Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa is congratulating Mercury Energy’s terminating its contract with Israel’s Ormat Technologies to design the Ngatamariki geothermal power station near Taupo.
PSNA Co-Chair Maher Nazzal says it appears Mercury has acknowledged the legal jeopardy of Israeli companies operating throughout the world.
“The International Court of Justice last year declared Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is illegal and called on everyone to stop giving ‘aid or assistance’ to Israel which will help it to maintain its illegal occupation.”
“Mercury’s decision is in line the ICJ findings and we welcome it as a victory for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign to isolate Israel.”
“No New Zealand companies should have any dealings with Israel, either directly or indirectly.”
“Israel is a rogue genocide and apartheid state – a threat and an embarrassment to all of humanity,” Nazal says.“But the Ormat contract with Mercury is not the only one. We are now renewing our calls on Contact Energy to do the same and cut its links with Ormat Technologies.”
“If Contact doesn’t follow Mercury, then I’m sure many electricity consumers will take the Israeli connection in mind and so switch from Contact to Mercury.”
Maher Nazzal
Co-Chair PSNA
Here is a copy of the letter we sent to Contact Energy in November last year:
15 November 2024
Mike Fuge
Chief Executive Officer
Contact Energy
c/o Louise Wright
Head of Communications and Reputation
Kia ora Mr Fuge,
Contact Energy partnering with the racist apartheid state of Israel
We noted your media release of 13 November 2024 (“Contact invests to redevelop Wairakei”) which confirms Contact is investing to begin replacing the Wairakei geothermal power station.
What your release doesn’t mention is that you are intending to partner with an Israeli company, Ormat Technologies, through an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract to build the new plant. Ormat has confirmed this in their own announcement dated a day earlier.
It is not tenable for Contact Energy to sign off on this agreement and we are requesting the company withdraw from doing so immediately. Signing this proposed agreement would be a kick in the teeth for Palestinians suffering from industrial-scale slaughter at the hands of the apartheid state of Israel in which Ormat Technologies is embedded.
Ormat Technologies has its main production facilities based in Yavne, Israel. Yavne is a city build over the Palestinian town of Yibna from which Palestinians were ethnically cleansed in 1948 and to which they have sought their right of return since 1948, only to be denied by racist Israeli policies.
That Contact would even consider signing an agreement with an Israeli company in light of Palestinian calls for BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel and particularly after 13 months of genocide where most of the 43,000 confirmed victims have been women and children – is an outrage which makes a mockery of your carefully-crafted corporate story which claims to be based on “tikanga” and principles of respect for people and the planet.
We urge you to do the right thing today and dismantle your links with Ormat and any associated Israeli companies. Palestinians and Palestinian New Zealanders have the right to demand no less from you.
Please respond without unnecessary delay.
Ngā mihi.
Nā,
John Minto
National Chair PSNA
