Wall and Checkpoints in Palestine

The military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip imposes severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinians. Since the early 1990s, Israel instituted a permit system, requiring that all Palestinians obtain military issued permits to travel between the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem or to travel abroad. This permit regime, along with the walls around the Gaza Strip and inside the West Bank, accompanied by the system of roadblocks, gates, checkpoints, and other obstacles to movement, severely limits Palestinian access to basic resources including land and water and basic services including health care and education, and perpetuate a system of segregation and legal and structural inequality between Palestinians and Israelis.

This section of Investigate includes companies that are involved in the various components of the system of restrictions on the movement of Palestinians as individuals and the fragmentation of the Palestinian society as a whole. This encompases the wall that blockades the Gaza Strip. Corporate involvement in this system takes various forms, chief among them are:

  • Engineering firms involved in the planning of construction of the Gaza and West Bank walls
  • Companies that provide materials for the construction or maintenance of the Gaza and West Bank walls
  • Companies that operate or maintain checkpoints
  • High tech companies that provide surveillance equipment for the walls or checkpoints

The Gaza Wall

The border between Israel and the Gaza Strip is one of the most militarized in the world. The separation wall that blockades the Gaza Strip consists of several physical barriers. Construction of the barrier started in 1994, after the signing of the Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area. The initial barrier consisted of a metal fence with barbed wire along the Green Line, Israel’s internationally recognized border. In 2000, after the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Israel rebuilt the fence and outfitted it with high tech observation towers. In proximity to populated areas and to border crossings the wall consisted of concrete slabs.

After Israel unilaterally withdrew its settler population from the Gaza Strip in 2005, it placed new and increased restrictions over the movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza. Since 2007, Israel has imposed a military blockade over the Gaza Strip, and does not allow anyone to get in or out except for some humanitarian cases. The United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross have both declared the blockade to be an illegal form of collective punishment against the Gaza population. To enforce the blockade, Israel also cleared a no-go buffer zone along the fence perimeter, on the Gaza side, and instructed its soldiers to kill anyone who enters it, regardless of any indication of a security threat, a flagrant violation of international law. Over the years, Israel gradually expanded the width of the buffer zone, destroying in the process thousands of Palestinian farms, more than a thousand homes, several hundred water wells, and a few mosques, schools, and factories.

To enforce the blockade more efficiently, Israel introduced two new unmanned weapon systems designed to guard the Gaza border. The first, Sentry Tech, designed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, an Israeli-government-owned defense technology company, consists of remote-controlled machine guns mounted on pillbox guard towers that were erected every few hundred feet of the border. The second was Guardium, a weaponized autonomous armored border patrol vehicle, designed by a joint venture of Elbit Systems and the Israel Aerospace Industries. The latter was replaced in 2016 by an Elbit-designed combat vehicle based on a Ford F-350 truck.

The third phase of building the Gaza border wall began in 2017, to prevent tunnels from crossing the barrier underground. The new wall is comprised of 20-feet-tall concrete slabs above ground and 130-feet-deep concrete slabs reinforced with iron rods underground. The wall’s high tech components include surveillance cameras above ground and motion detection sensors underground. This aspect of the construction is headed by Elbit Systems, with several subcontractors. The new wall is scheduled to be completed in 2019, at a total cost of about $1 billion. According to news sources, several European and Chinese companies refused to be involved in this project because of its “political sensitivities.”

While Israel no longer maintains a civilian population and permanent military presence inside the Gaza Strip, and despite Israeli declarations that the wall around the Gaza Strip is an international border, Gaza is still considered occupied territory under international law. Israel still retains exclusive control over the Gaza Strip’s airspace, territorial waters, population registry, and tax revenues, among others. Since 2006, AFSC has called for an end to the Gaza blockade. We’ve called for action by both Israel and the international community, noting that both bear responsibility for the disaster in Gaza.

The West Bank Wall

In 2002, Israel started to construct a system of separation walls and barriers in the West Bank. Unlike the wall in Gaza, the West Bank wall is not constructed on the Green Line, Israel’s pre-1967 border. Instead, roughly 85 percent of the wall’s path runs inside the occupied West Bank, placing most illegal settlements on the Israeli side of the wall. As early as 2003, John Dugard, at the time the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, referred to the construction of the wall as a “visible and clear act of territorial annexation under the guise of security.” The annexation of an occupied territory is strictly forbidden under international law.

While some parts of the wall separate Israeli communities from Palestinian ones, in other places it separates Palestinians from Palestinians. In Jerusalem, parts of the wall run inside the municipal boundaries, cutting off Palestinian neighborhoods from their communities and means of livelihood. In many places in the West Bank, construction of the wall was accomplished by massive land confiscation and destruction of Palestinian communities and means of livelihood. The West Bank barrier is not yet complete. It is complemented by a permanent system of roadblocks, gates, checkpoints, and other obstacles to the movement of Palestinians.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that, by building the wall, Israel has breached “various of its obligations under the applicable international humanitarian law and human rights instruments,” and that therefore the construction of the wall and its associated regime “are contrary to international law.” In accordance with this decision, AFSC believes that “construction of the wall should be halted, sections already completed should be dismantled, legislation and regulatory acts related to the wall should be canceled, and reparations should be made for all damages caused by the wall.”

Related Databases and Resources

The list of companies involved in this sector
Select private companies are listed below publicly-traded companies.
(!) symbol means this company is on our divestment list
Publicly-Traded Companies

An Israeli company specializing in control and automation technologies that is involved in several projects in the occupied Palestinian territory and Golan Heights.

One of Israel's largest construction and real estate companies. It has constructed housing units and large-scale infrastructure in illegal Israeli settlements, as well as parts of Israel's separation wall. It also operates a quarry and concrete plant in the occupied West Bank.

An Israeli holding company with a controlling interest in Bezeq, Israel's largest telecommunications provider, which has infrastructure throughout the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights and provides telecommunication services to illegal Israeli settlements, military bases, and checkpoints.

Israel's largest telecommunications provider. It has infrastructure throughout the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights and provides telecommunication services to illegal Israeli settlements, military bases, and checkpoints.

An Israeli outsourcing company for secure communications systems. Its systems are installed at military bases and checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and in weapons systems used by the Israeli military.

A US-based multinational manufacturer of construction machinery and equipment. Its products are weaponized for the Israeli military and are used in home demolitions; in the construction of illegal settlement infrastructure, border walls, and military checkpoints; and in military assaults against Palestinians.

A Mexican building materials company that has provided concrete for numerous illegal Israeli construction projects in the occupied Palestinian territory and that operates production plants there, despite having formally sold them.

A multinational manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment. Its construction equipment has been used in demolitions of Palestinians' homes and in construction on illegal Israeli settlements and the Separation Wall.

South Korea

A South Korean multinational conglomerate of power generation, desalination, heavy machinery, and construction companies. Machinery manufactured by the company and its subsidiary Bobcat has been used in the construction of illegal Israeli settlements and related infrastructure, the separation wall, and military checkpoints.

Israel's largest weapons manufacturer. Its weapons are routinely used in war crimes against Palestinian civilians and its surveillance systems are used in Palestine and along the U.S.–Mexico border.

One of Israel's largest private security firms and a former subsidiary of G4S. It provides security services and equipment to illegal Israeli settlements, the Israeli military, and the Israeli police and prison systems.

A US-based vehicle manufacturer that provides commercial and specialized vehicles to law enforcement and immigration authorities. Its trucks are also used by the Israeli military and border police to patrol the Gaza wall and for other military occupation-related purposes.

An Israeli provider of satellite communication equipment. Its systems are installed at Israeli military checkpoints throughout the occupied West Bank and on armored personnel carriers used by the Israeli military.

A Chinese manufacturer of surveillance cameras and software, AI systems, access control technology, and other products. Its equipment is used to surveil Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and by prison and police agencies worldwide. 

The parent company of B Communications, which has a controlling interest in Bezeq, Israel's largest telecommunications provider. Been has infrastructure throughout the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights and provides telecommunication services to illegal Israeli settlements, military bases, and checkpoints.

A large Israeli construction, infrastructure, and drilling company. Its subsidiaries Africa Israel and Danya Cebus are involved in several construction and infrastructure projects in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

An Israeli construction and development company that has provided services and infrastructure to illegal Israeli settlements and military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank.

An Israeli IT company that operates in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory and conducts projects for the Israeli military.

France

A French heavy equipment manufacturer. It makes cranes that have been used in the construction and maintenance of the separation wall in the occupied West Bank.

A US-based communications and surveillance company. Leading supplier of license plate recognition software. Sells surveillance products for use at US prisons, at the US-Mexico Border, and by US police agencies. Its equipment is installed in illegal settlements and in the separation wall in the West Bank and is used by the Israeli military, police, and prison service.

Israel

An Israeli manufacturer of security and perimeter protection technology. Its equipment is installed in illegal Israeli settlements and the separation wall in the occupied West Bank.

A US manufacturer of security and inspection systems. It provides these systems to US border checkpoints and to Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied Palestinian territory.

An Israeli company (formerly Magal Security Systems) specializing in high-tech security systems for fences and walls. Its systems are installed in the West Bank and Gaza walls.

An Israeli infrastructure and construction company. Builds infrastructure and residential projects in multiple illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and has a factory a factory in a settlement. Involved in building military checkpoints and the Gaza wall.

A Japanese multinational conglomerate that specializes in developing and manufacturing electronic equipment, gaming consoles, instruments, and software. Its cameras are used in surveillance systems in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A US manufacturer of machinery and lift equipment for construction and infrastructure projects. Its equipment has been used in home demolitions and in the construction of Israel's separation wall, the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem railway, and military checkpoints. 

An Israeli staffing agency for the private security industry. Its subsidiary Reshef Security provides security services to illegal Israeli settlements, infrastructure projects, and military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights.

Netherlands

A Dutch technology company whose surveillance cameras are used to surveil Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and by prison and police agencies worldwide.

Sweden

A Swedish multinational manufacturer of trucks, buses, construction equipment, and industrial systems. Its vehicles and equipment have been used in demolitions of Palestinians' homes and in the construction of illegal Israeli settlements and settlement infrastructure in the occupied West Bank.