Targeting Israeli Apartheid: a BDS handbook - Corporate Watch ...

5 A BDS Handbook3Holding CompaniesThe Israeli economy is dominated by groups of companies, often controlled by families,which control a huge amount of the economy's capital. The relationships between thesecompanies are complex and often deliberately obfuscated. Writing about the situation in2002, political economists Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler argued “many of [the]firms were linked through complex and often circular cross-ownership ties, and even whenthese ties were conceptually straightforward, their origins were often concealed by longownership chains leading to offshore shell companies.” 1Nitzan and Bichler go on to identify five groups of companies that, in 1999, owned 82 out of652 companies on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. 2 The groups have since changed and thetable below shows some of the current concentrations of capital in the Israeli economy: 3Israel's Chamber of Commerce in Tel Aviv (Corporate Watch 2010)1 Nitzan, J and Bichler, S (2002), The global political economy of Israel. Pluto Press, p.97.2 Ibid, p.99.3 Figures taken from http://www.bdicode..co.il/Rank_ENG/34_0_0/Holding Companies According toAssets, [accessed September 2011].