CSI

Web Action

ACTION ALERT: SEND E-MAILS NOW TO THE U.S. STATE DEPT
& THE TEAR GAS MANUFACTURER CSI
(No Longer Active)

UPDATE: February 16th, 2011

As of February 16th, 2011, 590 people have responded to this action alert by sending emails to the State Department calling on the US government to stop using US tax dollars to provide tear gas and other weapons, and to stop approving military sales to repressive governments like Egypt, Israel and Tunisia that use US equipment and weapons to deny basic human rights.

Also, 526 people have sent emails to Combined Systems Inc, Point Lookout Capital Partners and the Carlyle Group demanding that CSI stop providing tear gas that is used by repressive governments like Egypt, Tunisia and Israel to deny the right to protest.

 

Egyptians, Americans and people worldwide have been outraged in the last days by the photos, twitter messages and news articles showing that the tear gas canisters fired by Egyptian police at peaceful, pro-democracy protesters in Egypt are “Made in USA.” While we are seeing these pictures now from Egypt, we have seen similar ones in recent months from Tunisia and Palestine. All three places have had in common repressive governments, armed by US companies with tear gas and other weapons. All three have used extreme violence against unarmed protesters who were demanding basic human rights, maiming and even killing protesters with impunity.

In all three places, Combined Systems Inc., a US company based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania, is providing the tear gas - often under its brand-name CTS, an acronym for Combined Tactical Systems - that these governments are employing to crush protest, deny human rights and cling to power.

Israel, Egypt and Tunisia’s CSI tear gas may have been supplied under the US’s massive military aid to these governments, despite those governments’ clear records of severe human rights abuses. Israel receives $3 billion in US military aid annually, and the State Department approved the commercial sale of $1.85 million of "tear gases and riot control agents” to the Israeli government from 2007-2008. Egypt receives $1.3 billion in military aid annually, and Tunisia has received an average of around $15 million annually. At a minimum the US State Department has reviewed and approved the sale of US-made tear gas to those governments.

Event

altRemember Bil'in's Jawaher and Bassem Abu Rahmah

 

Protest Israel's Lethal Tear Gas

  • Where: 331 Madison Avenue (at 43rd St) in Manhattan, Office of Point Lookout Capital, a company that helps provide tear gas to Israel
  • What: Street theater and vigil

On January 1, 2011, a 36-year-old Palestinian woman, Jawaher Abu Rahmah from the West Bank village of Bil’in, died in a hospital from the effects of tear gas inhalation suffered at a protest the previous day altagainst Israel’s construction of a wall and settlements on Bil’in’s land.

Jawaher’s brother Bassem Abu Rahmah was killed in April 2009 when he was hit in the chest with an extended range CSI tear gas canister fired directly at him by an Israeli soldier during a peaceful protest in Bil'in.

Much of Israel’s tear gas is provided by the US company Combined Systems Inc. (CSI). The Israeli military is using CSI’s tear gas as a weapon in its effort to crush the growing movement of unarmed protest against Israel’s illegal confiscation of Palestinian land for Israeli settlements. Even more disturbing, you as a US taxpayer are paying for at least some of the tear gas that Israel is shooting at Palestinian, Israeli and international protesters. For more information please see Adalah-NY’s ACTION ALERT: Tell CSI to Stop Sending Tear Gas to Israel.

Come protest at Point Lookout Capital, the majority stockholder of CSI. Adalah-NY will be leading a reenactment of the killing of Jawaher, as well as moments of silence and flyering.