The Role Of Corporations In The Resolution of Global Conflicts

Corporate America and corporate boardrooms across the globe wield enormous political influence.

It may in fact be argued that in today’s material world corporate interests are the primary motivating factors for political action.

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that power, for a multitude of reasons, has been unjustly mobilized to help sustain 35 years of an illegal Israeli military and economic domination of the Palestinian people.

In light of this and the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, the time has come for corporate boardrooms of companies involved in that region to reassess their role, even if that role has been to remain silent for all these years. The corporate world must channel its influence to end the Israeli occupation. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reached a dangerous point that has the potential to disrupt business activity, especially U.S. business interests throughout the Middle East. Long-term U.S. national strategic interests in the region are also at risk, namely the cost and uninterrupted flow of oil.

Millions of U.S. corporate and citizen tax dollars spent on building the Palestinian economy were lost in this latest Israeli offensive against the Palestinian civil and national infrastructure.

It would be negligent for corporate America to remain silent while its government recommits yet more tax dollars to the region without addressing the source of the conflict. Ending Israeli occupation is the only solution that will put the region back on track.

While earning my MBA degree at Tel Aviv and Northwestern Universities, Professor of Leadership and Ethics, David Messick, assigned two readings to the class. One, by Milton Friedman, argued that corporate executives do not have a social responsibility but they must conform to the “basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom.” The second reading by Kenneth Goodpaster argued that corporate managers had a “dual role” in their capacities: to make decisions that were best for their corporations and to have an eye focused on how their business decisions affected the environment external to their firms. Both of these writers, although presenting conflicting viewpoints, are good reference points for the argument that corporations around the world have a role to play to help end Israeli occupation. Whether one solely relies on taking decisions that are legal or instead has a greater awareness of his or her corporate social responsibility, the result is the same – be aware how your actions may support the oppression of others.

Guiding Lights and Following Shadows

For corporate executives less inclined to be socially responsible, U.S. laws that govern U.S. foreign trade must be the guiding light. There exist a number of laws that U.S. corporations are legally bound by, such as the U.S. Foreign Assistance and Arms Export Control Acts. United States law stipulates, inter alia, that any defense articles and defense services to any country shall be furnished "solely for internal security, [or] for legitimate self-defense" (22U.S.C. 2302 and 2754). Israel's excessive and disproportionate use of force to suppress the Palestinian people and its recent offensive against Palestinian cities with U.S.-supplied weaponry clearly exceeds the bounds of what could be considered legitimate self-defense and therefore is in violation of U.S. law. Corporations would be ill advised to continue ignoring this fact in the hope that those persons that are being damaged by their business decisions will not take legal action in the future. Legal ghosts have haunted many firms, especially in Europe, many years after their neglect of humanitarian law. Pro-active decision-making today that aligns a firm squarely against Israeli occupation will spare it the potential agony of facing criminal charges in the future.

Furthermore, according to U.S. law, "no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights" (22U.S.C. 2304). The U.S. State Department has repeatedly documented in its annual reports that Israel engages in "torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of punishment, prolonged detention without charges and trial, causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction and clandestine detention of those persons, and other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, or the security of people." The time is long overdue for corporate America to take note and act accordingly.

Additionally, there are a multitude of U.S. policies and government decisions that should ethically guide corporations in this conflict. For instance, consider the illegal Israeli settlements that continue to be built across Palestinian lands in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Successive U.S. administrations have stated that these settlements are either “illegal,” “obstacles to peace,” “unhelpful,” “provocative” or “impediments” to peace. The time has come for corporate executives from firms like Caterpillar, whose equipment is used in building these settlements, to understand the negative contributions they make to Middle East peace by not heeding their own government’s warnings over many years. These negative contributions are above and beyond their potential violation of U.S. law. The separation of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, coupled with short-term goals of powerful interest groups, may complicate or delay legal action against those corporations that support Israeli occupation, but one should not be fooled into thinking that such a delay will last forever.

The Massive Impact of the Arms Industry

U.S. military-related corporations support Israeli occupation by way of an institutionalized mechanism provided for by Congress. Congress has stipulated that seventy-five percent of U.S. foreign military aid to Israel, which amounts to over $2 billion annually, must be spent buying U.S. products and services. Firms like Lockheed, Boeing, United Technologies, Raytheon, ExxonMobil, Northrop, Pgsus, General Dynamics and Oshkosh among others are directly contributing to the tools that Israel uses to violate international and humanitarian law. The following are some specific cases:

* U.S. weapons manufacture Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, which provides the fighter jets that have been used by Israel to bomb Palestinian cities that have been under military closure for 18 months, proudly announced on September 5, 2001 from Fort Worth, Texas, that Israel had decided to purchase 52 more Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets. The contract value was reported to be approximately $1.3 billion for only the aircraft.

* Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, sells Israel U.S. armaments used to destroy Palestinian cities and perform political assassinations of Palestinian civilians from the sky. "Our company's relationship of more than 40 years with Israel is a source of pride," said Sikorsky President Dean Borgman in a February 1, 2001 press release while announcing his firm was awarded a $211.8 million contract for 24 additional Black Hawk helicopters to serve the Israeli Air Force.

* Other less visible military suppliers are those like Federal Laboratories in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, which provides CS tear gas to the Israeli military. During the first Palestinian Intifada (Uprising) in 1988, Federal Laboratories witnessed civil disobedience actions at their plant gate in Saltsburg and a lawsuit in U.S. courts after Israel misused their lethal tear gas by firing it into closed areas that resulted in the killing of many Palestinians. Federal Laboratories stopped exporting the gas for six months in 1988 and sent a fact-finding team to Israel before resuming sales.

Corporate America’s support of Israeli occupation is not confined to military equipment suppliers. In fall 1999, Burger King