Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is a U.S.-based multinational information technology (IT) service provider. The company was formed in November 2015, when it split from Hewlett-Packard Company. In 2016, the company reported $50.1 billion in revenue. In April 2017, the company split again, and merged its Enterprise Services segment with Computer Science Corporation (CSC) to form a new company, DXC Technology. Following these splits, the remnants of the historic Hewlett-Packard Company form three separate corporations:

HP Inc., which is the legal successor of the historic Hewlett-Packard Company, manufactures and sells consumer hardware, mainly personal computers, laptops, printers, scanners, and other peripheral devices.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is mainly a manufacturer and provider of servers, networking, data storage equipment, and software services to institutional clients. HPE was split again in September 2017, selling its software business to the UK-based company MicroFocus.

DXC Technology focuses on outsourced IT services and the design and implementation of custom-made IT platforms for institutional clients such as government agencies and big corporations.

Hewlett-Packard Company, the original company that is now defunct, has worked closely with the Israeli military and several Israeli authorities on a wide range of occupation-related projects at least since the 1990s. Many of these were taken over by Hewlett Packard Enterprise after the 2015 split. We believe it is the responsibility of the company to respond to public concerns and clarify the scope of its current involvement in each and every one of these.

The corporate restructuring was not followed by public disclosure about the separation of specific business relationships and subsidiary companies in Israel, and the status of their contracts. We reached out to HP Enterprise with a request for clarification, but we received no response. However, HP Enterprise publicly stated that it cooperates closely with HP Inc. and that the two companies share supply chains, buy together and bid on contracts together. Upon the launch of DXC Technology, HP Enterprise publicly stated that it will “maintain a strong relationship with DXC, with agreements in place to support current customers.”

Services and Technologies to the Israeli Military, Police and Prison System

Hewlett-Packard Company has been providing multiple services and technologies to the Israeli military, which is the primary Israeli authority that administers the military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 2006, Hewlett-Packard Company was selected as the first private contractor to administer some of the Israeli military’s IT infrastructure. The project started with a pilot program for the Israeli Navy, which is in charge of enforcing the illegal naval blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007. In 2009, the contract was expanded to similarly “virtualize” the entire Israeli military. If this contract is still active, it was transferred to HP Enterprise in 2015, and it is likely that it is now carried out by DXC Technology. However, we have no current information on these activities. In 2007, the Israel Prison Service contracted Hewlett-Packard Company to develop, implement, and maintain a new information system, called Kidma, to include all its prisoner records system, prison management system, the prisons’ human resources system, and their intelligence system. The Israeli Prison Service is in charge of all incarcerated persons in Israel/Palestine. As of April 2017, this includes some 6,400, among whom about 500 are in administrative detention and 300 are children. Most Palestinian prisoners are transferred from the occupied Palestinian territories to prisons located within Israel, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 76). Furthermore, the Israel Prison Service separates Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisoners, and subject them to torture and other discriminatory treatment. The Israeli Prison Service terminated this contract after Hewlett-Packard Company failed to deliver the system. Still, it retained the services of Hewlett-Packard Company to maintain its servers and other IT infrastructure as well as to provide training for its personnel. Following the 2015 split of Hewlett-Packard Company, this contract was transferred to HP Enterprise, which is contracted to provide these services at least until January 2021. Hewlett-Packard Company has also provided various technology services to the Israel National Police, at least since 2004 and until 2016, including endpoint stations to use the above-mentioned population database and other software, networking, and hardware products. The Israeli Police is in charge of enforcing the law within the occupied West Bank and providing security for the illegal Israeli settlements. Furthermore, the police regional district headquarters was built in the controversial E-1 settlement area as a part of Israel’s plan to connect the Ma’ale Adumim settlement to East Jerusalem, in order to severely impede the establishment of a viable Palestinian state, while displacing Palestinian residents. In addition, the Border Police branch of the Israel National Police is regularly deployed in the occupied Palestinian territories, where it is under the command of the military, and it is also used routinely against Palestinian citizens of Israel. Following the 2015 split of Hewlett-Packard Company, these activities were transferred to HP Enterprise. It is likely, but not confirmed, that they are now carried out by DXC Technology.

Past Involvement in the Israeli Occupation

This section includes information about the company’s past business involvement in the occupation. Some of these activities we know are now carried out by other companies, and for others, we have no indication of continued activity. Hewlett Packard Enterprise held a contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defense for maintenance of the Basel system, a biometric access control system that uses hand scanners and facial geometry to identify Palestinians and control their passage through Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli system of checkpoints and discriminatory permits violates multiple international human rights and principles of international humanitarian law. The Basel System contract was handled by Hewlett-Packard Company until its 2015 split, when it was transferred to HP Enterprise. In response to a WhoProfits freedom of information inquiry, the Israeli Ministry of Defense stated that the Basel system was scrapped at the end of 2016 and is no longer active. The Israeli military designed a different system to replace it. HP Enterprise has operated a research and development (R&D) center in Beitar Illit, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. The center, first established in 2006 by Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in a facility of the Beitar Illit municipality, was relocated in 2012 into a new building, shared with Malam Team and Citybook Services. Starting in 2008, in operated under Hewlett-Packard Company. Between 2015 and 2017 it belonged to HP Enterprise, and after the 2017 split it was transferred to DXC Technology. HP Enterprise's predecessor, Hewlett-Packard Company, was contracted in 2005 by the Israeli government to implement a pilot of its "Smart City" project in Ariel, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. This project included building a disaster-resilient storage system for critical municipal services and installing a municipal network system to deliver wireless Internet access to the city’s employees and residents. If this contract is still active, it was transferred to HP Enterprise in 2015, but we have no current information on its status. In 2011, Hewlett-Packard Company won a multi-year contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to be the exclusive provider of servers for the Israeli military and other Israeli security forces. Following the 2015 split of Hewlett-Packard Company, this contract was transferred to HP Enterprise. This contract was repeatedly extended until 2017, when Cisco won a bid to replace it. It is likely that HP Enterprise is still contracted for the maintenance of existing servers, but we have no current information confirming this.

Past Involvement in the Israeli Population Registry and ID System

HP Enterprise’s predecessor, Hewlett-Packard Company, had a longstanding contract with the Israeli Ministry of Interior Affairs to operate and maintain the central database of Israel’s Administration of Border Crossings, Population and Immigration (PIBA), which also includes the country’s population registry. The registry records information about residents’ ethnic identity and religion. Israeli and Palestinian residents are required by law to carry at all times an ID card, which indicates their ethnicity and religion. Israeli authorities regularly use this information to discriminate between Jews and non-Jews in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories. In the 1990s, the Israeli Ministry of the Interior launched the Aviv Project to modernize the computerized database that contains its population registry. The company that was contracted to design the new database was Digital Equipment Corporation, which was later bought by Compaq, which in 2003 merged with Hewlett-Packard Company. In 2008, Israel launched the Arbel project, which was a pilot for adding biometric data of Israeli citizens into the population registry. The company that was contracted to implement this project was Electronic Data Systems (EDS), which in 2008 was bought by Hewlett-Packard Company. Beginning in 2013, Hewlett-Packard Company employees have been stationed at system terminals located in Israeli government buildings in order to provide technical assistance to Israeli government employees. In addition, In 2008, Hewlett-Packard Company also started producing biometric ID cards for Israeli residents, including Israeli citizens, Israeli West Bank settlers, and Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem. Following the 2015 split of Hewlett-Packard Company, these contracts were transferred to HP Enterprise, and it was transferred to DXC Technology in May 2017.

Involvement in Worldwide Mass Incarceration, Policing, Immigrant Deportations, and Surveillance Systems