Siemens AG
Siemens AG, with international headquarters located in Berlin and Munich, Germany, is Europe's largest engineering conglomerate. In 2006 Siemens and Mekorot, Israel’s national water authority, entered an agreement to jointly develop and market water treatment technologies. “Water is an extremely precious commodity in Israel”, said Dr. Roger Radke, CEO of the Siemens’ Water Technologies Division, adding, “…in the next 20 years one-third of the [world’s] population may be facing a serious water crisis.” What he didn’t acknowledge is that right now Israel, through Mekorot, is stealing most of its water from Palestinians.
Of the water available from West Bank aquifers in 2008, Israel used 73%, West Bank Palestinians used 17% and illegal Jewish settlers 10%. Israel consumes the vast majority of the water from the Jordan River despite only 3% of the river falling within its pre-1967 borders. Under international law it is illegal for an occupying power to expropriate water from occupied territories for use by its own citizens.
Mekorot supplies 90% of the drinking water in Israel and 70% of the total water supply in the country. It also supplies over half of West Bank Palestinian household and urban water consumption. During the summer months, when water supplies are low, Mekorot closes or reduces the supply of water to Palestinian towns and villages in order to maintain Israeli supplies. Illegal Israeli settlers can thus continue to replenish their swimming pools and water their lawns while Palestinians whose land has been appropriated for the settlements lack drinking and cooking water.
Mekorot has been central to the land and water grab in the Occupied Territories from the beginning. Between 1968 and 1978 Mekorot performed the surveys which revealed available water in the West Bank, and drilled at least 14 new wells to provide the household and irrigation needs of the new Jewish settlements. It also oversaw the appropriation of wells from the property of so-called “absentee” Palestinian landlords. At the same time Mekorot refused permits to Palestinian farmers for new irrigation wells. Until 1996 only 13 new Palestinian wells were sanctioned by Israel. The result of this policy has been to make increasing numbers of Palestinians dependent on either Mekorot or the Israeli settlements for their water needs. Israel’s overall policy regarding water supply in the West Bank, for which Mekorot is the prime operational agent, is illegal and discriminates on racial grounds. It flagrantly breaches international law.
Ironically, Siemens was involved in funding the rise of the Nazi Party and the secret rearmament of Germany. During the Second World War, Siemens contributed to the war effort and participated in the "Nazification" of the economy. Siemens had many factories in and around notorious concentration camps to build electric switches for military uses. In one example, almost 100,000 men and women from Auschwitz worked in a Siemens factory inside the camp, supplying its electricity.
