War on Want's alternative report on Caterpillar provides a chilling account of an Israel soldier's 75 hour rampage in a D9 bulldozer in Jenin in 2002. "I had no mercy for anybody. I would erase anyone with the D9 ...When I was told to bring down a house, I took the opportunity to bring down some more houses...They were warned by loudspeaker to get out of the house before I came, but I gave no one a chance. I didn’t wait. I didn’t give one blow and wait for them to come out. I would just ram the house with full power, to bring it down as fast as possible."
6. The Coca-Cola Company
The Israeli company that has held the Coca Cola franchise in Israel since 1967, the Central Bottling Company (CBC), has a regional distribution centre in an industrial zone in the Israeli settlement of Atarot which it operates through its subsidiary the Central Company for Sales and Distribution.
CBC also owns Tabor Winery, which owns vineyards vineyards in the occupied Golan Heights. In addition, through its subsidiary Tara (Milco Industries), CBC owns approximately 81% of Meshek Zuriel Dairy (81%), which has a dairy farm and head office in a settlement in the Jordan Valley.
Due to its commercial relationship to CBC, The Coca-Cola Company is also the subject of the Israel boycott. In July 2015 the National Union of Students voted to censure its president for accepting a sponsorship deal from Coca-Cola for its annual awards ceremony, in violation of the boycott, which it adopted as a policy in August 2014.
According to an NUS statement:
There is… a clear, direct line of accountability whereby Coca Cola, through its operations in Israel, is active within illegally occupied territory, in the process keeping occupation a viable exercise for the Israeli state. The responsibility thus lies on NUS to implement its policy and break ties with the company until it at the very least ends complicity in the Israeli occupation.
7. Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard is one of the top arms-producing companies in the world and has an extensive number of contracts with the Israeli state. It owns the company which developed the BASEL system, in use at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, which controls Palestinian movement through a system of ID cards and biometric information.
HP has also maintains the IT infrastructure of the Israeli navy, which imposes a naval blockade of the Gaza strip, and provides and maintains computer equipment for the Israeli prison service, which stands accused of human rights abuses including the detention and torture of children.
You can visit the Palestine Solidarity Campaign website to sign a pledge to boycott Hewlett-Packard.
8. J Sainsburys plc
Sainsbury's sells a range of Israeli fresh fruit and vegetables, some of which are from companies active in Israeli settlements. The Sainsbury's: Taste the Indifference campaign was launched in 2013 and calls on the company to “cease all trade with companies complicit in the colonisation of Palestinian land”.
The Co-operative and Marks and Spencer have stated that they will not trade in products from Israeli settlements and the Co-operative's policy extends to trading with companies that trade with the settlements. No other British supermarkets have taken a stance on either settlement products or companies. Sainsbury's was selected as a campaign target as it is seen as 'winnable' - the company promotes its ethical and Fairtrade credentials and is a founder member of the Ethical Trading Initiative.
Local groups across the UK have been organising around Sainsbury’s stores, speaking with and leafleting customers and collecting signatures on petitions and postcards. The company's shareholders received an open letter from Corporate Watch in 2014 and its CEO received an open letter from several Members of Parliament and the European Parliament and representatives of a number of groups including Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods and War on Want. Protests have been held both inside and outside its AGM.
9. SodaStream International
Its decision to relocate the plant to the Rahat area in the Naqab (Negev) desert in Israel is, however, also highly controversial. The Israeli government has long-standing policies to force the Bedioun communities of the Naqab off of their traditional lands and into “authorised” townships. The 2011 Prawer Plan aimed to displace at least 40,000 people and, although it was officially put on hold in 2013, it seems that it will still be carried out in a modified form. Tens of thousands of Palestinians live in unrecognized villages in the Naqab and are denied basic services such as electricity, water and education.
"Far from reducing its direct contribution to human rights abuses, SodaStream’s factory in the Rahat area in the Naqab (Negev) amounts to conscious participation in Israel’s plans to ethnically cleanse tens of thousands of Bedouin Palestinian citizens of Israel from their ancestral lands," The BDS National Committee told Ethical Consumer. The boycott of the company continues.
10. The Strauss Group
The Strauss Group is Israel's second biggest food company and has been identified as a target of the BDS movement as a result of its support for two notorious Israeli military units, Golani and Givati. These brigades committed atrocities during Israel's 2009-10 deadly assault on Gaza. Their members have been known to use horrific imagery on t-shirts, such as a pregnant Palestinian woman in a sniper's cross-hairs, with the slogan “one shot, two kills”.
The company has previously claimed to have "adopted” the two platoons and provided the soldiers with food and personal care packages. It has removed and reposted information on its website regarding its support for the Israeli military and the status of its current support is unclear.
The Strass Group part-owns Sabra Hummus, which is sold by retailers in the UK including Sainsburys and Tesco. Sabra is also owned by PepsiCo, which manufactures Sabra products in the USA. The companies also jointly own a company licensed to produce Frito Lay products in Israel.
The Strauss Group also has a partnership with French yoghurt makers Danone; it manufactures and markets Danone products in Israel.
In 2011 the company signed an agreement with the Virgin Group which saw the formation of a new company, Virgin Strauss Water, that markets Strauss water dispensers under the brand Virgin Pure.