Holy Land Principles Presses Cisco

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pressure continues on Cisco in advance of its upcoming Annual Meeting to sign the Holy Land Principles— an 8-point corporate code of conduct for American companies doing business in Israel-Palestine.

The giant high tech company has scheduled its Annual Meeting for November 19 at 10 AM (PST) in San Jose, California. Cisco has very significant operations in Palestine-Israel. Its own 2012 Corporate Sustainability Report admits that while Arabs make up 20 percent of the population in Israel they are less than 0.4 percent of the high tech industry workforce.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus— President of the Capitol Hill-based Holy Land Principles, Inc. and Irish National Caucus— said: "We call on all Cisco investors to do the right thing; to vote for our Resolution calling on Cisco to sign the Holy Land Principles, and  to thereby  ask Cisco— for the first time in its history— to sign a set of Principles specifically regarding Cisco's fair employment  in the Holy Land. Who could be opposed to that? The Holy Land principles are pro-Jewish, pro-Palestinian and pro-company."

[See text of Resolution (if necessary, copy and paste link into your browser):
http://www.holylandprinciples.org/holy-land-principles-cisco-systems-inc-resolution]

Fr. Mc Manus explained: " The Holy Land Principles are filling a vacuum that was crying out to be filled. Fair employment by American companies in Israel-Palestine had never been raised — in the boardroom or anywhere else— until we launched the Holy Land Principles. Isn't that truly remarkable? How could this, the most obvious of issues, have been so blatantly and flagrantly ignored? And now that the issue has been raised, who can argue against its legitimacy and moral correctness? Shareholder advocacy that ignores this issue brings discredit to all. It is the elephant in the boardroom, as so many will privately admit, and it is also the missing link in many faith-based or value-based Corporate Responsibility organizations. This moral and ethical vacuum had to be filled, and now that it is being filled we confidently look to the good faith and decency of all Cisco investors.  

The Holy Land Principles are intrinsically valid, inherently decent and eminently reasonable— just like our Mac Bride Principles, which have been signed by 116 American companies doing business in Northern Ireland."

Fr. Mc Manus concluded: "The Holy Land Principles are perfectly consistent with environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, and are a practical and particularized application of the Ruggie Principles."

Barbara Flaherty, Executive Vice President, Holy Land Principles, Inc., added: "As shareholders, we look forward to moving the Holy Land Principles resolution on November 19.It's a perfect moment for shareholder advocacy to advance the core and central value of fair employment by Cisco in the Holy Land. Who could possibly be against that?"

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, Inc.