The Council on Ethics’ recommendation, 3 February 2015
Since 2010, the Council on Ethics has been in dialogue with American communication systems company Motorola Solutions. The dialogue relates to the company’s delivery and maintenance of a customised radar-based surveillance system for Israeli settlements in an occupied area.
The aim of the Council’s dialogue with Motorola Solutions has been to convince the company to terminate the contract, and to draft a policy on human rights which ensures the company avoids similar business in the future.
The dialogue with the company has focused on encouraging the company to develop the policy it has in place today; the company refers to it as a policy on human rights, but its formulation and content make it a policy relating to labour law and the working environment. Motorola Solutions has not been interested in discussing either the systems contracts or its policy on human rights, despite repeated attempts at dialogue and pressure by submitting a shareholders’ suggestion at the company’s AGM.
Based on the information available to the Council, the Council does not believe the company has taken or intends to take any measures to terminate its involvement in the project and prevent similar problems. In its working model, the Council has also set a limit of four years for the duration of a dialogue, unless clear changes/improvements are evident. That limit has now been reached. This means that the company’s operations can be linked to violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Council therefore recommends that Motorola Solutions be excluded.