Did you know that Hewlett-Packard, the same company that makes printers and PCs, receives more than half its revenues from military contracts?

In the U.S., this company is a top contractor with the Department of Defense and it provides products and services to the Department of Homeland Security.

In Palestine, HP is deeply involved with the Israeli occupation. HP develops and profits from population-control systems that assist the Israeli government in the restriction of Palestinian movement, ethnic-based discrimination and segregation, and human rights violations.

Their projects include:

• Developing and maintaining the BASEL system, a biometric access control system installed in major Israeli checkpoints which restrict Palestinian movement in their own land.
• Providing biometric ID cards for all Israeli citizens, which record ethnicity/religion/nationality, thus facilitating state-based discrimination against Palestinians and non-Jews as well as the policing of segregated areas and services.
• Holding exclusive contracts with the Israeli army and navy for the supply of computers and other equipment, used daily in Israeli military operations and occupation facilities.

For more details on the above, also see the new report by Who Profits titled Technologies of Control: HP’s Involvement in the Occupation Industry.

How can you take action?

• Tell HP that it is unacceptable to profit from segregation and occupation.
• Educate your local store owners and potential HP customers about this company’s involvement in human rights violations around the world.
• Work to end public contracts with HP until it withdraws from occupation-profiteering. Task forces in the Methodist Church and in the Presbyterian Church have been trying to engage with the company for years, leading to recommendations to divest from HP.
• Follow these efforts as well as initiatives in Earlham College, University of Toronto, and York University and ask your college, church or community to divest from HP.

More information about Hewlett-Packard can be found on the website of our Palestine Economic Activism Project (EAP), which seeks to support corporate accountability campaigns nationally by providing education, training, networking, strategic tools, and research support.

The HP section of the website:

• Further explains this company’s complicity in the occupation and why it should be targeted.
• Compiles links to learn more about HP, including the variety of actions that have been taken against this company.
• Lists strategies and tools for starting your own corporate accountability campaign against HP.

In solidarity,