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Netafim: from Facilitator of Occupation to Global Leader in Sustainable Agriculture

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Netafim: from Facilitator of Occupation to Global Leader in Sustainable Agriculture COMPANY FEATURE NETAFIM: FROM FACILITATOR OF OCCUPATION TO GLOBAL LEADER IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE MARCH 2020 With 17 factories in 13 countries, 29 com- other natural resources at the expenses of mercial subsidiaries and a presence in 110 the occupied Palestinian population.2 countries, Netafim is the world’s largest In this update, Who Profits provides an over- 1 micro irrigation corporation. Since 2018, view of Netafim’s occupation-related activi- Netafim is controlled by the publicly trad- ties and examines some of its recent global ed Mexican conglomerate Orbia (formerly operations, calling attention to the discrepan- Mexichem). cy between its international work with small- In a world increasingly concerned with cli- holder farmers in the Global South and its mate change and scarcity of natural resourc- facilitation expropriation and dispossession es, Netafim is generating profit from posi- against Palestinian and Syrian communities. tioning itself as a global leader in sustainable agriculture. In reality, the company profits Making the Desert Drip from Israel’s ongoing occupation of Syrian Netafim is one of the oldest and best known and Palestinian land through the provision Israeli agricultural technology firms, and its of irrigation technologies and know-how to history is intertwined with the history of Zi- illegal Israeli agricultural settlements. Set- onist colonization. The company was founded tlement agriculture is a major instrument of in 1965 in Kibbutz Hatzerim, an agricultural land grab, facilitating the expropriation of cooperative in the Naqab (Negev) region in occupied land and making use of water and southern Israel. Its core technology, the drip 1 Netafim Company Presentation. Netafim, 2 Who Profits. Made in Israel: Agricultural Shaping the future of Agriculture. September 2019. Exports from Occupied Territories. April 2014. irrigation system, was developed in the ear- ters. Agricultural R&D on both sides of the ly 1960s by Simcha Blass, with the financial Green Line is heavily subsidized by the Israeli backing of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and government, primarily through the Ministry the Settlement Division of the Jewish Agency, of Science and Technology and the Ministry as well as the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture.3 of Agriculture.7 Netafim’s participation in- ex Blass was a prominent Zionist engineer and periments carried out on occupied land and one of the founders of Mekorot, Israel’s na- in partnership with settlement R&Ds enable tional water company. it to use occupied land as a laboratory for In multiple publications, the company de- the testing of its irrigation products. scribes itself as “born of the need to make Netafim has participated in several experi- the Israeli desert bloom,”4 linking its products ments in settlements in the Jordan Valley in with the imperatives of Zionist colonization. the occupied West Bank. In 2004, it took part Blass noted that Netafim’s drip irrigation in an experiment on the effect of feeding technology was instrumental in making the canals on the yield and fruit size of lemons economic case for agricultural settlements in the settlement on Masua. In 2013-2014, in the Arava region, the desert area south of in collaboration with the Training & Profes- the Dead Sea.5 Following Israel’s 1967 occu- sional Services Unit (SHAHAM) in the Israeli pation of Palestinian and Syrian territories, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Develop- its micro-irrigation products and know-how ment, Netafim and growers in the settle- have been used to support the economic vi- ment of Kalia developed an irrigation meth- ability and drive up the profitability of Israeli od that reduces water consumption in the agricultural settlements in the West Bank and cultivation of seedless watermelons by 25%. the Syrian Golan.6 By providing products to Kalia cultivates approximately 1,500 dunams the settlements, the company actively con- of watermelons and controls approximately tributes to the expansion of agricultural pro- 15% of the Israeli market for seedless wa- duction by illegal settlers and to the normal- termelons. The company also participated ization of land grab and dispossession. in a multi-year experiment (2014-2017) on irrigating Mejdool dates in the Jordan Valley, conducted by the settlement-based Jordan Testing Technology on Occupied Land Valley R&D Center in the settlement of Gil- Netafim irrigation technologies are also pro- gal. A company representative co-authored vided in the framework of agricultural exper- a paper discussing findings with researchers iments conducted by settlement R&D cen- from the Ministry of Agriculture and the set- 3 Blass Simcha. Water in Strife and Action. tlement R&D. Massada (1973):351. 4 Netafim Company Presentation. Drip Irriga- Palestinians in the Jordan Valley inhabit an tion – Israeli Innovation That Has Changed the World. altogether different reality. Israel’s severe November 2013; Netafim Company Presentation. Netafim, Shaping the future of Agriculture. September restrictions on the free movement of people 2019. and goods prevents Palestinian producers 5 Ibid. from cultivating their lands, which have his- 6 Who Profits has documented the involve- ment of Netafim in settlement agriculture in the torically been a major source of income, forc- settlements of Masua, Geshur, Dolev, Kalia, Maskiot, Gilgal, Ein Zivan and Natur. For more information, see 7 Who Profits. Agribusiness as Usual: Agricul- Netafim’s Company Profile, updated 24 July 2019. tural Technology and the Israeli Occupation. January 2020. 2 | NETAFIM ing many to seek employment in settlement that Syrian farmers pay up to four times more agriculture, often under deeply exploitative than their Israeli counterparts for water.11 conditions.8 In 2012, Netafim provided irrigation tech- From the Creators of Iron Dome: Netafim’s nologies for the betterment of grapevines Smart Irrigation Platform in a commercial crop of cabernet sauvignon The adaptation and diffusion of Israeli mili- grapes in the settlement of Dolev in the West tary technology into civilian spheres extends Bank. The project is part of an agricultural ex- beyond Israel’s prolific security and surveil- periment of the Samaria and Jordan Rift R&D. lance industry. Civil firms like Netafim generate Following this project, Netafim participated in profits from the commercialization of military a conference about growing grapevines in the knowledge developed in the context of the Is- mountain area that took place in Ariel Univer- raeli occupation, capitalizing on structures and sity in the settlement of Ariel in 2016. policies of repression and blurring the distinc- Netafim has also supplied irrigation equip- tion between military and civil enterprises. ment to settlements in the Syrian Golan. In In collaboration with the private Israeli com- 2009, it provided irrigation technologies for pany mPrest Systems, a partially-owned sub- an experiment in controlling the size of olive sidiary (40%) of the state-owned military cor- trees in the settlement of Geshur. In 2019, poration Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, its computerized drip irrigation and fertiliza- Netafim developed NetBeat™, a smart irriga- tion system was installed in blueberry fields tion management platform. The digital irriga- in the Syrian Golan as part of a pilot project tion platform incorporates mPrest’s command of the Israeli agricultural export company Agr- and control software, developed specifically exco. The project, carried out jointly with the for Iron Dome, the Israeli military’s air defense settlements of Ein Zivan and Natur, aims to system. According to the CEO of Netafim, cultivate 1,500 dunams of blueberries in the mPrest was awarded the contract due to the Golan and turn Israel into an exporter of blue- company’s “field-proven software.”12 berries to European markets. Agrexco has an Iron Dome is a short range missile defense sys- agreement with a British distributor that mar- tem developed by Rafael in conjunction with kets its produce in the UK. Elta and mPrest, deployed along the besieged The occupied Syrian population, meanwhile, Gaza Strip and in the occupied Syrian Golan. 9 is confined to 5% of the land. While Israeli Israel’s 2014 and subsequent military attacks settlements in the Golan are incentivized by a on Gaza, serve as a marketing opportunity for disproportionate allocation of water resources Iron Dome technology. The technology’s ex- 10 for agricultural production, research shows tensive media coverage attracted the interest 8 Human Rights Watch. Occupation, Inc. How Settlement Businesses Contribute to Israel’s Violation of Palestinian Rights. 19 January 2016. the Secretary-General. A/HRC/34/39. 16 March 2017. 9 Human Rights Council, Israeli settlements http://bit.ly/2OGWBXT in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East 11 Mason, Michael, & Dajani, Muna (2019). A Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan. Report political ontology of land: Rooting Syrian identity in of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human the Occupied Golan Heights. Antipode, 51(1), 187- Rights. A/HRC/40/42. 30 January 2019. 206. 10 Human Rights Council, Israeli settlements 12 mPrest Systems Press Release. On file with in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Who Profits. Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan. Report of 3 | NETAFIM of states like Taiwan, India and South Korea.13 In 2018, the company launched the Better The system developed by mPrest, called C4I, Life Farming alliance, a long-term partnership is responsible for Iron
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