Every 60 Hours Israel Kills One Palestinian Child - Hewlett Packard Protest outside London HQ - #StopArmingIsrael, 16th Jan 2015

inminds
25 January 2015

Every 60 hours Israel kills one Palestinian child, for the last 14 years! Hewlett Packard, one of the top 20 armament companies in the US, with its $6 billion investment in Israel, provides the IT backbone for the entire Israeli killing machine - from the army, to the navy, to the Ministry of Defense - that makes such slaughter possible.

Last year Israel abducted 1266 Palestinian children - that's one child taken from their parents every 7 hours! 40% of the 600 that were taken from Jerusalem alone were sexually abused by Israeli soldiers during arrest or interrogation. During interrogation 75% of Palestinian children detained by Israel are physically tortured***. Hewlett Packard keeps those torture dens and dungeons where Palestinian children are caged and abused, operational by the IT infrastructure it provides to the Israeli Prison Service.

On 16th January 2015 we continued our campaign against Hewlett Packard by protesting outside the London HQ in Wood Street, to demand they end their complicity in Israel's war crimes, dungeons & torture dens.

We experienced the full cycle of British weather with the protest starting out dry and ending windy and extremely wet - it took two days for the flags, placards and banners to dry out. Despite the cold weather we received a very warm response from the public with offers of a donation and asking if they could sign a petition, etc.

Football Against Apartheid

Protest outside HP London HQ

SPEECH - HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPLICITY IN WAR CRIMES

We are here today outside the London offices of Hewlett Packard to demand Hewlett Packard stop its complicity in Israel's war crimes.

Most people think of HP as an innocent office supplies and printer company, but the reality is far darker. HP is one of the top 20 arms companies in the US with arms sales worth $3 billion in 2011. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has done the research and when they say arms sales they define that as goods & services designed specifically for military purpose and doesn't include general purpose equipment like office computers. They also state that the figure may be underestimate as it doesn't include classified contracts that HP might be involved in.

In HP's own words "Israel is one of the few countries where HP has a massive presence.. In the past decade, HP has invested over $6 billion in the acquisition of Israeli companies, including the establishment of production plants.. HP is the second largest investor in Israeli IT."

HP implements and manages the server farm for the entire Israeli army and Ministry of Defense - Israel's largest server tender worth $140 million . Those HP servers form the IT backbone of the entire Israeli war machine which has been found guilty of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by the UN Human Rights Council.

Every 60 hours Israel kills one Palestinian child! HP makes such slaughter possible with its strategic support of Israel's killing machine.

Shame on you HP! Shame on you HP!

HP has been equipping the Israeli military since 2006 when it was contracted to provide the IT infrastructure for the Israeli navy in a pilot for implementing across the entire army, helping the navy execute its illegal blockade of Gaza which also began in 2006. In 2009 HP was contracted to supply all computer equipment to the entire Israeli military.

Shame on you HP! Shame on you HP!

Last year Israel abducted 1266 Palestinian children - that's one child taken from their parents every 7 hours! 40% of the 600 that were taken from Jerusalem alone, were sexually abused by Israeli soldiers during arrest or interrogation. During interrogation 75% of Palestinian children detained by Israel are physically tortured. Hewlett Packard keeps those torture dens and dungeons where Palestinian children are caged and abused, operational by the IT infrastructure it provides to the Israeli Prison Service. HP also provides Israeli prisons and interrogation centres the systems and servers needed to keep them operational. These dungeons and torture dens are where Palestinian children as young as 12 years old are brutally tortured and caged in 1m x 3m dark holes in the grounds for months without charge or trial! Today there are over 6000 Palestinian political prisoners, including women and children, many caged without a charge or trial. 72 Palestinians have been tortured to death in Israeli prisons since 1967. The latest being father of 5 young children, Raed Abdul-Salam Al-Jabari, who died following interrogation at Eshel prison on 9th Sept 2014. He had been arrested over a simple car accident involving an illegal Israeli settler. The Israeli prison service said he had committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell but the autopsy revealed he had been savagely tortured with repeated blows to the head and face causing brain haemorrhage. His neck showed no signs of hanging. HP keeps these hell holes operational with its IT infrastructure, services and servers.

Shame on you HP! Shame on you HP!

HP has also developed Israel's prisoners management system and intelligence sub systems which helps the occupation keeps illegal records on Palestinians it has abducted and their families. Female family members have been threatened with rape in order to coerce confessions from children accused of stone throwing. HP is complicit in all these crimes.

Shame on you HP! Shame on you HP!

HP also developed and maintained the Basel System - a biometric access control system used by Israel at illegal checkpoints deep inside occupied territory to restrict and control Palestinian freedom of movement in their own land. If forms part of the separation wall apparatus declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004.

Shame on you HP! Shame on you HP!

We call on people of conscience to boycott HP products until it stop its complicity with Israel's war crimes

Boycott Israel! Boycott HP!

Free Palestine!

HP Complicity in Israeli War Crimes

SPEECH - HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPLICITY IN TORTURE

We are here today outside the London offices of Hewlett Packard to demand Hewlett Packard stop its complicity in Israel's dungeons and torture dens.

HP provides Israeli prisons and interrogation centres the systems, servers and IT infrastructure needed to keep them operational.

One of these dungeons is the notorious Al Jalame interrogation centre in northern Israel where Palestinian children as young as 12 years old are caged three floors below the surface in tiny children's cells - filthy dark holes in the ground where a child is locked up without charge or trial in solitary confinement for up to 65 days in order to break them. Their only escape is the interrogation room where the children, shackled by hands and feet, are abused and tortured by the Israeli secret police for over 6 hours at a time, until they confess to trumped up charges, usually of throwing a stone which carries a penalty of up to 20 years!

HP provides the IT infrastructure that keeps this hell hole operational. Shame on you HP! Shame on you HP!

Details of Al Jalame prison emerged from the testimonies of the children as reported by the Guardian newspaper in January 2012 and documented by Defence for children International and the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem:

The cell is 2m long by 1 m wide, it's as big as a mattress without the toilet - you put down the mattress and in front is a hole in the ground toilet - the stench from which has no escape.. there is no window, the air chokes you.

The light is kept on 24 hours a day to inhibit sleep. The walls have sharp protrusions to prevent you from leaning against them for support.

The delivery of food is through a locked flap in the door. It's the only way to mark time - dividing day from night by the arrival of food. The breakfast tray is dropped through the flap at 4am - if you dont catch the tray the food will spill on the floor and you will be punished.

The room is barely wider than the filthy 5cm thin mattress that covers the floor, many cells have no mattress.

For interrogation you are dragged upstairs. On the ground is an iron ring, the interrogator puts your cuffs through it with your hands locked on either side. he cuffs your ankles to the chair legs.. you cannot move.. like a statue. The sessions can last more than 6 hours. At some facilities children have been sexually assaulted by interrogators and threatened with sodomy with an object if they didnt confess. Sisters and mothers have been threatened with rape in order to coerce confessions from boys.

HP provides the IT infrastructure that keeps this hell hole operational. Shame on you HP! Shame on you HP!

Then there is the infamous "Russian compound" of Jerusalem prison where Israeli guards torture Palestinian women. One woman, Inam Qlambo who was arrested during a protest described how the soldiers struck blows to her face and tore her headscarf off, ripping her hair out.. they threw her to the ground and kicked her in the womb. Under interrogation at the Russian Compound they ordered her to strip naked. When she resisted they attached her body to an electric shock device and tortured her. She says "I felt my body burning under their machine.. the intense pain.. so severe.."

HP provides the IT infrastructure that keeps this hell hole operational. Shame on you HP! Shame on you HP!

After extracting forced confessions Palestinian women are sent to Israel's HaSharon prison. At HaSharon Palestinian women have had to endure beatings, sexually explicit harassment and sexual violence, and humiliation at the hands of Israeli guards. They are often forced to undergo degrading strip searches during the middle of the night - forced to squat naked and subjected to intrusive internal body searches, for no reason other than as a punitive measure. Women have been beaten and left tied to their bed for a day and a half and not allowed to go to the toilet as punishment for spilling water.

The cells at HaSharon are overcrowded and dirty, and infected with rats and cockroaches. There is a total absence of basic hygiene. Women have even been denied sanitary pads when menstruating. The heat is unbearable, the windows are closed and covered so hardly any air or daylight can enter. The food is insufficient and often contains insects and worms, at times there is not enough portions for all the women.

HP provides the IT infrastructure that keeps this hell hole operational. Shame on you HP! Shame on you HP!

Then there is Israel's Megiddo prison where Arafat Jaradat, young Palestinian father of two children aged 4 and 3 years old, was tortured to death on 23rd Feb 2013. Israel claimed he had died of a heart attack but the autopsy showed no signs of heart failure or any other illness but revealed broken bones and found his whole body was covered in "strong and excessive bruising".. "under the skin inside the muscle and along the spine at the bottom of the neck deep inside the tissue" and concluded the cause of death as "nervous shock as a result of extreme pain from the intensity of the injuries, which resulted from multiple direct and extensive acts of torture".

HP keeps all these hell holes operational with its IT infrastructure, services and servers.

Shame on you HP! Shame on you HP!

We demand that HP immediately stop its complicity in this torture of Palestinians by Israel.

Stop the torture! Stop the torture! Free Palestine!

HP Complicity in Torture of children

BACKGROUND - HEWLETT-PACKARD

HP is more than an office supplies and printers company, they are one of the top 20 defense contractors in the US with arms* sales worth $3 billion in 2011. They specialize in developing the IT infrastructure that is essential for the military to function.

Whilst Hewlett-Packard(HP) operates in 178 countries around the world in HP's own words "Israel is one of the few countries where HP has a massive presence.. In the past decade, HP has invested over $6 billion in the acquisition of Israeli companies, including the establishment of production plants.. HP is the second largest investor in Israeli IT."

HP provides IT backbone to Israeli Military

In 2011 HP won Israel's largest ever servers tender, worth an estimated $140 million. Under the tender HP implements and manages the entire server farm of the Ministry of Defense and the Israeli army for 5 years (contract ends in 2016). Those HP servers form the IT backbone of the entire Israeli war machine making HP complicit in Israel's war crimes.

HP has been equipping the Israeli military since 2006 when it was first contracted to provided the IT infrastructure for the Israeli navy, a œvirtualization project which was used by the Israeli military as a pilot for implementing the same system to the entire army. HP is thereby assisting the illegal naval blockade of Gaza which also began in 2006. In 2009 HP won the contract to supply all computer equipment to the Israeli military. In another contract HP supply configuration management database system for the Israeli Army's secret IT unit. Currently HP is implementing and assimilating an enterprise resource planning and management system for the Israeli Army (2011-2015).

HP helping Israels dungeons and torture dens to operate

Hewlett Packard is also providing essential IT services and infrastructural that enable the Israeli Prison Service (IPS)** to function.

Last year Israel abducted 1266 Palestinian children as young - that's one child as 12 years old taken from their parents every 7 hours! 40% of the 600 that were taken from Jerusalem alone were sexually abused by Israeli soldiers during arrest or interrogation. During interrogation 75% of Palestinian children detained by Israel are physically tortured***. Human rights groups have documented the brutal torture of children as standard practice during interrogations in order to coerce confessions, usually to stone throwing which carries a sentence of up to 20 years imprisonment. Today there are over 6000 Palestinian political prisoners, including women and children, imprisoned by the Israeli Prison Service - many locked up without even a charge let alone a trial. 72 Palestinian prisoners have been tortured to death in Israeli prisons since 1967. The latest being father of five young children, Raed Abdul-Salam al-Jabari, who was died following interrogation at Eshel prison on 9th Sep 2014. he had been arrested over a simple car accident involving an illegal Israeli settler. The IPS claimed he had comitted suicide by hanging himself in his cell but the autopsy revealed he had been savagely tortured with repeated blows to the head and face causing brain hemorrhage. His neck showed no signs of hanging.

In an ongoing contract (until 2016), worth millions of dollars, HP provides the Israeli prison service the systems and servers needed to keep it operational. In 2012 HP provided the central servers for the operational system of the IPS ("Tzohar") and its ongoing maintenance. In a contract worth $35 million, HP developed the Kidma information system for the IPS which includes the prisoners management system and intelligence subs systems, helping the occupation keep illegal records on Palestinians it has abducted and their families. HP has also executed a project for e-mail storage and archive for the IPS.

HP helping the occupation implement apartheid

HP has developed and maintained the Basel System - a biometric access control system with hand and facial recognition, which is used by Israel at illegal checkpoints deep inside occupied territory to restrict and control Palestinian freedom of movement in their own land. It forms part of the separation wall apparatus declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004.

HP also provided services to the illegal settlements, in particular Modi'in Illit and Ariel. This includes a data storage system for the municipality of Ariel as part of the "Smart City" project.

*Arms sales defined as goods & services designed specifically for military purpose and doesn't include general purpose equipment like office computers. Figure may be underestimate as it doesn't include classified contracts. Src: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

**We would especially like to thank WhoProfits.org for the research they have conducted on HP, in particular their freedom of information requests that have revealed the extent on HP's complicity with the Israeli Prison Service.

***Source - Euro-Mid Observers For Human Rights, Jan 2010 - Jun 2014

More Information on camapign against Hewlett Packard 's complicity in Israel's war crimes, dungeons and torture dens:
http://www.inminds.com/article.php?id=10628