonstrations in astronomical numbers standing with Palestine. But then just a few days ago, there were funds allocated to continue backing Israel, which hurts my heart because it’s ethnic genocide and displacement of people, the same that happened in America, and I’m sure you’re aware of this.”

The student questioned why money was going to Israel and Saudi Arabia instead of to social issues in America.

“The people have spoken very often of what they do need, and I feel like there’s a lack of listening, and I just feel like I need to bring this up because it affects my life and people I really care about’s [sic] life,” she said.

In response, Harris said she was “glad” the student spoke up.

 “Your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard,” she said.

Harris said democracy is strongest when everyone participates and is weakest when anyone is left out.

“That’s not only about being physically present but that your voice is present,” she said. “Our goal should be unity, but not uniformity. Unity should never be at the expense of telling any one person, ‘For the sake of unity, oh you be quiet about that thing.’ That’s not unity. Then we see where that ends up in a healthy debate about the issue.”

Regarding the student’s reference to Middle East policy, Harris said: “We still have healthy debates in our country about what is the right path, and nobody’s voice should be suppressed on that.”

Former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman expressed outrage at Harris’s statements, tweeting: “Shameful. There is truth and there are lies. No one is entitled to their personal truth. This attack on Israel is simply a lie and VPOTUS should have called that out.”

NEW ,VIEW OUR WEBSITE WWW.BRITISHISRAELGROUP.WEEBLY.COM