Thread by @BDSmovement

Chile’s airforce rescinded a contract with Israel’s ImageSat International.

It is immoral, illegal and reckless to conduct business with Israel’s military companies, which are part of Israel’s ongoing genocide of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.



#MilitaryEmbargo
#GazaGenocideloom.ly/THVJfyU

When Chile signed the US$ 120 million contract for 10 image capturing satellites, Israeli company ImageSat International (ISI) had convinced the Chilean authorities they would “enter a new space era.”

4 years later, only the first satellite was launched and failed miserably on its most important task– transmitting high quality images for Chile.

Chile decided: No results, no money, and closed the project. The other 8 satellites will be produced nationally.

ImageSat, a company established by Israel’s state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in the 90s, was privatized to the FIMI Opportunity Funds which is an Israeli conglomerate invested in arms production, security and surveillance.

As Israel’s biggest private investment fund, FIMI is also the biggest profiteer from Israel’s regime of occupation, apartheid and now genocide.

Considering that ISI reported technical problems with other satellites this year, its failure in Chile may be purely due to ongoing technical incompetence.

Chile banned Israeli arms companies from participating in the FIDAE air show in March.

Member of the House Defense Committee MP Jorge Brito has welcomed the decision to end the contract with ISI, connecting ISI’s professional failure to meet its contractual obligations to Israel’s military aggression “against several countries: direct military aggression against civilians with the sustained use of even prohibited weapons.”

He explained: “Surely the tension of the effort that is required there has led it to disregard international commitments with several countries, which is why supply contracts of Israeli origin are being cut.”

The satellite remains for now in space and it is unclear whether ISI has or will have access to the military grade satellite images of Chilean territory it was built for, considering that the contract since the beginning stipulated that 60% of the images would be for Chile’s use while the ISI would use 40% of them.

Distrust of Israeli technological products has been exacerbated lately. In China, the world’s leading producer of electric cars, for instance, “there is growing concern over cars equipped with Israeli technology,” following Israel’s “pagers massacre” in Lebanon. “Safety systems developed in Israel could lead to car accidents due to the potential for remote takeover by Israeli operatives,” Chinese sources have said.

Once part of the celebrated “startups” built upon the experience of Israel’s 76 years of settler-colonial apartheid, and now genocide, ImageSat International is another declining company, affected by what Israel’s top economists call the “spiral of collapse” - Israel’s #ShutDownNation phenomenon - including divestment, brain drain and rotting infrastructure and education system.