More than 200 members of the scientific community call for an end to institutional complicity with ICL
More than 200 members of the scientific, academic and professional communities have signed the manifesto Enough Complicity with ICL, calling on public institutions to end their institutional ties with the multinational company over its environmental impacts in the Bages region of Catalonia and its role in sustaining Israel’s occupation economy.
The NOVACT Institute for Nonviolence, the Observatory of Debt in Globalisation (ODG), the DESCA Observatory and SUDS are behind the manifesto, “Enough Complicity with ICL. Defending Human Rights, the Territory and Ending Corporate Impunity,” which has already been endorsed by more than 200 members of the scientific, academic and professional communities.
The manifesto urges public institutions to take action in response to the activities of Israel Chemical Limited (ICL), both because of the environmental damage caused by its potash mining operations in the Bages region and because of its activities linked to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
It raises concerns about the pollution of aquifers and rivers caused by salt waste heaps, the company’s failure to comply with several court rulings on environmental restoration, and the social impacts of its operations on local communities. It also denounces ICL’s activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, its role in Israel’s occupation economy, and its support for military structures in a context marked by ongoing international investigations into alleged crimes of genocide in Gaza.
A call to public institutions
The manifesto calls for the revocation of ICL’s mining concession, a review of its environmental permits, the enforcement of financial guarantees related to failures in environmental restoration, the termination of institutional and economic ties between the company and public infrastructure operators such as FGC and the Port of Barcelona, and the implementation of the newly approved Catalan Centre for Business and Human Rights.
The publication of the manifesto follows a series of social mobilisations that have once again brought public attention to the environmental impacts of ICL’s mining operations in the Bages region and to corporate responsibility in situations involving human rights violations.