No to the ReMax Convention in Rome
From October 19 to 21, Rome will host the European convention of ReMax, the US real estate company, among the largest in the world, with 100,000 agents engaged in selling and renting houses, apartments and offices in nearly 100 countries.
ReMax is part of the corporate world that has enriched itself on the real estate market and, consequently, on the fundamental need of every person on the planet to have dignified housing.
ReMax chose Rome for their convention/party, made up of cocktails, meetings and "fun nights". But Rome is only "fun" for those who have become rich off the business of housing.
In the city of Rome, the so-called "city of the building speculators," where the likes of Caltagirone, Salini, Parnasi and Toti make a fortune thanks also to brokerage firms such as ReMax, more than 100,000 people are forced to live in a housing emergency, 23,000 families are on the waiting list for public housing that does not arrive, over 9,000 are evicted year. While tens of thousands of homes remain empty.
Those who chose to speculate and to thrive on the commodification of the right to housing are, in fact, responsible for this situation.
For ReMax, however, it’s not enough to turn a profit off the Italian and international real estate markets, they also profit from Israeli violations of Palestinian rights.
ReMax Israel, which is part of ReMax Europe, sells and rents homes in Israeli Jewish-only settlements built on land stolen from Palestinians. ReMax International earns 1 percent from each sale, and is therefore profiting from Israeli settlements. ReMax is, in fact, the real estate agent of the Israeli occupation.
During research for the Human Rights Watch report "Occupation Inc." on companies profiting from the Israeli occupation, a ReMax Israel agent said, "I don’t buy from or sell to Arabs. It’s not racism, I just prefer not to deal with [them]." As of November 2015, ReMax had 80 properties for sale in 18 settlements with a total value of over $36 million.
In the United States a campaign was launched to pressure ReMax until it respects Palestinian rights. The campaign is part of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, intended to isolate Israel and complicit international companies as was done with Apartheid South Africa.
Last June at its national assembly, the Presbyterian Church USA, with 1.7 million members, voted in favor of a motion condemning ReMax. A few days before the assembly, the CEO of ReMax wrote to the church leaders stating, though with ambiguous language, that ReMax would no longer profit from the sales of property in the settlements. This commitment was promptly denied by ReMax Israel, which declared its intention to continue to sell settlement homes.
At a time when Israel's colonization policies are proceeding at the pace of bulldozers and in Rome real estate speculation is leaving many families homeless, it is unacceptable that ReMax hold its party/convention here.
The city of Rome will not stand idly by.
Rome Against ReMax
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