Comasco Ltd.

The company's own account of itself, and the source for its corporate history. Records that Comasco was established in 1963 as a small operation in Tel Aviv; that Chaim Danon joined as sales manager in 1970, became vice-president in 1973 and chief executive in 1982, and in 1993 "acquired 100% of Comasco shares from BLACKWOOD HODGE B.M. GROUP"; and that in 2017 Danon became chairman while his son Eran took the chief executive's role. It states that the company began representing JCB equipment in 1966, having started with Blackwood Hodge earthmovers and hydraulic cranes, and later added POTAIN tower cranes, TEREX, P&H hydraulic cranes and DMC Trucks. It says Comasco "imports 270 different models of engineering mechanical equipment" and serves "over 5,000 customers in Israel" plus "dozens of Israeli contractors abroad", operates a logistics centre at Zur Yigal established in 2003, and held a foundation stone ceremony for a new Comasco Cranes facility at Caesarea in 2024.

The dealer relationship stated in the dealer's own words. The page carries the line "קומסקו היא היבואנית הרשמית של JCB מ 1966", translated as "Comasco is the official importer of JCB since 1966", and organises the JCB range into construction and infrastructure equipment including excavators and telescopic handlers, agricultural tractors and implements, and access platforms. JCB told the UK National Contact Point that its contract with Comasco "expressly prohibits Comasco from holding itself out, directly or indirectly, as the agent or representative of JCB". The two statements are not necessarily in conflict (an authorised importer buys and resells on its own account and is not for that reason an agent or representative), and we draw no conclusion of misdescription. Both are recorded because the contract terms JCB describes are themselves evidence of the leverage the NCP identified. The page also promotes JCB's LiveLink remote management software as part of the offer, together with servicing, spare parts and equipment rental.

Relevant because machine tracking is the disputed capability in this supply chain. Comasco markets LiveLink to its Israeli customers as "מערכת תוכנה חדשנית המאפשרת לך לנהל מרחוק את ה-JCB שלך", an innovative software system letting the owner manage their JCB remotely from the office by computer or smartphone. The advertised functions include real-time and historical data on machine operating hours, fuel consumption alerts, notifications when components malfunction or equipment starts and stops, operator behaviour monitoring, and security alerts when theft is attempted or when equipment is in motion. The page does not advertise geofencing or remote immobilisation.

Establishes the second of the three franchises on which the business rests. Comasco presents itself as the distributor and importer of POTAIN, described as the world's leading manufacturer of tower and folding cranes, advertising more than 40 crane models with tip loads of 0.6 to 26 tonnes, maximum loads of 1.8 to 80 tonnes, jib lengths of 22 to 85 metres and heights of 21 to 140 metres. The named markets are private construction, dense urban development, high-rise projects and modular or industrialised construction. No fleet size is given.

Confirms the current shape of the business as at 7 August 2026. The company describes itself as a distributor of mechanical equipment and construction methods in Israel serving construction, infrastructure, agriculture and crane hire, and names three represented brands: JCB construction and agricultural machinery, POTAIN cranes for sale and rental, and DMC Trucks (Ford). It advertises equipment sales, rental, a service department, spare parts distribution and used equipment sales, and gives its address as the Mitzpe Sapir Industrial Zone, Tzur Street 1, P.O. Box 13196, Zur Yigal 4486200, with the telephone number 09-7499300.

Comasco Ltd. appears at entry 37 of Annex I, home State Israel, for listed activity (a), "the supply of equipment and materials facilitating the construction and the expansion of settlements and the wall and associated infrastructure", and listed activity (c), "the supply of equipment for the demolition of housing and property, the destruction of agricultural farms, greenhouses, olive groves and crops". Of the 158 businesses in Annex I, only four carry activity (c): Comasco at 37, E.T. Legal Services Ltd. at 50, J.C. Bamford Excavators Ltd. at 86 and Y.A.Z (Yaaz) at 151. Only two carry the combination of (a) and (c), and they are Comasco and JCB, the importer and the manufacturer whose machines it imports. OHCHR received 733 submissions naming 596 businesses, prioritised 215 for review and found reasonable grounds for 158. The report states that the work "does not purport to constitute a judicial or quasi-judicial process of any kind" and applies a standard of "reasonable grounds to believe", lower than a criminal standard; non-listing means out of scope or not yet reviewed, never cleared.

The governing ruling for construction and demolition equipment supplied into the occupied territory. The International Court of Justice found Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, held that the maintenance and expansion of settlements and the construction of associated infrastructure including the wall amounted to annexation, and held settlements and their associated economic activity contrary to international law. It found all states under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel's illegal presence, and noted duties to abstain from economic or trade dealings concerning the occupied territory that entrench it. A/HRC/60/19 cites this opinion as the legal context for the database.

The primary field record of Comasco's state contracts, valid to 18 June 2024. Records Comasco Ltd. as "JCB's Israeli importer and distributor", through which JCB equipment reaches the Israeli military and police, and that Comasco staff "provide maintenance services for JCB equipment at military bases". Documents that the Israeli Ministry of Defence "contracted Comasco in at least 13 contracts" between 2019 and 2021 for backhoe loaders, telescopic handlers, spare parts and maintenance services, totalling "NIS 1.56 million", established through freedom of information documentation; a 2021 Israel Police agreement for maintenance and spare parts running to 2024 worth NIS 210,000; and a March 2023 Israel Police contract for tractor maintenance to September 2023 worth NIS 50,000, both police contracts carrying exemptions from competitive tendering. The same profile catalogues JCB machinery in settlement housing at Alfei Menashe, Oranit, Ma'ale Adumim, Tzufin and Har Homa between 2009 and 2013, at Givat Hamatos and Beit Safafa in November 2020, in the Barkan and Ariel West industrial zones, in the Jerusalem Light Rail and the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem A1 railway, at the Qalandiya and Ofer checkpoints, and in demolitions across the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and the Naqab between 2017 and 2024.

The source for the clearest single figure on this page, and for JCB's own account of its dealer. It cites the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq's finding that JCB machinery was used in at least 70 of 281 demolitions in the occupied Palestinian territory recorded between 1 January and 31 October 2019, close to one demolition in four. It records JCB's response of 27 February 2023 confirming that all products it supplies to Israel go via Comasco, that an established second-hand market exists there, and that it cannot confirm whether a given machine originated from Comasco or was acquired second-hand. It also records that JCB's LiveLink technology can show the location of machinery used in high-risk areas including occupied territories, but that JCB's customer owns and controls that data.

The clearest published account of what Comasco does with the machines, and of what the machines then do. Amnesty published a 92-page report alongside an interactive Crisis Evidence Lab map "showing dozens of specific incidents where JCB machinery was used in recent years to demolish residential and farm buildings belonging to Palestinians, to destroy water pipes and uproot large numbers of olive trees and other agricultural produce", and it records 673 Palestinian structures demolished in the first nine months of 2021 alone, displacing nearly 1,000 people. Amnesty describes JCB selling "its well-known demolition and earthmoving equipment via a sole agent in Israel — Comasco Ltd.", and records that "Comasco, also a private company, in turn sells JCB goods to an extensive list of clients in Israel and provides a range of aftersales and maintenance services". It states that "one of the recipients of Comasco's aftersales services is Israel's Ministry of Defence" and that "documents examined by Amnesty show that Comasco's aftersales work for the Israeli MoD relates to JCB's backhoe loaders, which are specifically used in demolitions", assessing that "it is likely that Comasco is buying the loaders from JCB in the UK, selling them to the Israeli military and then servicing and repairing them". Amnesty records JCB's position that it does not itself operate in the occupied territories, sells only to Comasco and is not responsible for how its products are used thereafter, and argues in reply that the manufacturer has a responsibility under international standards to take effective measures to prevent misuse.

The fullest official account of what the dealer relationship is. The gov.uk case page dates the document itself 11 November 2021; the statement records that it "was published on 12 November 2021", which is the date used throughout this profile. The UK National Contact Point recorded JCB's description of "an arm's length contractual relationship with Comasco, which is an independent dealer for the sale and servicing of JCB products in Israel", and JCB's statement that its contract "expressly prohibits Comasco from holding itself out, directly or indirectly, as the agent or representative of JCB" and that Comasco "is not an exclusive dealer in Israel, [but] it is JCB's only dealer in that location". The NCP's own conclusion cut across the defence: "JCB sells its products to Comasco and even if — as JCB has argued — JCB has no influence over Comasco's management and the ownership of products once sold to Comasco, JCB does have a clear, contractual business relationship with Comasco", and "JCB does have some leverage over Comasco due to its business relationship". It also found, against the complaint, that "Comasco is the sole dealer of JCB products in Israel, but the link between the JCB products used for demolitions and Comasco cannot be clearly established", and that it "could not determine how this leverage could influence those operating JCB products causing alleged human rights impacts in the OPT". It quotes Comasco's own website as stating that it imports hundreds of models of mechanical engineering equipment and serves over 5,000 customers in Israel.

The complainant's own account, and the reason this dealer relationship was ever examined by a government body at all. Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights brought the OECD complaint that produced the UK NCP Final Statement, on the ground that JCB machinery was being used materially in the unlawful demolition of Palestinian homes, and records JCB products involved in at least 60 of 266 demolitions in a single year. The finding it secured is the document JCB and its dealer are both measured against; it was obtained by Palestinian rights lawyers, not offered by any regulator unprompted.

The manufacturer's own dealer clause, and the most directly usable document on this page. Signed by JCB's Group HR Director and undated. It applies "throughout our business operations including our supply chains and sales operations" and states that "JCB expects all its suppliers and dealers to respect and adhere to JCB's Human Rights policy". Under the heading Suppliers and Dealers: "All new suppliers and dealers are subject to appropriate due diligence processes before appointment and are required to sign up to the JCB Supplier Code of Conduct (suppliers) and JCB Dealer Charter (dealers)"; "JCB recognises that human rights impacts may change over time and therefore due diligence is an on-going process. Supplier and dealer audits (both internal and external) form part of this process"; and "JCB reserves the right to terminate any commercial relationship with any supplier or dealer where there is clear evidence of a failure on their part to comply with the terms of this policy". The seven enumerated rights are all workplace and labour rights, and the policy makes no reference to conflict-affected or high-risk areas, to forced eviction or the destruction of property, or to the use of a machine after sale. Operation is assigned to the Group HR Director supported by the Group Directors for Purchasing and Dealer Development, and it is reviewed annually.