Cisco is an US-based public company that designs and sells a broad range of technologies, with a wide range of involvement in Israel’s occupation.

The company is heavily involved in Israel’s hi-tech sector and “supporting Israel’s Digital Agenda”.  In 2018, Cisco announced a collaboration with the Israeli government for the establishment of some 100 technological hubs. Cisco technology equipped hubs have been established on occupied Syrian and Palestinian land, in clear violation of international law.

Two of the 10 hubs opened to date are located in occupied territories, one in the occupied Syrian Golan – located at Ha’Emir junction, between the settlement of Sha’al and Odem – and one in the settlement regional council of Mateh Binyamin, occupied West Bank. At least one additional hub is planned in the Golan and three others to serve settlements in the West Bank – Modi’in Illit, Beitar Illit and the Shomron Regional Council.^[1] Additionally, twenty-six are planned for Jerusalem, including occupied East Jerusalem.^[2]

Furthermore, Cisco hubs in the Naqab (Negev) region, complement Israel’s industrialisation and resettlement plan which strives to create jobs in the Naqab, in the hope of drawing Jewish Israelis to settle in it, while concentrating its Palestinian communities into ghettoized residential areas.[3]

Cisco also cut a multi-million NIS 3 year deal with the Israeli military to upgrade their defense networks, in 2017. Cisco servers are to be delivered through the Israeli company Bynet Data Communication Ltd. (a member of the Rad- Bynet Group), a contract formerly held by the now defunct Hewlett-Packard (HP).^[4]

For Cisco this contract is of both financial benefit and ideological significance. Cisco Israel’s CEO, Oren Sagi stated that it is “an integral part of our commitment to the State of Israel”.^[5]

The company is also complicity in Israel’s growing visual surveillance apparatus in Jerusalem. In August 2017, Cisco made an offer to the Jerusalem Municipality to launch a pilot project for the development of Smart City technology, free of charge. The 36-month joint venture is to be implemented in two sites in the city centre of West Jerusalem, with the prospect of expansion. The pilot project includes the implementation of technology, communication equipment and CCTVs, connected to a command and control centre. The centre is to be equipped with video analysis software and technology – including the ability to detect voice and alert of lingering groups – and have the ability to analyse footage from up to 10,000 CCTV cameras.

For a detailed analysis of how Jerusalem has become a testing ground for corporations developing urban surveillance technology see Who Profits’ report: “Big Brother” in Jerusalem’s Old City: Israel’s Militarization Visual Surveillance System in Occupied East Jerusalem.

In addition, Cisco is involved the exploitation of Palestinian workers and deepening the dependency of the Palestinian economy on that of Israel. In 2008, Cisco signed a collaborative deal with the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, for the investment of 10 million USD for the development of the Palestinian hi-tech sector.[6] The investment was managed by Gay Hatzroni, then the manager of the software development department at Cisco-Israel.

Through Cisco-Israel, Cisco was outsourcing work to Palestinian engineers and technicians. This Cisco project was a milestone in setting a trend of outsourcing work to a skilled, yet comparatively cheap Palestinian work force – who would be paid well below the wages of an Israeli hi-tech worker (2500 and 4000 UDS respectively) – by Israeli and Israeli intermediaries of international companies. Since then, the Israeli subsidiaries of Intel, Microsoft and Mellanox, have also outsourced work to Palestinian technicians.[7] This outsourcing process reduces production costs through exploitation, and entrenches the dependency of Palestinian economic development on the economic and political interests of the occupying power.

^[1] The Ministry for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee, “Klika – Joint Work Spaces of the Ministry for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee,” (Hebrew) 6 February 2019.

^[2] Meir Orbach, “Cisco Launched a Network of Technology Centers in Israel”, (Hebrew) Calcalist, 6 March 2018.

[3] Who Profits’, “Plundering the Sun: The Israeli Solar Energy Industry and Forced Displacement,” May 2018.

^[4] Aliran Robin, “Cisco Won the Tender for the Supply of Servers to the Security Forces – Worth about One Billion Shekels”, (Hebrew) The Merker, 16 January 2017.

^[5] Roben Aliron, “Cisco Won the Tender for the Provision of Servers to the Security Forces – Worth About One Billion Shekels”, (Hebrew) The Marker, 16 January 2017.

[6] Cisco, “Cisco Announces $10 Million Investment to Support Job Creation and Economic Development in the Palestinian Territories,” 29 January 2008.

[7] Matan Ofer, “Breaking the Hi-Tech Barrier”, (Hebrew) Yediot Ahronot, 8 May 2017.