Four Belgian banks, an airline and a chemicals company are involved with Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory, with chemicals company Solvay supplying the drone supplier of Israel’s military, a report published by the Don’t Buy Into Occupation, a coalition of 24 activist organisations, on Monday revealed.
The report published on Monday outs 50 companies directly involved in Israeli settlements which have “financial relationships with European financial institutions” – including Solvay, Airbnb, Alstom, Booking Holdings, Carrefour, Hyundai Heavy Industries, IBM, PUMA, Siemens, Tripadvisor, TUI Group (also TUI Belgium) and the Volvo Group.
The EU considers the Israeli settlements illegal under international law.
“All these companies are involved in one or more of the ‘listed activities that raise particular human rights concerns’, which constitute the basis for inclusion in the UN database of business enterprises involved in Israeli settlements,” the coalition argues.
The report also identifies 725 European financial institutions that support companies operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. “As of August 2022, European investors held $115.5 billion in shares and bonds of these companies,” the report says.
Solvay is supplying the leading drone supplier of the Israeli military, Elbit, with a component for the Hermes 450 drone. Elbit also supplies the military with other surveillance tools used in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, and in military operations in the Gaza strip.
In 2019, Solvay products were also found at the construction site of a bypass water pipeline in the Palestinian village of Bardala, in the occupied Palestinian territory, that diverted fresh water from Palestinian water sources to Israeli settlements.
“According to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which Solvay says it respects, the company must cease activities linked to serious human rights violations, as is happening in the occupied Palestinian territory,” non-profit CNDC 11.11.11 said in a press release on Monday.
Solvay, for its part, has denied involvement in the Bardala site and argues it conducted an internal investigation which concluded that no record of any of its products being sold in connection with the project had been found, L’Echo reports.
However, Solvay does not deny that its products can be found in Elbit’s drones but stresses that it “strives to know the end use of its composite products,” L’Echo continues.
The coalition’s report also points to companies and institutions that were found to have indirect links to Isreal’s occupation, including financial institutions KBC, AvH, Belfius, and Degroof Petercam.
The companies financed by these banks are active in demolishing Palestinian homes in the occupied territories, constructing and expanding illegal settlements in occupied territories, providing spying equipment and components used on Palestinian civilians and illegally exploiting Palestinian natural resources.
In addition to the banks, the airline TUI Belgium is also involved in activities in the occupied territories, as it offers a tourist tour entitled “Back to the beginning – Israel”, which includes visits to Bethlehem in occupied Palestinian territory, the occupied Golan Heights, and sights in occupied East Jerusalem.
(Anne-Sophie Gayet | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
