One of the world’s largest building materials companies.
Since 2007, Hanson Israel, owns and operates the Nahal Raba quarry on confiscated private and public Palestinian lands near and the villages of Al Zawiya and Rafat. The quarry produces around six types of aggregates used for concrete, construction, asphalt mixes, and development work.
Through its subsidiary, Hanson Quarries Products, the company has a license valid until the end of 2022 to manufacture aggregate from natural sources. The aggregate is used for concrete and asphalt mixes and is sourced from dolomite limestone. The company is licensed to provide these materials for highways, aprons and airfields. In addition, the company operates an asphalt and concrete factories in the Nahal Raba Quarry zone. The company has a license valid through 2022 for the production of asphalt mixes and production of concrete.
In June 2020, the Israeli Civil Administration Planning Bureau published a plan for the expansion of the Nahal Raba Quarry. The plan titled 52/14/2, submitted by Hanson Israel, seeks to expand the existing quarry on the lands of the Palestnian villages Al Zawya and Rafat by 432 Dunams. more specifically on land plots of Wad Al Qebleh, Jabal Al Qurus, Wad
Sliman Al Yassin in the village of Al Zawya and land plots of al Nakra, Marj Kasfa, Khurbet Kasfa, al Jabl Al Azraq, Khurbet Umm Al Hakumm in the village of Rafat.
In February 2019, the Israeli military announced the confiscation of more than 98 dunums of land from Rafat village, declaring it as "state land" in order to allocate the area for Hanson Israel and the Nahal Raba quarry. As a response to public questioning, the parent company Heidelberg Cement stated it does ‘not intend to extend [its] own quarrying business’ but rather that the permit extension is a ‘mere measure to ensure the sale of the quarry’.
In September 2021, the company replied to Who Profits letter by stating, "Hanson Israel signed a sale and purchase agreement for the Nahal Raby quarry with a third-party acquirer, which is still pending completion". Up to the moment of profiling the company, the quarry is still operated by HeidelbergCement.
In 2017, Who profits documented a truck carrying gravel from the Hanson Nahal Raba quarry in the occupied West Bank going into Israel.
In 2016, a Hanson truck was documented delivering construction raw material to a construction zone in Ofarim settlement, an Israeli settlement, located near the Palestinian village al-Lubban al-Gharbi, 3.8 km east of the Green Line in the occupied West Bank.
In 2015, Who Profits documented Hanson trucks at the Qalandiya checkpoint. Also in 2015, Hanson Israel concrete truck was documented delivering concrete to the expansion of the Barkan settlement industrial zone.
Services to prisons:
In January 2022, a Hanson truck was documented in the Gilboa prison complex, where Palestinian prisoners are incarcerated, as part of work on enhancing the prison.
