Japan, for instance, makes it comparatively simple to export dual-use applied sciences to the United States and Europe, and vice versa. Because they’re acknowledged as trusted international locations below Japanese export legislation, corporations in these states are usually free to make use of Japanese dual-use expertise to supply arms—and to, in flip, export these arms to different states (topic to their very own export controls).
This, itself, has drawn the BDS activists’ ire: They need FANUC to finish its relationship with American protection contractors like General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, which promote appreciable superior weaponry to Israel. “We demand that such business relationships be immediately terminated and that the two companies never do business with each other again,” Imano stated in June. But the activists go additional, arguing that FANUC is, regardless of what it says publicly, really doing enterprise with Israeli protection companies.
“FANUC sells its robots and provides maintenance and inspection services to Israeli military companies such as Elbit Systems,” Imano claimed.
FANUC has denied this cost. “When we sell products to Israel, we carry out the necessary transaction screening in accordance with Japan’s Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, confirm the user’s business activities and intended use, and do not sell to Israel if the products are for military use,” the corporate wrote to HuffPost.
The firm added that, after reviewing their data of the previous 5 years, “we have not sold any products for military use to the Israeli companies Elbit Systems, IAI, BSEL, Rosenshine Plast, or AMI from our company or our European subsidiary. We have also not sold any products for military use to other Israeli companies from our company or our European subsidiary.” The firm recognized one occasion the place considered one of their robotic arms had been bought to an Israeli firm that produces army {hardware} “after confirming that the machine was to be used for civilian medical purposes.”
At the identical time, the corporate admitted that after they promote by intermediaries, of which Israel has a number of, they don’t seem to be all the time capable of assure “who the final customer is.”
There is, nonetheless, ample proof that means FANUC arms have made their means into the Israel protection manufacturing sector. Multiple job listings posted by Elbit Systems, the first home provider of the Israel Defense Forces, checklist “knowledge of FANUC … controls” as both a bonus to job candidates or a requirement. One such job itemizing, from June, comes from Elbit Cyclone, the division that received a contract to supply fuselage elements for the F-35 fighter jet. In January, Israel’s Ministry of Defense printed a video exhibiting a FANUC robotic arm at an Elbit manufacturing unit, dealing with munitions.
Another Israeli firm, Bet Shemesh Engines (BSEL), greater than a decade in the past created advertising and marketing movies and uploaded pictures to their firm web site that includes the FANUC robotic arms. The CV of a former worker suggests the corporate used FANUC robotics to assemble plane engines, which can be used for civilian slightly than army functions. Bet Shemesh counts the Israeli Air Force as a significant consumer.