OVERVIEW
PRINT AGAINST APARTHEID is a collective boycott of all HP-branded goods and services in solidarity with Palestinian liberation.
In November 2015 The Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) split into two companies, HP Inc. for consumer hardware such as PCs and printers, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) for enterprise products and services (business and government services). Both HP-branded corporations have played key roles in Israeli apartheid, providing services to the Israeli army and police, making them complicit in settler colonialism and the racial segregation of Palestinians.
HPE and HP Inc. are two of the most widely used technology companies across the globe and whilst their products serve as day-to-day conveniences for many consumers, their technologies form the backbone of Israeli apartheid, actively contributing to the ongoing brutalisation and murder of the Palestinian people.
We are calling for a total boycott of all HP branded goods and services as a result of their involvement in this ethnic cleansing campaign. We will not give money to HPE or HP Inc. until they have withdrawn their support for the state of Israel.
IMPACT
HP branded products and services are deeply intertwined with the Israeli police force and prison systems, their technologies forming the framework of Israel’s campaign of segregation, and facilitating Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
- Since 7 October 2023 the number of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli custody has doubled from approximately 5,200 to over 10,000.
- Palestinians in the West Bank are often processed in military courts located inside Israeli military bases, which exist with the function of prosecuting “security violations” and actions regarded as a threat to public order. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been brought before these courts on various charges, including entering Israel without a permit, stone-throwing, and traffic violations, the latter of which constitute upon average 40% of charges per year. Despite military courts being authorised to try anyone who commits an offence in the West Bank, it was decided in the early 1980s that Israeli citizens would be tried in the Israeli civilian court system, meaning Israeli defendants are tried and sentenced under Israeli laws, and Palestinian defendants are tried in military courts, whose laws are different from the civilian court system. Citizens are tried in different courts under different laws for the same offences, perpetuating a two-tiered citizenship .
- It is estimated that there are an average of 500-700 Palestinian children held in Israeli military detention each year, with an estimated 13,000 mostly arbitrarily detained, interrogated, tried in military courts and imprisoned since 2000. A 2020 Save the Children report that consulted 228 former child detainees from across the West Bank, detained from between one and 18 months, has revealed that 86% of Palestinian children detained in Israeli military detention are beaten, 69% percent are strip-searched and 42% are injured at the point of arrest, including sustaining gunshot wounds and broken bones. This same research also found some children have reported violence of a sexual nature and some have reported being transported between detention centres and court in small cages . Palestinian children are frequently interrogated at unknown locations without the presence of a caregiver, and are often deprived of food, water and sleep, or access to legal counsel, according to the research. The main alleged crime for these detentions is stone throwing, which can carry a 20-year sentence in prison for Palestinian children. This physical and emotional abuse often results in lifelong psychological trauma and life-altering physical disabilities.
- As of the end of October 2023 there was a record high of 2,070 administrative detainees, Palestinians held without trial or charge. Administrative detention is used as a pre-emptive tool against what the state perceives as a potential threat of terrorism or rebellion; in other words, no offence has been committed. As this measure is intended to be preventative, it has no time limit, and the classified nature of the alleged intelligence upon which the detention is imposed means that it is not revealed to detainees why they are being held. This leaves people who are not charged, tried or convicted, facing unknown allegations with no way to disprove them, not knowing when they will be released.
- The UN Human Rights Office reports receiving first hand testimonies depicting abuse and humiliation of Palestinians, including “worrying allegations that Palestinian inmates have been subjected to beatings and abuse by detention guards, with reports of male and female detainees threatened with rape”. The December 2023 report also expresses concern that “the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have reportedly deteriorated significantly. Detainees report severe overcrowding and severely restricted access to basic rights such as food, water and electricity, medical treatment, family visits and legal aid”.
- Since 1967 over 1,800 military orders have been issued, yet very few have been promptly translated into Arabic, as is required under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Despite this, these military orders control every aspect of Palestinian life, including serving to criminalise all forms of resistance to the Israeli occupation. Many of these orders are written broadly to allow for wide interpretation by the Israeli army, which violates the obligation of states under international human rights law to clearly spell out conduct that could result in criminal sanction.
Examples of Israeli Military Orders:Military Order No. 101 criminalises non-violent political expression, such as singing a hymn or sounding a slogan, and labels such activities as “terrorism”.
Military Orders 811 and 847 allow Israelis to use "powers of attorney" to purchase land from unwilling Palestinian sellers.
Military Order No. 537 removes democratically elected Mayors of West Bank cities from their position.
Military Order No. 854 was established to control the admissions of academic institutions in the West Bank. Under 854, the military has complete control over who can enter colleges as students, teachers, or administrators. All students must obtain identification issued by the Area Commander prior to registration.
Military Order No. 998 Palestinians are required to obtain Israeli military authorisation to withdraw from bank accounts.
Military Order 93 and Amendment grants all Palestinian insurance operations to the Israeli Insurance Syndicate.
Military Order No. 128 gives the Israeli military the right to take over Palestinian businesses that are not open during normal business hours. Whilst it is no longer illegal to display the Palestinian flag, it is strongly and often violently repressed. - One in every five Palestinians have been arrested and charged under military orders, an incarceration rate that doubles to two in every five Palestinian men having been arrested. For comparison, just over one in two hundred citizens in the USA have been arrested.
- The United Nations Special Rapporteur said the Occupied Palestinian Territories had been “transformed as a whole into a constantly surveilled open-air prison. The occupying power framed the Palestinians as a collective incarcerable security threat, ultimately de-civilianising them, namely eroding their status as protected persons”. (Source)
- Israel’s control over the Palestinian population is based on a system of colour-coded identification cards, with Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip issued with green ID cards and Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Israel given blue ID cards. It is illegal for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to travel to Gaza and Jerusalem and for Palestinians in Gaza to travel to Jerusalem and the West Bank, unless they are issued a special permit by the Israeli military. Israel has refused to add many people living in Gaza to the population registry altogether, and despite the right to return being enshrined in UN resolutions, there are nearly six million Palestinian refugees in the diaspora, most living in camps and communities in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, who cannot return to the territories under Israeli control. This control over population demographics and freedom of movement within the Occupied Palestinian Territories lies at the core of Israeli occupation and has drawn comparisons to South African apartheid, during which ID cards were used to control the movement of Black citizens.
COMPLICITY
With the support of multinational corporations such as HP, Israel continues their campaign of ethnic cleansing, breaking international laws, land grabbing and dehumanising the people of Palestine. Until this support is stopped, Israel will not be held to account for its actions and the people of Palestine will continue to suffer unimaginably.
Whilst there is a long, beautiful relationship between resistance movements and print, the art world is all too often complacent in the face of technology-enabled racism. Many artists and galleries perform gestures of solidarity and pay lip service to liberatory movements without taking any meaningful material action to address their own participation in systems of violence. We must acknowledge that by continuing to produce our creative projects on HP products and services we are not only artwashing HP’s reputation but providing funding and tacit support for its warmongering. By refusing to address the shortcomings of our communities and interrogate the tools and processes we utilise, we become complicit in the crimes we claim to oppose, no matter how well-intentioned our personal motives or the narratives within our work.
The call to become an ethical consumer and creator is not unprecedented: schools, churches and companies worldwide have been withdrawing their financial support for HP and other corporations profiting from genocide. It is time for the art world to catch up.