Elbit Systems Ltd. is Israel’s largest arms manufacturer and one of the world’s largest defense electronics manufacturers. Elbit designs and supplies integrated UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) for a range of applications. Elbit produces the Hermes 450 drone, aptly described as the “workhorse of the IDF.”
Human Rights Watch produced a report focusing “on six Israeli drone strikes, which in total killed 29 civilians, eight of them children.” The report noted that “Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations – B’Tselem, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, and the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights – together reported 42 drone attacks that killed 87 civilians” during Operation Cast Lead.
Highlighting Elbit’s Hermes 450 drone, a 2009 Amnesty International report said, “Amnesty has found in recent conflicts that Israeli Air Force strikes have targeted civilian homes, hospitals and shops, and has documented significant civilian casualties from such strikes.” Amnesty International UK Campaigns Director Tim Hancock explained further, “Pilotless aircraft have been used by Israel in previous attacks on civilian and humanitarian targets. The government should ensure that UK-based firms are in no way implicated in these attacks.”
Elbit Systems has also provided vital equipment for Israel’s separation barrier, or wall, which in 2004 the International Criminal Court of Justice at the Hague ruled a violation of international law. The wall is built largely on Palestinian land, separating many farmers from their land and encircling entire Palestinian cities and villages. The Norwegian government found that “investment in Elbit constitutes an unacceptable risk of contribution to serious violations of fundamental ethical norms as a result of the company’s integral involvement in Israel’s construction of a separation barrier on occupied territory.”
