Who are they?
Motorola Solutions is the parent company of Motorola Solutions Israel.
What do they do?
In 2005, Motorola Solutions Israel won a tender from the Israeli Ministry of Defense to provide virtual fences to Israeli settlements that had refused to provide fences for themselves. According to news reports, a Motorola radar-detector system was installed in some 20-47 Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including in Hebron, Karmei Tzur, and Bracha. In some cases, the radar stations were erected on private Palestinian land, preventing Palestinian movement near the settlements.
The system’s name is MotoEagle Surveillance and includes radars and cameras that detect human movement outside the settlements; it is based on radar systems provided by ICx Radar Systems (in October 2010, ICx was purchased by FLIR Systems).
According to recent reports, the system is installed in about 25 settlements, including Thko’a, Nokdim, Otniel, Beit Hagai, Eli, Rehelim, Tapu’ach, Mechora, Elon More, and Talmon.
The system is also used in the West Bank separation wall complex, the wall around Gaza, and in military bases. The company provides ongoing service to these systems and continues to advertise their use in Israeli installations in the occupied territories.
Motorola Solutions Israel has developed and provided the “Mountain Rose” communication system for the Israeli army, which is a specifically designed mobile system for field conditions, and it is being used by soldiers in the occupied West Bank. Additionally, the company provided Israel Police with the Astro25 communication system. Israel Police special patrol Unit uses this system during its operations in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In January 2014, the Israeli Defense Ministry signed a USD 100 million, 15-year contract with Motorola Solutions to supply the Israeli army and other security forces with an encrypted smartphone. The device will offer encrypted calls, emails, the ability to send and receive digital media and navigation capabilities. It will replace the veteran ‘Mountain Rose’ mobile system, which will continue to serve the Israeli army until 2018. Motorola Solutions won the contract without a tender.
USD 50 million of the new smartphone system program will be funded using U.S. military aid, which will cover the cost of adaptation, development, and production of the devices for the Israeli army, by Motorola Solutions. The other half of the program will be funded from the Israeli defense budget, primarily covering maintenance of the system by Motorola Solutions Israel.
The smartphone system’s encryption will be developed jointly by Lotam – the Israeli army’s telecom unit and Motorola Israel.
The Government Electronics Department (GED) of Motorola Solutions Israel, which was responsible for military technology in Motorola Israel and produced electronic bomb fuses for the Israeli Army, was sold to Aeronautics Defense Systems in April 2009.
In February 2012, Israel Railways awarded a tender for the installation of Internet access on 630 train cars and all train stations to Motorola Solutions Israel. The contract includes the A1 fast train line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which is currently under construction. The A1 route crosses the Green Line international border in two areas into the occupied West Bank. In some parts the route passes through privately owned Palestinian lands. Any use of occupied Palestinian land and resources for an exclusively Israeli transportation project is illegal by international law.
Who else has taken divestment action against this company?
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- On April 12, 2016, the College Council of the University of Chicago passed a resolution to Divest University funds from apartheid, urging the university “ to withdraw, within the bounds of their fiduciary duty, investments in securities, endowments, mutual funds, and other monetary instruments with holdings in companies profiting from human rights abuses and violations of international law in Palestine, including, Motorola Solution.”
- March 25, 2016, The Unitarian Universalist Association and its endowment fund have implemented a human rights screen and divested from companies complicit in human rights violations, including Motorola Solutions.
- On March 6, 2016, the Vassar Student Association voted to support the international BDS movement and to divest from companies profiting from Israeli human rights abuses, including Motorola Solutions.
- November 2015 the student government at San Jose State University voted to divest from “companies that play an active role in the human rights violations committed by the Israeli Government in the Occupied Palestinian Territories” including Motorola.
- In October 2015 the Human Rights Council of the city of Portland, Oregon demanded that the City Socially Responsible Investments Committee Motorola Solutions on the city’s “Do Not Buy” list due to its complicity in “serious human rights violations in the ongoing illegal and brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.”
- In April 2015 the Student Senate of Earham College passed a resolution in support of divestment from companies “directly involved in the Israeli Occupation of Palestine,” including Motorola.
- In February 2014, Luxembourg’s national pension fund excluded Motorola from its list of investments because of its “association to financing illegal settlements in occupied territories.”
- In June of 2014, the Presbyterian Church‘s General Assembly voted to divest from Motorola, citing ten years of unsuccessful engagement with the corporation on its involvement in home demolitions and other human rights violations in Israel/Palestine.
- Wesleyan University‘s student senate in 2014 voted to divest the student endowment from Motorola, declaring the company “complicit in the illegal occupation of Palestine.”
- In 2012, Swedish pension funds AP 1-4 began an engagement with Motorola over the surveillance systems it provides to West Bank settlements that “contravene international humanitarian law.”
- Graduate students at Canada’s Carleton University voted in a 2012 referendum to divest the university’s pension from Motorola, citing its involvement in “illegal military occupations and other violations of international law.”
- Undergraduate students at Arizona State University, in June 2012, voted to divest from and blacklist Motorola due to its “complicit[y] in human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian Territories.”
- The Board of Trustees at Hampshire College, following a two-year student campaign, approved divestment from Motorola due to “human rights concerns in occupied Palestine.”
- Dutch Triodos Bank, in 2008, stated “Triodos explicitly excludes companies that contribute to the continuation of occupation, like Motorola.”
http://investigate.afsc.org/company/motorola-solutions-inc