CISCO

In violation of international law and the ICJ July 19 Advisory Opinion, Cisco continues to support Israel’s apartheid regime and ethnic cleansing through its network of Tech Hubs – government-subsidized spaces using Cisco hardware and technology to attract and retain settlers. Cisco and Israel partnered to build 100 of these Tech Hubs by the end of 2019, seven of which are in illegal settlements - 5 in the occupied West Bank and 2 in the occupied Syrian Golan. Israel’s settlements on internationally-recognized occupied land constitute a war crime under international law.

Cisco takes advantage of Israel’s apartheid regime by paying its Palestinian workers in its Israel office at about half the rate of their Israeli coworkers. In 2008, Cisco pioneered a model of racial discrimination and exploitation that Intel, Microsoft, and Mellanox soon followed. Whereas an Israeli hi-tech worker would have been paid ~$4,000, Cisco Israel began outsourcing work to skilled Palestinian hi-tech workers at a far lower rate, ~$2,500.

Cisco values the lives and labor of Israelis more than its Palestinian workers, as evidenced by the company’s policy of institutionalized economic discrimination in addition to its financial support of racist organizations, including Magen David Adom (MDA). MDA has been denounced for racism and Islamophobia and is currently a 100% matching eligible organization in Cisco’s Community Impact Portal. Cisco promotes and donates to racist organizations while refusing to pay its workers equally, regardless of race.

Cisco proudly partners with the Israeli occupation forces, including the Israeli military and militarized police, whose severe human rights abuses have been extensively documented by Amnesty International and B’tselem, the leading Israeli human rights organization, among others. Cisco enables the Israeli military’s crimes in several ways, including (i) selling software that centralizes population data to make Israel’s discriminatory policing practices more targeted and efficient; (ii) selling communication systems that help the military coordinate its genocidal assault on civilians in Gaza; (iii) providing servers that accelerate the Israeli military’s ability to coordinate its attacks targeting civilians; and (iv) equipping the Israeli municipality in Jerusalem with the physical and digital infrastructure to surveil Palestinians in illegally occupied East Jerusalem. Cisco is a long-standing partner of the Israeli occupation forces.

Military Partnerships

• In November 2023, Cisco sold Webex, a communications solution, to the Israeli military in partnership with Bynet. This Israeli tech company assists in automating genocide and provides services to Israeli prisons and illegal settlements.
• According to Cisco's VP of Technology, Haim Pinto, “The connection between the technology units in the Israeli military and the high-tech companies in Israel is a significant anchor in the accuracy and advanced development of technologies that serve the security of the state and the bodies responsible for it …Seeing officers in uniforms sitting next to our engineers and developing technological solutions together is natural to us, but still exciting.”
• In March 2020, Cisco began laying tens of Unified Communication systems for the Israeli military, which is expected to reach hundreds of systems. The unified network centralizes video, voice, and data transfer between Israeli military units.
• Cisco’s computing and communication systems, cyber security, and load balancing systems were integrated into the Israeli military’s largest ICT underground data center in the Naqab, David’s Citadel, which was completed in 2020.
• In 2013, Cisco partnered with the Israeli military to supply $150 million in communications equipment over 5 years, with the option to extend by 2 years.

Government Partnerships

• In October 2023, Cisco Israel developed “Israel Rises” for the Israeli military (Home Front Command), which is a Cisco-powered national platform that facilitates cross-sector joint action to materially support Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza in violation of 3 legally-binding ICJ rulings.
• In 2017, Cisco sold servers and support services to upgrade the Israeli military’s and Israeli Ministry of Defense’s networks through Bynet, Israel’s leading end-to-end integration solutions and services provider. Bynet provides Israeli border patrol, police, and other law enforcement agencies with invasive surveillance tools. Bynet is also widely recognized for providing services to Israeli prisons, including a phone tapping service using voice biometric data of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are held hostage without charge or trial in inhumane conditions described as “human chicken coops” by the leading Israeli human rights organization.
  • “The Military server farm has a storage capacity of 10,000 [times] more than the standard computer and integrates 300 of the Israeli military’s surveillance, intelligence, and combat units’ ICT data systems in one base. Centralizing Israel’s ICT data serves to bolster the capacity of Israel’s intelligence and combat military units,” writes Who Profits.
• In 2017, Cisco partnered with the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem to develop, on a pro bono basis, “Smart City” technology specially designed to surveil Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem. In the same year, Cisco installed communication equipment and CCTVs for the municipality. Deploying Cisco’s surveillance technology violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights articles 12 and 17, which state that no person should be subjected to arbitrary interference with their privacy.

Police Partnerships

• In August 2022, Cisco sold additional software to the Israeli police.
• Between 2020 and 2021, Cisco sold equipment and software worth over $1 million to the Israeli police, notorious for its human rights violations.

Cisco has a long record of investing in and acquiring Israeli companies, many of whom supply technology to automate apartheid, including in the OPT, and intensify Israel’s genocide in Gaza. In addition to serving as accomplices in crimes against humanity, Cisco-acquired Israeli companies feed Israel’s genocidal war chest by financially backing the apartheid regime. Cisco has acquired at least 20 Israeli companies. Below is a non-exhaustive list of Cisco’s acquisitions of Israeli companies between 2013 and 2024 that reveals Cisco leaders’ personal and financial commitment to militarized apartheid despite knowledge of many of these companies’ human rights violations.

• September 2024: Robust Intelligence ($400 million) - AI security platform founded by Israeli Yaron Singer, a senior executive at Cisco (former Israeli military special operations unit combat officer), who recently said, “Personally, I’m eager to invest in Israeli companies and recruit talent from Israel.”
• August 2023: Oort - cybersecurity company co-founded by Israeli Didi Dotan, a Senior Director at Cisco who espouses extremist racist views against Palestinians.
• October 2021: Epsagon ($500 million) - application monitoring and observability company co-founded by Israelis Nitzan Shapira and Ran Ribenzaft, now Directors at Cisco.
• May 2021: Sedona Systems ($100 million) - communications company co-founded by Israeli Ori Gerstel, a Senior Director at Cisco.
• October 2020: Portshift ($100 million) - a cybersecurity company co-founded by Israeli Zohar Kaufman, Cisco’s Tel Aviv office director.
• March 2016: Leaba Semiconductor ($350-400 million) - co-founder Eyal Dagan is currently on Cisco’s Executive Leadership Team, reporting directly to the CEO.
• February 2013: Intucell ($475 million)—co-founder Rani Wellingstein was a VP and General Manager, and co-founder Ido Susan was the Head of Mobility Solutions at Cisco.