The NSPCC / JCB and Letters to Santa Claus

 

Every child is important in the eyes of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children – unless they are Palestinian, it would seem, because they have accepted millions from JCB a company which makes money from destroying Palestinian homes, traumatising the children and plunging the families into instant poverty.

And a three-year campaign to change the charity’s practice eventually evinced a response that they had checked with their lawyers, and it was legal to do so.

JCB, which has not engaged at all with campaigners, exports to an Israeli partner, Comasco. The bulldozer manufacturer is fully aware that their equipment is used to demolish Palestinian homes, schools, clinics, olive groves and water pipes. This is completely illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the human suffering is immeasurable and studies by psychologists show that the children are permanently traumatised.

But it is all part of Israel’s policy of “judaizing” Palestine in – among other places – East Jerusalem, the highly fertile Jordan Valley and the Naqab (Negev).

But that cuts no ice with the charity which claims to exist for the protection of children. The acceptance of money from JCB is “legal” so the human misery wreaked by their bulldozers is ignored.

Faced with calls that it should refuse to accept money earned in activities that involve severe and enduring harm to Palestinian children, the NSPCC has  previously said that, "In line with Charity Commission guidance the NSPCC has produced ethical corporate fundraising guidelines reflecting its values… and undertakes due diligence based on criteria approved by its Trustees in relation to corporate partners."

Surprisingly, perhaps, the NSPCC feels entitled to regard profits earned from home demolitions, and the cruelty they inevitably entail, as clean money. Perhaps this is because the guidelines only advise the refusal of moneys "associated with any organisation connected with slavery, human trafficking and child labour or where a director or officer has been convicted of a sexual offence."

In a pamphlet called "Living Our Values", the NSPCC states: "We will speak out when something is wrong… We seek to achieve cultural, social and political change – influencing legislation, policy, practice, attitudes and behaviours and delivering services for the benefit of children and young people."

The NSPCC here recognises a responsibility to challenge accepted norms where these expose young people to harm. Yet when it comes to children in faraway lands, it suggests that government trading priorities provide an adequate guide to moral practice: "The export activities of a corporate do not form part of our ethical checks" unless concerning a country "on which the UK Government/ Department of Trade has formally imposed trade restrictions."

With this legalistic approach, the charity's officials brush aside a serious moral challenge to their mutually beneficial relationship with JCB.

Meanwhile the United Nations, Amnesty International and Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights have all denounced JCB’s complicity with Israel as war crimes. And the company is currently under scrutiny by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for its lack of a human rights policy.

A broad coalition comprising Defence of Children International, ICAHD UK, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Protecting Palestinian Families, the Shoal Collective, Social Work Action Network, the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network, eminent social work and medical professionals and thousands of individual citizens has bombarded the NSPCC with letters, postcards and Tweets, all asking the senior staff and every single trustee at NSPCC to sever links with JCB.

All these bodies and individuals condemn JCB, quoting International Humanitarian Law, International Law and Human Rights conventions. But the NSPCC ignores it all, citing narrow legality.

And here comes the hypocrisy. NSPCC uses the following language of some of these documents in its banner headlines – “Every Child Matters” and “Every Child is Worth Fighting For” but these wonderful slogans don’t apply to Palestinian children.

The NSPCC was founded to prevent cruelty to children.  but despite them having received detailed information about JCB’s complicity in Israel’s house demolitions, it continues to accept donations and partner with the company. that derives profits from inflicting cruelty on Palestinian children – it doesn’t make sense.

The NSPCC has  recently launched its annual festive fundraiser, Letter from Santa. Aiming to drive donations for the charity during the winter season, the campaign, which is in its 20th year, encourages supporters to order a personalised letter from Santa for the little ones in their life. Apparently if children write to Santa with their own unique message via the NSPCC they will get an answer

So this information has been used to write a letter from an imaginary Palestinian child. It makes the point about the toxic relationship between the charity and its donor JCB.  

It would be great if as many copies of the letter flooded into the inboxes of NSPCC trustees and officers before Christmas. You could use the following actual letter, a modified form of it or a completely original letter of your own to one, more or all of them.

It would great to do the whole thing on December 6, the feast day of Saint Nicholas aka Santa Claus, but any day you can manage would be excellent.

Here are the addresses of the principal officers and all the trustees of the NSPCC and some of them use twitter – see below

Josephine.Swinhoe@NSPCC.org.uk   director of income generation

Peter.Wanless@NSPCC.org.uk          chief executive        @peterwanless

David.Hamilton@NSPCC.org.uk  director of communications and marketing

Claire.Watt@NSPCC.org.uk  director of services

Neil.Berkett@NSPCC.org.uk chair of trustees @neilberkett

Mark.Corbidge@NSPCC.org.uk treasurer

 j.begent@nhs.net @jobegent9

Joanna.Begent@NSPCC.org.uk

other trustees using same email format                    

Elizabeth Brash

Peter Daffern

Eithne Daly @eithnedaly

Pippa Gough @pippagough

Ife Grillo @ifetalksback

Albert Heaney

Andrew Kerr @andychariots

Tarek Khlat

Derrick Mortimer

Sheanna Patelmaster @5h34nn4

Sarah Ridgway

Tom Toumazis @tomtoumazis

Emma Smyth

Dear Santa 

 

My name is Leila and I live in Bethlehem. Most people in the city are Muslims but my family is Christian - however at this time of year we all celebrate Christmas! Everybody loves the enormous Christmas tree set up in Manger Square and all my school friends wish me “Happy Christmas!” Of course we wish them “Happy Eid” when it’s their turn and we all share the special foods in each other’s tradition. 

 

I have heard that children in the UK write to you via the NSPCC which helps children who are suffering from cruelty and that if they use this charity, you will write back to them so I am sending you my wish.  Please can you give my cousin Nabil a new house? A big yellow bulldozer knocked down his house last week. The soldiers said they had to destroy the house to make way for a new Israeli settlement and that the whole village is in the way. 

 

It’s getting cold and rainy now and Nabil is living under a plastic sheet near the rubble. His baby sister Maysun suffers from asthma and it’s hard to get her to hospital because of the checkpoints. So I’m very worried about what will happen to them as the winter goes on. 

 

My teacher told me that the company that makes the bulldozers gives money to the NSPCC but I am sure that must be a mistake. A charity which prevents cruelty to children wouldn’t take money from a company which made my cousins homeless, would it?

 

Anyway Santa my best present would be a new home for Nabil and Maysun 

 

With love from Leila 

 

ps I have been a good girl this year