Industries of Oppression
Corporations enable Israel’s state violence and human rights abuses in Palestine through five broad categories of oppression: the settlement industry, exploitation of natural resources, the apartheid wall and checkpoints, weapons and military equipment, and discrimination.
The Settlement Industry
Around 400,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank—illegal under international law, yet almost all have explicit or tacit approval from the Israeli government. Israel has repeatedly threatened to annex settler-dense areas of Palestine, attempting to seize more of its land while suffocating its people. Settlements at this scale are only possible through companies which construct their buildings, employ their people, and provide essential services such as transportation and communication; Caterpillar Inc. supplies Israel with constructing and engineering equipment which is integral both to the building of settler homes and to the demolition of Palestinian homes.
The Exploitation of Natural Resources
Other businesses participate in the exploitation of Palestine’s natural resources through the extraction of water, oil, and natural gas, through the operation of quarries, and through waste management facilities. Ashtrom, one of Israel’s largest construction companies, runs two quarries in the West Bank which serve as an employment opportunity for nearby Israeli settlers and which produces materials used in the construction of settlements and the apartheid wall—Ashtrom extracts resources from Palestinians lands, then uses those resources to further the oppression of the Palestinian people.
The Apartheid Wall and Checkpoints
Israel’s apartheid wall cuts deeply into the West Bank, isolating some areas while confiscating others outright. Checkpoints, roadblocks, and gates additionally strangle Palestinians’ ability to move. Companies construct, maintain, and surveil the wall and these checkpoints; Motorola, for example, developed a radar system that is used as a “virtual fence” for some settlements and tracks human movement around the wall complex.
Weapons and Military Equipment
“Between 2000-2018, the Israeli military and other security forces have killed more than 9,517 Palestinians. At least 4,562 of them did not participate in hostilities. At least 2,016 were children” (AFSC). Corporations like Boeing and Lockheed Martin supply Israel with Hellfire missiles, Apache helicopters, F-15 fighter jets, and other weapons which have repeatedly been used in attacks of civilian populations.
Discrimination
In the West Bank, Israelis living in settlements are governed under Israeli civil law, whereas Palestinians are subject to Israeli military rule. Even within Israel, Palestinian citizens are discriminated against in terms of land ownership, education, access to healthcare, and employment. Companies partake in this discrimination through selectively or inequitably providing goods or products, unequal hiring practices, and unsafe working conditions; DXC Technology, a subsidiary of HP, supports discrimination through its maintenance of Israel’s population registry and ID system.