A Swedish-based, multinational public company, which manufactures trucks, buses, construction equipment and marine and industrial engines.

The Volvo Group provides heavy machinery used for the demolition of Palestinian houses in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, construction of Israeli settlements and construction of the Separation Wall.

In the South Hebron Hills area, Volvo wheel loaders were used to demolish houses in the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khayr and to block roads. Volvo track excavators and wheel loaders were also used for house demolitions in the Palestinian neighborhoods of Tzur Baher, Silwan, Wadi Qaddum, Sheikh Jarrah, Beit Hanina and Issawiya in occupied East Jerusalem.

The company’s equipment was used for the construction of the Har Gilo settlement and the Barkan Industrial Zone. Volvo trucks were used for the construction of the Huwara checkpoint, Route 443 (a West Bank road for Israelis only) and the Separation Wall near the Palestinian village of Al-Walaja.

Volvo Group excavators and loaders were also used for the demolition of houses of Palestinian citizens of Israel inside the Green Line. Volvo heavy machinery was used in multiple demolitions in the city of Lod. In addition, the company’s wheel loaders were used in numerous attempts to evict the Bedouin community of Al-Araqib from its land in the Naqab (Negev) desert.

Volvo Buses, a subsidiary of the Volvo Group, owns 26.5% of Merkavim, which supplies armored buses for Egged lines in the occupied Palestinian territory. Merkavim’s remaining shares are held by Mayer’s Cars and Trucks, which is the exclusive distributor of Volvo in Israel.

Volvo Group buses are also used by the Central Company for the Development of Samaria and the Company for the Development of the Binyamin Council in the West Bank, for transportation services to the settlements. The Samaria Regional Council also owns and operates a Volvo licensed garage. Two additional Volvo certified garages operate in the occupied Palestinian territory, in the industrial zones of Mishor Adumim and Atarot.

In response to a freedom of information request by Who Profits, the Israel Prison Service confirmed that the Volvo Group and its subsidiary Merkavim provide services to the Israel Prison Service, including buses for the transportation of prisoners.

The Volvo Group supplied maintenance trucks to the Jerusalem Light Rail project, which connects settlements in occupied East Jerusalem to one another and to the western part of the city.

Volvo equipment has also been used by the Israeli Civil Administration in the confiscation of solar panels belonging to Palestinian communities in Khirbet Jebnah and Khan al-Ahmar. In February 2016, Volvo trucks were used by the Israeli Civil Administration and the Israeli military to confiscate solar panels in Khirbet Jebnah. In April 2015, a Volvo truck was documented in the confiscation of 12 solar panels belonging to Khan al-Ahmar by the Israeli Civil Administration and Border Police. In both cases, the solar panels, provided by humanitarian aid organizations, were the community’s sole source of electricity.