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Combined Systems Inc., stop providing equipment thatIsrael misuses to kill and maim unarmed protesters

Posted on: January 4, 2011

3 January 2011:

Open letter to Combined Systems Inc written by Palestine solidarity groups 

Dear Combined Systems Inc.,

As US groups committed to justice and peace, we are writing to ask that Combined Systems

Inc. cease providing CSI equipment to the Israeli government in response to the Israelimilitary’s ongoing and foreseeable misuse of CSI crowd control equipment to kill and maimprotesters in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Israeli military has demonstrated apattern of misuse of your equipment, directly leading to the death and injury of unarmeddemonstrators in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Over the last two years alone, theIsraeli military has used your products to kill two peaceful protesters from one family in theWest Bank village of Bil’in, to severely injure two peaceful protesters from the US, and toseriously injure many more. According to the the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, twoother Palestinians were killed by Israeli tear gas in 2002.[1]

As noted on CSI’s website, “Israeli Military Industries” are among CSI’s “military customers

and development partners.” CSI has an ethical and legal responsibility to ensure that theIsraeli government is using CSI products according to product guidelines. Unfortunately, theIsraeli military has a well-documented track record of systematically using excessive force

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against civilians, including with CSI products as outlined below, and thus is not anappropriate customer for CSI.

Furthermore, it is our understanding that the tear gas sent by CSI to the Israeli military may beprovided as part of the US government’s military aid to Israel. For example, for 2007 and

2008, the US State Department provided $1.85 million worth of “tear gasses and riot controlagents” to Israel as part of US military aid.[2] As taxpayers, we strongly object to thepossibility that CSI may be using our tax dollars to support Israel’s repression of Palestinianrights.

Most recently, on December 31st, 2010, Israeli soldiers fired what was described by multipleeyewitnesses as excessive tear gas at protesters in the West Bank village of Bil’in, resulting inthe death of 36 year-old Jawaher Abu Rahmah from Bil’in. Around 1,000 Palestinians,Israelis and foreigners were demonstrating in Bil’in that day against Israel’s construction of awall through village land, separating residents from their livelihoods in violation of international law. According to Jawaher’s mother Subhiyeh who was with her at the time,“We weren’t even very close to them and the soldiers fired tear gas at us… Jawaher told methat her chest hurt and she couldn’t breathe. Then she fell down and started vomiting.”[3]Jawaher was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital where she died the next morning fromcardiac arrest. Protesters gathered tear gas canisters used by Israeli soldiers at the December31st protest, including one very common canister with the letters CTS written on it.[4] CTS,short for Combined Tactical Systems, is a brand name of CSI.[5]

Tragically, Jawaher Abu Rahmah was the second person in her family to be killed by tear gas

that was apparently provided to the Israeli army by CSI. Jawaher’s brother Bassem AbuRahmah was killed on April 17, 2009 at a peaceful protest in Bil’in when he was hit directlyin the chest by a CSI tear gas canister fired from a gun by an Israeli soldier. The Israeli humanrights organization B’Tselem reported in an April 21, 2009 letter to the Israeli military’sJudge Advocate General that the direct firing of tear gas at protesters was common practiceand violated both Israeli open-fire regulations and CSI product instructions, saying, “The

Open‐Fire Regulations require that tear‐gas grenades fired from a launcher be carried out

by indirect fire, with the barrel of the rifle aimed upwards at a sixty‐degree angle. The

Website of CSI, the American company that manufactures the extended range grenades,explicitly points out that the grenades are not to be fired at individuals, since doing so is liableto cause injury or death.”[6] West Bank protesters have collected examples of CSI extended

range grenades that were fired at protesters (see sample photo below from 2009). In responseto an Israeli reporter’s submitted query, an Israeli army spokesperson has confirmed inwriting that the extended range projectiles are produced by CSI. CSI’s website also explains

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Another US citizen, 21-year-old Emily Henochowicz, lost her left eye when an Israeli soldierfired an aluminum tear gas canister directly at her, striking her face during a West Bank protest on May 31, 2010.[12] Protesters have also collected numerous aluminum tear gascanisters with CSI and CTS initials on them that were fired by Israeli soldiers at protesters(see below).

Though B’Tselem reported on May 4, 2009 that Israel’s Judge Advocate General forbade thefiring of tear gas canisters directly at protesters, [13] the Popular Struggle CoordinationCommittee[14] and the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz[15] documented in December 2010 thatthe Israeli military has continued to fire extended range tear gas canisters directly at

protesters.

Reports by diverse human rights groups including B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch[16] andthe UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict[17] have documented Israel’s use of excessive and lethal force against civilians. These reports, and the cases cited above of Israel’s specific misuse of CSI products, demonstrate clearly that CSI cannot rely on theIsraeli military to use CSI products in an appropriate manner without undue death and severeinjury to civilians. Therefore, CSI is obligated to end its sale of these products to the Israeligovernment.

Thank you for your attention to this issue. We look forward to your response.

- – - – - – - – - -

[1] http://btselem.org/english/statistics/  [2] http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/asmp/factsandfigures/government_data_index.html#655  [3] http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/02/palestinian-protester-jawaher-abu-rahmah-dies-from-tear-gas-inha/  [4] Photo above resembles this CSI/CTS model: http://combinedsystems.com/less-lethal/Flash-Bang/Flash-Bangs-Tear-Ball.aspx  [5] http://www.combinedsystems.com/About_us.aspx, see CTS products:http://combinedsystems.com/less-lethal/CTS%20Catalog%202009.pdf  

[6]http://www.btselem.org/Download/20090421_Letter_to_JAG_concerning_the_shooting_of_Bassem_Abu_Rahmah_English.pdf  

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[7] http://combinedsystems.com/less-lethal/Chemical-Munitions/Chemical-Munitions-40mm-Penetrators.aspx [8]http://www.btselem.org/English/Firearms/20090318_Firing_of_Tear_Gaz_at_Demonstrators.asp 

[9] http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/16/in_first_interview_since_critical_injury  [10] http://justicefortristan.org/  [11] http://www.popularstruggle.org/content/under-repression  [12]http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/5/exclusiveemily_henochowicz_speaks_out_art_student [13] http://combinedsystems.com/less-lethal/CTS%20Catalog%202009.pdf  [14] http://www.popularstruggle.org/content/demonstrator-suffers-head-injury-after-being-hit-directly-tear-gas-projectile-nabi-saleh  [15] http://www.popularstruggle.org/content/idf-resumes-use-prohibited-tear-gas-canisters  [16] http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/06/21/promoting-impunity-0  

[17] http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf  

Updated on January 4, 2011Posted under: Features, Press Releases Tags: Bil'in, Combined Systems Inc., Ni'lin, Tear-gas, weapons 

Source:http://palsolidarity.org/2011/01/16340/