Swedish company closes factory in Israeli settlement

Sunday October 26, 2008 04:43 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

After being confronted by a coalition of Swedish non-profit groups and the Church of Sweden for operating a branch on illegally-confiscated Palestinian land in the West Bank, the Assa Abloy Company, based in Sweden, decided to close its locksmithing factory in the Barkan settlement in the West Bank.

A spokesperson for the company said that Assa Ablov will relocate its factory inside the Green Line (the internationally-recognized border between Israel and Palestine established in the 1967 war), and that the move is for political reasons.

Assa Ablov acquired the Israeli company Mul-T-Lock in the year 2000. The company had a number of locksmith factories, including one located in Barkan Industrial Park. Barkan Industrial Park is located just outside the Ariel settlement, which is the largest Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and is located 16 kilometers from the Green Line. Barkan, like all of the other 300-plus settlements constructed by Israelis on Palestinian land in the West Bank, is considered illegal under international law, as it involves the transfer of civilian populations onto land seized by military force.

Activists around the world have called for boycotts of and divestment from companies that do business in these settlements. Last month, the Barkan Winery company divested from its branch in Barkan Industrial Park, after the company entered a partnership with Dutch beer manufacturer, Heineken. The Dutch government has been an outspoken opponent of the Israeli policy of expansion onto Palestinian land in the West Bank, and the company responded to pressure by agreeing to withdraw from the Barkan Industrial Park (although it still maintains a winery in the Golan Heights, a part of Syria that has been illegally occupied by Israel since 1967).

According to a report by Swedwatch, a non-profit that monitors Swedish companies, Assa Ablov company, by operating a factory in the West Bank, “may either be found directly liable for the commission of crimes against international law, or they may be found to have assisted others in the commission of a crime."

A company spokesperson told the Israeli media, "We are very sorry that we did not notice it before, but we did not understand that we might be violating international law."

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