Anti-apartheid wall campaign slams multinational companies for complicity in Israel’s occupation

Several multinational companies, including Israeli arms manufacturers, have been slammed for their complicity in Israel’s occupation and the mass demolition of Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta, by the anti-apartheid wall campaign, Stop the Wall.

The list of companies the Palestinian grassroots campaign has called out includes Israeli arms company Caterpillar, manufacturing giant JCB, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Volvo Group.

According to Wafa news agency, Israeli soldiers using bulldozers from JCB, Volvo and Caterpillar raided the villages of Al-Fakheet and Al-Markez, located south of the city of Hebron and demolished Palestinian homes and entire buildings.

“The escalated violence and demolition campaign against Palestinians in Masafer Yatta comes after Israel’s Supreme Court, a pillar of the Israeli apartheid regime, ruled in favour of forcibly expelling some 1300 Palestinians living in eight small villages. This decision is a culmination of decades-long apartheid, segregation and oppressive practices against Palestinians in Masafer Yatta,” Stop the Wall, said in a statement today.

READ: Israel orders Palestinian families to stop building homes 

“Such practices, which include water apartheid, systemic settler and army violence, land seizure and home demolition, have been enabled by international machinery and construction companies.”

“This is a continuation of a long-standing complicity with Israeli colonisation of Palestinian land that must come to an end,” it added.

The raid and demolitions come after the Israeli High Court of Justice approved, last month, the eviction of Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta to make room for Israeli military training.

Until the multinational firms end their complicity in Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian human rights, Stop the Wall has called for boycotting against Caterpillar, JCB, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Volvo Group and the arrangement of divestment campaigns.

Masafer Yatta falls within Area C, which makes up 60 per cent of the occupied West Bank. It is under Israel’s military and administrative control and, as a result, the occupation state reserves the area largely for the benefit of illegal settlers.

READ: ‘I am dreaming of the moment I hug him,’ says Ahmed Al-Manasra´s mother