Mekorot is the national water company of Israel, which supplies 90% of Israel’s drinking water and provides 80% of its water supplies. The company is state-owned. Mekorot not only operates within Israel’s internationally recognized pre-1967 borders (i.e. within the Green Line), but also in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). It is the Israeli government’s executive arm in the OPT for water issues. In East Jerusalem and other parts of the occupied West Bank, Mekorot supplies water to the settlements. It also supplies a substantial share of the water consumed by Palestinians, who are prevented from developing their own water sector. As a result, Mekorot is actively involved in conducting and maintaining the Israeli occupation. Below follows an overview of the main manifestations of this involvement.
Who Profits' new flash report reveals that all the Israeli banks are still heavily involved in financing Israeli settlements, providing services to settlements and financially supporting construction projects on occupied land.
The following flash-report is an update on the major Israeli agriculture export companies presently operating in Occupied Territories.
All Israeli cellular communication companies are commercially involved in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Golan Heights. These companies build infrastructure, maintain property and equipment in illegal Israeli settlements, much of it on privately owned Palestinian lands. They all provide services to the Israeli military and to all Israeli settlers, and some provide specially designed services. They use the Israeli control of the Palestinian territory to exploit the Palestinian frequencies and to impose their services on the Palestinian captive market.
According to the Norwegian Government's Pension Fund's guidelines, the fund "should not make investments which constitute an unacceptable risk that the Fund may contribute to unethical acts or omissions, such as violations of fundamental humanitarian principles, serious violations of human rights, gross corruption or severe environmental damages." In 2008, the fund announced that it was going to initiate investments in the Israeli market. Examining the investments' portfolio of December 31st, 2008, we have discovered that almost two thirds of the 41 Israeli companies on the list, and an additional eleven international corporations, have significant economic interests in the continued Israeli occupation.
Israeli military checkpoints are spread throughout the occupied West Bank, and they have a direct and devastating effect on the daily lives of Palestinians. This elaborate control system fragments families and communities, paralyzes Palestinian production and trade and prevents a viable political existence. These impacts are well documented, yet the involvement of companies in the operation, equipment and maintenance of the checkpoints has not been awarded enough attention.