Technologies of Control: The Case of Hewlett Packard (HP) 

In the new report about Hewlett Packard's [1] direct involvement in the occupation, the company is used as a case study to discuss the role of international and local corporations in Israel's mechanisms of surveillance and control over the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is maintained and preserved by daily practices of surveillance and control. In recent years, these practices have increasingly relied on technological mechanisms provided by international and local corporations. Hewlett-Packard (HP) is one of the companies that unable this technological supervision and oppression.

Through its subsidiary EDS Israel, HP is the prime contractor of the Basel System, an automated biometric access control system installed and maintained by HP in checkpoints throughout the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt).

Another control mechanism with which HP is involved, is Israel's ID card system, which reflects and reinforces the state's political and economic asymmetries as well as its tiered citizenship structure. HP was charged by the Ministry of Interior with the manufacturing of biometric ID cards for the citizens and residents of Israel (Jewish and Palestinians). In addition, HP also provides services and technologies to the Israeli army.

Furthermore, two of HP's technological service providers in Israel are Matrix and its subsidiary, Tact Testware, which are located in the illegal West Bank settlement of Modi'in Illit. HP further participates in the "Smart City" project, implemented in the illegal West Bank settlement of Ariel, providing a storage system for the settlement's municipality.

For more info [1]

Mul-T-Lock (Assa Abloy) withdraws from Barkan settlement

Four years after Assa Abloy expressed its regrets about the company’s involvement in the occupation – Mul-T-Lock (Assa Abloy’s full subsidiary) finally relocated its factory from the Barkan Industrial Zone in the West bank.

 For more info [2]

Mehadrin Group - An Update

In its 2011  annual report (published in March 2012), Mehadrin declares that the company is expected to expand as a result of the liquidation of Agrexco (Mehadrin’s main competitor), highlighting that it has signed contracts with some of Agrexco's citrus, avocado, persimmon and date growers. Following these developments, the company states it expects an “addition of approximately 1000-1500 tons of dates, mainly of the medjool type... Some of the products are grown in the Jordan Valley and in the Arabah.”

In addition, the company owns a packing house for mangos in the occupied Golan Heights, through its subsidiary Miriam Shoham [3] (50%).

Also, the Mehadrin's logo was seen on a packing house for grapes in the settlement of Beka'ot, in the occupied Jordan Valley.

For more info [4]