This section of Investigate includes companies involved in the pillage of natural resources in occupied Palestinian territories and in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
Business activities in this sector involves mainly the extractive and waste industries:
- Extractive companies that drill for water, oil, or natural gas.
- Companies that own, operate, or mine in quarries.
- Waste management companies that own or operate landfills, sewage treatment plants, and other facilities that pollute the land and groundwater.
- Solar energy companies that operate solar fields on occupied lands.
Companies involved in the exploitation of occupied land for the purpose of building residential projects in illegal settlements are addressed separately in the Settlement Enterprise section.
Since 1967 Israel has been treating the natural resources of these lands as its own. Shortly after the end of the 1967 war, Israel seized control of all water resources in the newly occupied territories. According to B’Tselem, Israel has used the water "as it sees fit, ignoring the needs of Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, to such an extent that the two areas suffer a severe water shortage.” Israel has been Land has been confiscated piecemeal for the building of settlements in a process that continues today.
In the early 1970s, the Israeli government started permitting companies to mine for natural resources in the West Bank. According to Who Profits, as of 2016 there are eleven Israeli quarries operating in the West Bank, extracting rock, gravel, and aggregates. These quarries produce millions of tons of construction material annually, the majority of which are transported outside the West Bank to be used in Israeli construction projects. Who Profits also reports that, as of 2017, there are six settlement waste management companies operating in the occupied West Bank, taking advantage of the occupation’s lax environmental regulations in the area while polluting Palestinian land and water resources. In addition, over the years Israel has granted special permits to specific companies, giving them exclusive rights to conduct activities such as exploratory oil and gas drilling, excavating minerals from the dead sea area, and the like.
According to international human rights law, all peoples have “permanent sovereignty over their natural wealth and resources.” This principle was codified in the 1966 International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), both declare that “all peoples have the right of self-determination,” and that this includes the right “to freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources.”
The case of military occupations is governed by the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. While they allow the occupying power to use the natural resources of the occupied territory, they impose strict conditions. Specifically, it is generally illegal for an occupying power to exploit the natural resources of occupied people for its own domestic purposes. Also, the occupier “must safeguard the capital of these properties,” and therefore must not deplete or alter them in a way that would prevent their future use. Private property may not be confiscated unless there is an imperative military necessity. In addition, pillage by occupying forces is strictly forbidden under all circumstances and is considered a war crime.
With specific regard to the Israeli occupation, the UN General Assembly resolved as early as 1973 that all the measures Israel undertook “to exploit the human and natural resources of the occupied Arab territories” it had occupied since 1967 are illegal. This principle was reaffirmed multiple times. In 2016, UN Human Rights Council Resolution 31/36 called on companies “to avoid contributing to the establishment or maintenance of Israeli settlements or the exploitation of natural resources of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Related databases and resources
- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights database of business enterprises involved in the Israeli settlements
- Who Profits Exploitation of Occupied Production and Resources database - including privately-owned companies that are not publicly traded
- Who Profits series on the Exploitation of Palestinian Natural Resources: Part I, Part II: HeidelbergCement, Part III: Ashtrom, Part IV: Ahava
- Al Haq Pillage of the Dead Sea report