ACTIVISTS have staged a sit-in demonstration at Glasgow City council chambers, calling for the council to remove Israeli military-founded CCTV software.
Videos shared by the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee showed several protesters sitting inside the reception of the city chambers at George Square.
The activists are calling for the council to end its use of their contract with Neptune Intelligence Computer Engineering (NICE) – which was formed by members of Unit 8200, the largest unit in the Israel Defence Forces.
The Israeli firm was awarded a contract as part of the Future Cities Glasgow programme in 2014.
In 2015, NICE was acquired by Elbit Systems, a defence contractor for the Israel Defence Forces, while its "physical security business unit" was sold to a private equity firm and rebranded as Qognify.
Pictures from Glasgow City Chambers showed a Palestine flag wrapped around a bust of Nelson Mandela.
The group said on social media: "As the extermination and starvation of Gaza intensifies, Glasgow must initiate Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.
"Inside OUR City Chambers NOW, urging Glasgow Council to remove Israeli military-founded NICE CCTV software."
One activist said: “We need Glasgow council, who have adopted an audible motion to support Palestine, to do much more to enact the measures, and we're here in particular to remind them of our campaign to have Israeli-founded NICE surveillance operations system, that are running the cameras here in Glasgow city centre, taking off our streets.
“It's just disgraceful to think in the middle of this, and it's been run for a long, long time, that these cameras, this software that have been operated by an Israeli company."
They added: “We would remind Glasgow council also of the increasing costs for governments, for everybody to enact, boycott, divestment and sanctions.”
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “The Council is asking current contractors to complete a Professional Integrity Certificate. This includes a requirement to confirm that they do not exploit assets in illegal settlements; that they comply with international humanitarian obligations, and have used all reasonable endeavours to ensure that supply chains also comply.
“Once an assessment has been made of the completed response from each contractor, the Council will decide any follow-up action on a case by case basis.”
