GE Given Second Chance On Holy Land Principles

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- General Electric has a most significant presence in Israel-Palestine, having played an important role in building the basic energy structure since it located there in the 1950's.

For the second time GE is being asked to sign the Holy Land Principles— a corporate code of conduct for American companies doing business in Palestine-Israel, based on the highly effective Mac Bride Principles for Northern Ireland. A Holy Land Principles resolution will be presented at GE's Annual Shareholders' Meeting in Jacksonville, FL on April 27.

Last year, on April 22, the Holy Land Resolution gained over 3% of the vote, entitling it, under SEC rules, to bring back the Resolution this year. Indeed, GE, Corning, and Intel last year tried to get the SEC to exclude the Holy Land Principles resolution, but the SEC rejected their arguments, ruling in favor of the Holy Land Principles.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus— President of the Capitol Hill-based Holy Land Principles, Inc. and Irish National Caucus said: "This is a second chance for GE to do the right thing; to face up to that which can no longer be ignored: fair employment by American companies in the Holy Land.

Isn't truly remarkable that until we launched the Holy Land Principles in 2012, investors, consumers and other stakeholders had never brought this issue up in the boardrooms of American companies?

How could that have happened? With all the talk and activity by all sorts of proponents of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)—especially faith based investors—  how could such negligence, ignoring and denial have taken place? Certainly, religious groups should be examining their conscience this Holy Week."

Fr. Mc Manus explained: "The Holy Land Principles are pro-Jewish, pro-Palestinian and pro-company. The Principles do not call for quotas, reverse discrimination, divestment, disinvestment or boycotts. The Principles do not take any position on solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. The Principles do not try to tell the Palestinians or the Israelis what to do. The Holy Land Principles only call for fair employment by American companies in Palestine-Israel."

Fr. Mc Manus (who also launched the Mac Bride Principles on October 5, 1984) concluded: "At first, the American companies doing business in Northern Ireland strongly resisted signing our Mac Bride Principles. But eventually 116 companies—including GE, to its credit— signed the Mac Bride Principles. So why would GE or any American company doing business in Israel-Palestine now not sign the Holy Land Principles? No company can give a convincing and credible argument against signing."

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President
Holy Land Principles, Inc.
P.O. BOX 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, DC 20003-0849
Tel. 202-488-0107
Fax. 202-488-7537
[email protected]

SOURCE Holy Land Principles

Related Links

http://www.HolyLandPrinciples.org