Israel vs. BDS: corporate social responsibility and the politics of human rights

ABSTRACT

This is a case-study of an organized Israeli effort to disengage the issue of corporations in the Palestinian Occupied Territories from the global CSR framework of human rights. At the centre of the study are three international CSR conferences which took place in Israel, hosting players in the global industry of corporate risk-management indices. The study underscores the importance of studying the micro-politics of producing and implementing human rights norms across the globe; designating micro-politics as the sum of informal exchanges among players who share a common platform of expertise. We find that the Israeli conveners leveraged the CSR conferences to (1) promote a campaign against BDS among CSR players, (2) invoke BDS as a trope for dissociating the human rights framework of CSR from corporate activities in the OPT, and (3) frame the activities of corporations in the OPT in terms of labour opportunities and economic development.

KEYWORDS:

• CSR
• human rights
• OPT
• Israel-Palestine conflict
• ESG criteria
• BDS

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Ronen Shamir http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9215-387X

Notes

1 See https://bdsmovement.net/economic-boycott (accessed 3 August 2019).

2 Drucksache 19/10191, German Bundestag in: http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/19/101/1910191.pdf (accessed 3 August 2019).

3 See https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles/principle-1 (accessed 3 August 2019).

4 For the impact on boycotts and other sanctioning measures on corporate complicity in human rights violations in the OPT, see Ulgen (2016).

5 See https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf (accessed 3 August 2019). Also see the GRI’s announcement from December 2018 on reviewing its human rights standards to bring them in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: https://www.globalreporting.org/information/news-and-press-center/Pages/GRI-UN-Forum-Business-and-Human-Rights-2018.aspx (accessed 3 August 2019).

6 See HRC 22nd session 2013, A/HRC/22/63, Paragraph 96 ‘Impact of Business’: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A-HRC-22-63_en.pdf (accessed 3 August 2019); Human Rights Council 37th session, A/HRC/37/39, 2018, ‘Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories’, paragraph 33; A/HRC/37/39 p.15, citing the International Labour Organization, ‘The situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories’, report of the Director-General, International Labour Conference, 106th session, 2017, para. 21: http://undocs.org/A/HRC/37/39 (accessed 3 August 2019).

7 See https://bdsmovement.net/news/corporate-splits-brand-sharing-who-accountable-human-rights-abuses (accessed 3 August 2019).

8 See https://blogreut.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/20180305-bds-shifts-focus-on-corporations.pdf (accessed 3 August 2019).

9 See https://www.ngo-monitor.org/key-issues/bds/tactics/ (accessed 3 August 2019).

10 See e.g. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/reveled-israel-s-top-secret-global-legal-operation-to-fight-bds-1.5460218 (accessed 3 August 2019); and https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/14/bds-boycott-divestment-sanctions-movement-transformed-israeli-palestinian-debate (accessed 3 August 2019) for some details on clandestine legal operations in Europe and North America by the international law firm of Sidley Austin LPP in order to challenge BDS initiatives, on lobbying activities in the US which ‘caused two dozen states to pass bills or issue orders inhibiting or penalising those boycotting Israel or its settlements’, and on strategizing against BDS by ‘conflating boycotts of the settlements with opposition to Israel’s existence’.

11 General Comptroller Form 7.8.2.1: Professional Opinion Upon Contracting a Single External Source, from the Ministry of Strategic Affairs to Procurement Committee, 21 October 2016. Obtained by authors through State Registrar of Companies.

12 Sustainalytics identified Jewish settlements in the OPT as posing reputational risk to investors. It also singled out Elbit Systems Ltd. and Israel Aerospace Industries, Ltd. (IAI) as manufacturers and exporters of military-purposed drones: https://www.longfinance.net/media/documents/sustainalytics_aerospacedefence_2014.pdf (accessed 3 August, 2019). Vigeo Eiris had a project on ‘Business on occupied lands’, investigating companies operating in occupied Palestine and Crimea: http://www.businessinoccupiedlands.org/ (accessed 3 August 2019). Ethix SRI advised Scandinavian Danske Bank to divest from Israeli corporations involved in settlements in the OPT (and military-oriented Elbit): https://www.danskecapital.com/web/show_page.text?p_nId=98&p_vPage=DC_COM_RI_POLICY (accessed 3 August 2019). It also facilitated the decision of Nordea Bank to risk-screen some Israeli corporations with ties to settlements: https://www.nordea.com/Images/33-50583/RII_Annual_2013_web.pdf (accessed 3 August 2019). MSCI ESG removed Caterpillar Inc. from of its indices due to an ESG rating downgrade, partially due to the BDS-induced controversy over the use of its equipment in the OPT: https://mondoweiss.net/2012/06/msci-statement-on-caterpillar-key-factor-in-the-downgrade-was-on-going-controversy-associated-with-use-of-the-companys-equipment-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territories/ (accessed 3 August 2019).

13 Nordea concluded that the banks had effective ‘systems in place to manage their risks’ and that it ‘came to this conclusion after meeting their representatives in Israel’, see https://www.ft.com/content/4c6bfd04-f2fa-11e3-a3f8-00144feabdc0 (accessed 3 August 2019).

14 An Israeli CSR consultant, reporting upon the 2017 conference at https://shirleykantor.co.il/ (accessed 3 August 2019).

15 See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFTfQ2kzio&list=PL43WHYt392phz_IKSw6EMWOfGWu4cgfYE (accessed 3 August 2019).

16 See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/01/sodastream-lays-off-last-palestinian-workers-after-leaving-west-bank (accessed 3 August 2019).

17 Item 15 in Maala’s Ranking refers to the ‘Ruggie- UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on business and human rights United Nations Protect, Respect, and Remedy Framework, and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Other Global Instruments for Corporate Responsibility’. The Ranking does not expect any substantive disclosure of the relevance of such guidelines to participating corporations. The published format of the Ranking does not the number of corporations responding to this item in the affirmative. Maala was unresponsive to our requests for disclosure.

18 7 July 2016 interview with M. Mahadev, General Manager of Maala (translated from Hebrew by authors): https://www.yediot.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4825525,00.html (accessed 3 August 2019).

19 See http://www.maala.org.il/maala-conference-2017-confblog/living-up-to-esg-expectation-dialogue-between-analysts-and-israeli-companies-maala-conference-summary-2017/ (accessed 3 August 2019).

20 See https://www.maala-en.org.il/launching-the-esg-impact-investment-forum-1/ (accessed 3 August 2019).

21 A/HRC/37/39 p.15, citing the International Labour Office, The Situation of Workers of the Occupied Arab Territories, Report of the Director-General, International Labour Conference, 106th session, 2017, para. 21.

22 See http://www.maala.org.il/maala-conference-2017-confblog/living-up-to-esg-expectation-dialogue-between-analysts-and-israeli-companies-maala-conference-summary-2017 (accessed 3 August 2019). Response of a government official to comments about corporations and the OPT during the conference.

23 Email correspondence with authors, 6 March 2018.

24 Interviews with authors, 29 November and 1 December 2018.

25 See http://www.maala.org.il/maala-conference-2017-confblog/living-up-to-esg-expectation-dialogue-between-analysts-and-israeli-companies-maala-conference-summary-2017/ (accessed 3 August 2019); and http://www.maala.org.il/maala-conference-2017-confblog/can-israeli-market-leaders-attract-sustainable-investors-maala-conference-summary-2017/ (accessed 3 August 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tamar Barkay

Tamar Barkay (Tel Aviv Univ. Ph.D Sociology) is head of the sociology program in the Multidisciplinary Studies Department at Tel Hai College, Israel. Her research interests include the changing relations of states and markets, examining the impact of rating practices on modes of governance and subjectivity. Her previous studies explored “corporate responsibility” as a form of non-state authority, including studies of Coca Cola and Airbnb.

Ronen Shamir

Ronen Shamir (Northwestern U. Phd., sociology) studies the sociology of law, political and historical sociology, and social theory. His 2005 ‘no borders?’ (Sociological Theory) contributed to theories of globalisation and his 2008 ‘the age of responsibilisation’ (Economy & Society) theorised corporate social responsibility. He is author of books on popular justice (2000 Duke U. Press) and electrification (2013 Stanford U. Press) in Mandatory Palestine, and on the legal profession (1995 Cambridge U. Press) in the New Deal.