Human Rights Watch: Occupation, Inc.: How Settlement Businesses Contribute to Israel’s Violations of Palestinian Rights

Businesses should stop operating in, financing, servicing, or trading with Israeli settlements in order to comply with their human rights responsibilities.  Those activities contribute to and benefit from an inherently unlawful and abusive system that violates the rights of Palestinians.

The 162-page report, “Occupation, Inc.: How Settlement Businesses Contribute to Israel’s Violations of Palestinian Rights,” documents how settlement businesses facilitate the growth and operations of settlements. These businesses depend on and contribute to the Israeli authorities’ unlawful confiscation of Palestinian land and other resources.  They also benefit from these violations, as well as Israel’s discriminatory policies that provide privileges to settlements at the expense of Palestinians, such as access to land and water, government subsidies, and permits for developing land.

“Settlement businesses unavoidably contribute to Israeli policies that dispossess and harshly discriminate against Palestinians, while profiting from Israel’s theft of Palestinian land and other resources,” said Arvind Ganesan, director of the business and human rights division. “The only way for businesses to comply with their own human rights responsibilities is to stop working with and in Israeli settlements.”

More than a half million Israeli settlers live in 237 settlements throughout the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including in East Jerusalem. Successive Israeli governments have facilitated this process, but businesses also play a critical role in establishing and expanding settlements, and enabling them to function.

Summary 
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/01/19/israel-businesses-should-end-settlement-activity

Full Report - 162 pp.
https://www.hrw.org/node/285045/ 

Detailed Q & A Press Release 
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/01/19/occupation-inc-how-settlement-businesses-contribute-israels-violations-palestinian

EI: End all business in Israeli settlements, says Human Rights Watch
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/end-all-business-israeli-settlements-says-human-rights-watch

HRW Dispatches: Corporations that Perpetuate Injustices in the Settlements
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/01/20/dispatches-corporations-perpetuate-injustices-settlements

Al Jazeera: How settlement businesses sustain Israeli occupation
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/hrw-story-160119072213192.html

MSNBC: Group wants businesses out of West Bank
http://www.hulu.com/watch/895647#i0,p6,d1

The Nation: Human Rights Watch Calls on Businesses to Withdraw From Israeli Settlements
http://www.thenation.com/article/human-rights-watch-israel-settlements-bds/

Salon: Human Rights Watch calls on businesses to cease Israeli settlement-related activities
http://www.salon.com/2016/01/20/human_rights_watch_calls_on_businesses_to_cease_israeli_settlement_related_activities/

Al Shabaka: How Israeli Settlements Stifle Palestine’s Economy
https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/how-israeli-settlements-stifle-palestines-economy

TIME: Why Human Rights Watch Is Urging Companies to Pull Out of Israeli Settlements
http://time.com/4183059/why-human-rights-watch-is-urging-companies-to-pull-out-of-israeli-settlements/