By: Lev Grinberg
Ben Gurion University Department of Sociology and Anthropology

First published: Theory and Criticism 31, Winter 2007
English version: Ami Asher

Why were checkpoints privatized? What is the connection between the privatization of checkpoints and neo-liberal ideology? What are the profits from the processes of checkpoint privatization and to whom? And what can we learn from this about the current-day occupation?

This report surveys the involvement of the Israel banks in the financing of different facets of the Israeli occupation.

A new railway line is being built between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, unlawfully crossing into the occupied Palestinian territory in two areas, at a great cost to Palestinian communities. European companies are involved in the planning and construction of the new train line.

Private security companies take an active part in sustaining the occupation. This report takes a close look at the activity of one such company: G4S Israel. The report examines different ways in which the company is involved in the occupation. The report also analyzes the response of the company to mounting criticism of its occupation-related business activity.

This report by Who Profits maps the involvement of the Israeli wine industry in the occupation of the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights and traces some of the ways in which it masks this involvement. For this purpose, this report surveys the Israeli wine industry, maps the vineyards and wineries in the occupied territory and traces the connections between the main Israeli wine producers and this settlement industry.

Production in Settlements: The Case of SodaStream

Using SodaStream as a case study, a new report by Who Profits discusses key issues in industrial production in illegal West Bank settlements. SodaStream is a manufacturer of home beverage carbonating devices, whose main production site is in the West Bank Settlement of the Mishor Edomin Industrial Zone. The report provides an extensive overview, including the identity of the manufacturers, employment conditions, land confiscation and trade in settlement products. The report shows how the success of SodaStream and other companies which produce in settlements is based, at least in part, on the structural advantages that these companies enjoy, such as tax incentives, lax enforcement of regulations, as well as additional governmental support.

The report also exposes the manner in which the company conceals the fact that its products are manufactured in a West Bank settlement by using the Made in Israel label. The company, therefore misleads consumers to believe that its products are manufactured in Israel rather than in occupied land.

The business of SodaStream is growing rapidly. Its products are sold in 39 countries and can be found in retail stores like Macy's, Bed Bath and Beyond, Bloomingdale's, Coop, Carrefour and Migros. On November 8, 2010, the company has gone public and its shares are traded on NASDAQ. The SodaStream devices are especially popular in Sweden; the company has recently announced that it has sold more than 1 million devices there.

The report provides an unprecedented insight into the internal considerations of a settlement producer, weighing consumer boycotts and possible negative publicity against the economic benefits of operating from a settlement. By its own admission, SodaStream states that calls for boycott are indeed a "risk factor" and a cause for "rising political tensions and negative publicity". However, the company declares that moving its factory out of the settlement would require the expenditure of resources and, more importantly, "limit certain of the tax benefits for which we are currently eligible." These benefits stem from the fact that the Israeli government provides economic incentives, including tax deductions, for businesses operating in West Bank settlements.

To read the full report: www.whoprofits.org/articlefiles/WhoProfits-ProductioninSettlements-SodaStream.pdf

* Confirmation from the Civil Administration - waste from within Israel is transferred to Veolia's site in the Jordan Valley
* YARV Sherutei Noy 1985 – a subsidiary of Veolia has won a tender for waste collection services from IDF bases in the Jordan valley