Elbit Systems, which is one of two main contractors for Israel's separation wall, has just won a $145 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to build tracking and surveillance towers along the Arizona-Mexico border.
After dumping Boeing, DHS made the unusual choice of selecting an offshore company for its border protection infrastructure.
“It is odd to go offshore for this work, but in extraordinary circumstances, one really wants to employ the best,” said Mark Amtower, a partner at Amtower & Co., a government contracting consulting firm in Clarksville, Maryland.
A company with a track record of doing this work in Israel is “liable to be much further advanced in this particular arena,” Amtower said.
Of course, that expertise in Israel comes from building separation walls, tracking towers and surveillance equipment used on Palestinians who have been occupied by military force in the West Bank. To make matters worse, parts of the separation wall built by Elbit have been declared
illegal by the International Court of Justice.
However, to the Israeli company and DHS, such illegal work is nothing more than proof that its technology is proven after "ten-plus years securing the world’s most challenging borders," as Elbit's promotional video advertises:
Whether the United States should be building such infrastructure along our border with Mexico is one question. Whether the United States should be giving money to a company whose work over the last 10 years has been to bifurcate and seal off Palestinians?
I guess the question would be a unique one if the U.S. didn't already give Israel $3 billion annually, despite its illegal settlements and continued occupation.
Despite this, it's still a question which must be asked. For at a time in which Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to broker a peace deal, DHS is rewarding an Israeli company which specializes in helping Israel maintain the occupation.
It's not exactly a helpful message.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, just out from Oneworld Publications.