LONDON: Six multinational construction firms may be aiding and abetting war crimes by providing excavators and bulldozers to the Israeli military, human rights experts have said.
It comes after widespread documentation of Israeli forces using the vehicles to systematically demolish villages across southern Lebanon.
According to analysis by The Guardian, the Israeli military uses excavators manufactured by six companies: Caterpillar, Volvo, Hyundai, Doosan, Hitachi and Komatsu.
Israeli operators have used the vehicles to destroy residential and commercial structures across at least 46 villages in southern Lebanon, mostly after the April 17 Lebanon-Israel ceasefire, analysis by Bellingcat has shown. Most of the Lebanese villages bordering Israel have been erased.
The widespread razing of villages could amount to the war crime of wanton destruction, according to Human Rights Watch.
Images captured by the Associated Press on April 12 and 15 in the border town of Mays Al-Jabal show Israeli excavators from all six companies among rubble, as well as Hyundai, Caterpillar and Komatsu excavators destroying homes.
Similar image and video documentation has revealed identical activity in the towns of Naqoura, Qantara and Debel, with a surveillance clip from the latter showing Israel's destruction of solar panels and water infrastructure.
Supplying the equipment that enables the Israeli military to destroy homes and villages in southern Lebanon could render companies complicit in war crimes, experts said. Executives from the firms could also face legal consequences.
“Businesses carrying out activities that contribute to serious international law violations in Lebanon, such as the extensive destruction of civilian property, may expose themselves, or their individual directors and managers, to the risk of prosecution for complicity in war crimes,†said Mark Dummett, deputy program director and head of business, security and human rights at Amnesty International.
Israel's “longer track record†of deploying military and civilian excavators to carry out demolitions in the West Bank should have already alerted the companies of this risk, he added.
“Any basic corporate human rights due diligence process would have flagged the risks of the company contributing to these abuses and should have triggered robust measures to ensure that their machinery and equipment were not involved in abuses.â€
Four of the six multinationals whose vehicles were identified in southern Lebanon were named in a report by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese as companies profiting from Israel's displacement of Palestinians.
At the strategic level, much of Israel's demolition work is outsourced to civilian contractors who, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, are sometimes paid based on the number of buildings they destroy.
Because the IDF outsources its demolition work to civilian entities, any excavator or bulldozer exported to Israel could be used to destroy homes in Lebanon or Gaza.
Construction and vehicle companies facing pressure over Israeli ties have insisted in the past that they are not responsible for how their products are used by buyers.
But Alreem Kamal, an international lawyer who works on corporate accountability in the Middle East, said: “The documented use of similar equipment in contexts such as Gaza means that companies cannot plausibly claim that they were unaware of the risks.
“The harm is foreseeable, and they bear a responsibility to take appropriate measures accordingly.
“Failure to do so may expose these companies to legal, reputational and financial consequences.â€
The UN has outlined guidelines for corporations on business and human rights principles, through which they have a responsibility to avoid causing or contributing to human rights abuses.
Though the guidelines are nonbinding, Sweden, Japan and South Korea — where Volvo, Komatsu, Hitachi, Doosan and Hyundai are headquartered — have launched national action plans to implement the UN principles.
“The broader trend is clear: Scrutiny of corporate involvement in atrocity crimes is growing and the impunity that has long protected them is steadily eroding,†Kamal said.
