To hammer home the point that there would be no let up in the campaign to get Cisco to do the right thing on fair employment in Israel-Palestine, another Resolution has been filed, just a week after Cisco’s Annual Shareholders’ Meeting in San Jose, CA, on November 19, 2015.

The campaign is powered by the Holy Land Principles — an 8-point corporate code of conduct for American companies doing business in Palestine-Israel. The Holy Land Principles were launched three years ago today—International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2012. The Principles are pro-Jewish, pro-Palestinian and pro-company.

The Principles do no call for quotas, reverse discrimination, disinvestment or boycotts—only for fair employment by American companies. Any claim to the contrary is patently malicious, and must be treated as such. 

At the November 19 meeting, over 90 Million shares (97,407,898) voted for the Holy Land Principles resolution. That represented in dollars $2.686 Billion (based on that weekend’s closing price of  $27.57 per Cisco share).  And if one adds the Abstentions as also withholding approval from Cisco’s position (of opposingThe Holy Land Principles), one gets $8.593 Billion voting for the Holy Land Principles or Abstaining from opposing the Principles.

The Holy Land Principles came within just two-tenths of one percent (2.8) of achieving the threshold of 3%, which would enable the same Resolution being resubmitted next year.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus— President of the Capitol Hill-based Holy Land Principles, Inc. and Irish National Caucus— said: “ Missing out by a mere two-tenths of one percent is no big deal since we had already decided that next time the Resolution would be different anyway. However, it must be noted that Cisco spent a lot of time and money trying to ensure we would not get the full 3%. Cisco actually went to the unusual lengths of calling investors to vote against our Holy Land Principles resolution, and to ask voters to change their votes (which can be done right up to the Annual Meeting). Furthermore, whistleblowers in the great State of California have informed us that Cisco had hired top lobbyists to lobby against the Holy Land Principles… So little David (HLP) is making giant Goliath (Cisco) pay attention to fair employment in Israel-Palestine. Something which neither Cisco nor any of the other 544 American companies doing business in Israel-Palestine were ever confronted on before until the Holy Land Principles were launched in 2012— an absolutely extraordinary fact given all the talk about Corporate Social Responsibility and Responsible Investment by faith-based and ethic-based institutions and organizations. Why was this elephant in the (board) room so relentlessly ignored? Those institutions and organizations better start wearing sackcloth and ashes!

Fr. Mc Manus explained the new Resolution by Holy Land Principles, Inc.: “It calls for Cisco —at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information—to disclose the breakdown of its workforce in Palestine-Israel using the nine job categories which are utilized in the U.S. Department of Labor’s EEO -1 Report (Equal Employment Opportunity): 1.Officials and managers; 2. Professionals; 3. Technicians; 4. Sales; 5. Office and clerical; 6. Craft Workers (skilled); 7. Operatives (semiskilled);

8. Laborers (unskilled); 9. Service workers.”

See text of Resolution: http://www.holylandprinciples.org/cisco-shareholder-resolution-for-2016/

Fr. Mc Manus continued:“ Since Cisco says it is very proud of its fair employment record in Israel-Palestine, then Cisco should have absolutely no problem in disclosing these employment statistics. A famous Irishman (President Reagan) said, ‘Trust but verify, ’ so Holy Land Principles, Inc. looks forward to verification.”

Fr. Mc Manus concluded:“ Disclosing the breakdown of the workforce should be a first good-faith step of Cisco since its own 2012 Corporate Sustainability Report admits the shocking fact 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.”

Holy Land Principles, Inc

Holy Land Principles, Inc

HOLY LAND PRINCIPLES,Inc., dedicated to getting the 545 American companies doing business in Palestine-Israel to sign the Holy Land Principles.

The Holy Land Principles are pro-Jewish, pro-Palestinian and pro-company.

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