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[Boycott - Other News]

Why Boycott HP?


inminds
1 November 2016



HP Campaign Posters - see resources below for hi-res versions

Why Boycott Hewlett Packard?

HP is more than an office supplies and printers company, they are one of the top 20 defence contractors in the US with arms[1] sales worth $3 billion in 2011. They specialize in developing the IT infrastructure that is essential for the military to function.

Whilst Hewlett-Packard(HP) operates in 178 countries around the world in HP's own words "Israel is one of the few countries where HP has a massive presence.. In the past decade, HP has invested over $6 billion in the acquisition of Israeli companies, including the establishment of production plants.. HP is the second largest investor in Israeli IT."

HP provides IT backbone to Israeli Military

In 2011 HP won Israel's largest ever servers tender, worth an estimated $140 million. Under the tender HP implements and manages the entire server farm of the Ministry of Defense and the Israeli army initially for 5 years. Those HP servers form the IT backbone of the entire Israeli war machine making HP complicit in Israel's war crimes.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has found Israel guilty of war crimes when in 2014 its attack on Gaza resulting in the slaughter of nearly 1,500 Palestinian civilians, over a third of whom were children.

HP has been equipping the Israeli military since 2006 when it was first contracted to provid the IT infrastructure for the Israeli navy, followed by a virtualization project for the navy which was used by the Israeli military as a pilot for implementing the same system to the entire army.

HP is thereby assisting the illegal naval blockade of Gaza which also began in 2006. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, has stated that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is illegal, that “International humanitarian law prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and it is also prohibited to impose collective punishment on civilians.”

In 2009 HP won the contract to supply all computer equipment to the Israeli military. In another contract HP supply configuration management database system for the Israeli Army's secret IT unit. HP is also implementing and assimilating an enterprise resource planning and management system for the Israeli Army.

HP helping Israels dungeons and torture dens to operate

Hewlett Packard provides the essential IT services and infrastructure that enable the Israeli Prison Service (IPS)[2] to function.

Last year between Oct 2015 and Aug 2016 Israel abducted and caged 2,320 Palestinian children, some as young as 11 years old - that's more than one child taken from their parents every 4 hours! Figures for Jerusalem show that 40% of the children were sexually abused by Israeli soldiers during arrest or interrogation. During interrogation 75% of Palestinian children detained by Israel are physically tortured[3]. The United Nations "Rights Of The Child" report documents the brutal torture of Palestinian children as standard practice during interrogations in order to coerce confessions, usually to stone throwing which carries a sentence of up to 20 years' imprisonment. Today there are over 7000 Palestinian political prisoners, including women and children, imprisoned by the Israeli Prison Service - many locked up indefinitely without even a charge let alone a trial. 72 Palestinian prisoners have been tortured to death in Israeli prisons since 1967. The latest being father of five young children, Raed Abdul-Salam al-Jabari, who was died following interrogation at Eshel prison on 9th Sep 2014. He had been arrested over a simple car accident involving an illegal Israeli settler. The IPS claimed he had committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell but the autopsy revealed he had been savagely tortured with repeated blows to the head and face causing brain hemorrhage. His neck showed no signs of hanging.

In an ongoing contract, worth millions of dollars, HP provides the Israeli prison service the systems and servers needed to keep it operational. In 2012 HP provided the central servers for the operational system of the IPS ("Tzohar") and it's ongoing maintenance. In a contract worth $35 million.

HP developed the Kidma information system for the IPS which includes the prisoners management system and intelligence subs systems, helping the occupation keep illegal records on Palestinians it has abducted and their families. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Children has reported that Palestinian child prisoners are often coerced to confess by sexually threatening their family members or themselves.

HP has also executed a project for e-mail storage and archive for the IPS.

HP helps the Israeli occupation implement apartheid

The United Nations Committe on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has urged Israel to eradicate its "policies and practices of racial segregation and apartheid"[6]. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court lists apartheid as a "crime against humanity"[7].

One of the ways Israel impelements its apartheid system is through a stratified colour coded ID system. The type of ID one has determines how much of historic Palestine one is allowed to access. Jewish Israeli citizens are free to move and live in virtually the whole country whilst Palestinian citizens of Israel are barred from living in 68% of all towns in Israel and Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza are all restricted to their own tiny enclaves.[5]

In 2008, HP signed a contract with the Israeli Ministry of Interior for the production and manufacturing of biometric ID cards. Since 1997 HP operates and maintains the Aviv system, the computing company of the population, immigration and border passing authority. In 2011 HP was contracted to install a standpoint of the population registrar, which is connected to the population registrar system. The Arbel unit of the authority of population handles the replacement of passports to biometric ID's and includes the collection and archive of all people's information.

HP has also developed and maintained the Basel System - a biometric access control system with hand and facial recognition, which is used by Israel at illegal checkpoints deep inside occupied territory to restrict and control Palestinian freedom of movement in their own land. It forms part of the separation wall apparatus declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004. In a letter to the ECCP, HP proudly admits developing and maintaining the Basel System but says it's to help the Palestinians as it facilitates their passage through apartheid checkpoints faster therby helping them![4]


HP helps Israel's illegal colonies

According to countless United Nations Resolutions and the International Court of Justice, Israel's settler colonies on the West Bank are illegal, yet Hewlett Packard ignores this and continues to provide services to the illegal settlements, in particular Modi'in Illit and Ariel. This includes a data storage system for the municipality of Ariel as part of the "Smart City" project. In it's documents for the "Smart City" project for the illegal settlement of Ariel on the Occupied West Bank, Hewlett Packard refers to Ariel as being located in Israel, as capital of Samaria, with no mention of the Occupied West Bank. Palestine is completely wiped off Hewlett Packard's map that is included in it's brochure, and Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights are shown as an integral part of Israel.[8]


Two Companies?

In November 2015, HP split into two companies: HP Inc. for consumer hardware (PCs and printers), and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) for business and government services. But both companies still work hand in hand, sharing offices and joint tendures so both remain deeply complicit in Israels crimes and for our campaign we are treating them as one entity - Hewlett Packard.

 


[1]Arms sales defined as goods & services designed specifically for military purpose and doesn't include general purpose equipment like office computers. Figure may be underestimates as it doesn't include classified contracts. Src: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

[2]We would especially like to thank WhoProfits.org for the research they have conducted on HP, in particular their freedom of information requests that have revealed the extent of HP's complicity with the Israeli Prison Service.

[3]Source - Euro-Mid Observers For Human Rights, Jan 2010 - Jun 2014

[4]In response to a letter submitted on behalf of the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP) Jonathan Bauer, Hewlett-Packard Human Rights Program Manager stated (April 2014): "The Basel System referenced in your letter was developed by HP to expedite checkpoint passage in a secure environment. The solution contributes to the development of the regional economy by enabling workers and others to get to their place of work or to carry out their business in a faster and safer way."

[5]Palestinian citizens of Israel are barred from living in 68% of all towns in Israel by admission committees. Whilst Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have access to the West Bank their ID may be revoked if they live outside of Jerusalem. West Bank Palestinians are barred from living in 40% of the West Bank due to Israeli settlements and military presence. Gaza citizens are barred from living outside of Gaza since 2007.

[6]http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/CERD.C.ISR.CO.14-16.pdf

[7]https://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/ea9aeff7-5752-4f84-be94-0a655eb30e16/0/rome_statute_english.pdf

[8]http://www.inminds.com/article.php?id=10633




Inminds protest in Jan 2015 outside BETT, the world's leading education learning technology event which attracted over 35,000 people working in the education sector.
Hewlett Packard's Vice-President Gus Schmedien, head of Worldwide Education, was addressing the event talking of how HP helps children,
whilst ignoring the fact that the previous summer HP helped Israel's war machine kill over 500 children in Gaza.


Source: www.inminds.com


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