Occupation, Inc. How Settlement Business Contribute to Israel’s Violations of Palestinian Rights

More than a half million Israeli settlers live in 237 settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem. Successive Israeli governments have facilitated in this process, even though settlements are unlawful under international humanitarian law and are part and parcel of Israeli policies that dispossess, discriminate against, and abuse the human rights of Palestinians. But the system is not just propagated by the Israeli government; it also depends on the involvement of a multitude of businesses that operate in the settlements. Occupation, Inc., published in January 2016, examines the role of businesses that operate in settlements, finance settlement construction, provide services to settlers, or trade with settlement businesses. Using a series of case studies, it describes how such businesses facilitate and sustain unlawful settlements and thereby contribute to a system whose existence and expansion is contingent on the unlawful confiscation of Palestinian land and resources and a discriminatory two-tiered and abusive system of laws, rules, and services that Israel has imposed in the area of West Bank under its exclusive control.

Occupation, Inc. | Human Rights Watch