Israel Weapon Industries
Israeli small arms manufacturer, wholly owned by the privately held SK Group. Makes the Tavor, X95, Negev, Galil, Uzi and Arad carried by Israeli forces, and exports through IWI US in Tennessee and the PLR Systems joint venture in India.
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Apply pressure where it matters. Use these tools and personalise your message with evidence from this page.
- Write to IWI's PurchasersIWI is Israeli-headquartered, so the templates address the governments, agencies and distributors that buy from it, and ask them to end the relationship. Sent to each individually, never jointly
- Report New IntelligenceNamed end customers are the biggest gap in this profile. Police and municipal procurement records are public and requestable; export licence records and Hebrew-language sources are all useful
- Share This ProfileShare with procurement, policing and arms control contacts
- Strategic AnalysisThe open Indian carbine award and the import-ban route
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Decision-Maker Directory
Key individuals with influence over corporate partnerships and procurement decisions. The contact details shown are published business addresses, listed for professional correspondence only. Write to the role, not the person, and keep correspondence courteous and factual. Repeated, abusive or personal contact is unlawful harassment and damages the case being made.
Material Risk Framing
Frame your message around business risks. These talking points resonate with corporate stakeholders and institutional investors.
IWI's Tavor and Negev are standard issue to forces in operations the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry found, in its report of 16 September 2025, amount to genocide in Gaza; the ICJ held Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful on 19 July 2024. The exposure runs to purchasers. Spain's Royal Decree-Law 10/2025, ratified on 8 October 2025, prohibits importing Israeli defence material outright. On 30 July 2026 Amnesty International named IWI's Indian joint venture, PLR Systems, in a report finding that Indian arms transfers to Israel risk complicity in genocide.
IWI is unlisted, publishes no accounts and has no consumer base at home, so the pressure surface is its customers and intermediaries rather than the company. Who Profits lists the parent SK Group under population control for specialised equipment and services; AFSC Investigate carries it under Weapons and Military Equipment and tags it Gaza Genocide. IWI US reaches American buyers through firearms distributors and retailers, each individually nameable, and the Indian venture now operates under a published Amnesty finding.
IWI files nothing. It is wholly owned by SK Group, a privately held holding company founded and controlled by Samy Katsav; Who Profits placed group revenue in the $100m to $250m band on a page valid to 2 January 2022, and no later figure is public. Revenue is concentrated in state and licensed-export sales: the Israeli Ministry of Defence, roughly 40,000 light machine guns for India running over five years, and the US commercial market. Israeli defence exports reached a record $19.2 billion in 2025.
Production sits in three jurisdictions, each separately reachable. The Israeli plant is at Kiryat Gat. IWI US moved its headquarters from Middletown, Pennsylvania to Andersonville, Anderson County, Tennessee, opening in April 2026 on a stated $15.7 million investment and 72 jobs. PLR Systems at Malanpur, majority-owned by Adani Defence & Aerospace, licence-builds the Negev as the 'Prahar' and delivered its first 2,000 to the Indian Army in March 2026. Sister company Meprolight supplies the sights fitted to IWI rifles.
Strategic Analysis
In-depth assessment of the company's position, vulnerabilities, and recommended approaches for effective engagement.
High severity, lower vulnerability — requires long-term divestment pressure
Severity
9.5/10
(9 + 10) ÷ 2 = 9.5
Strategic Vulnerability
5.0/10
(3 + 7) ÷ 2 = 5.0
Learn about our methodology — companies are categorised based on severity (harm potential) vs strategic vulnerability (campaign leverage).
Why do these scores change?
Unlike static boycott lists, our targeting model is dynamic. This company's position on the matrix is re-evaluated continually as we verify new contracts, divestments, or policy changes. Your reporting directly impacts this score.
Israel Weapon Industries makes the rifles and machine guns Israeli soldiers carry. The Tavor and the Negev are standard issue in the military of a state whose occupation of Palestinian territory the International Court of Justice, the United Nations' principal court, found unlawful on 19 July 2024. The Israeli research centre Who Profits recorded the Negev 7 machine gun entering operational use during the October 2023 assault on Gaza (sources). IWI has no public accounts and sells no consumer product: no listed equity, no outside shareholders to lobby, no high street to picket. Its buyers are another matter: an order for roughly 170,000 carbines is open in India, IWI US sells into the American law-enforcement market from Tennessee, and Spain has already made importing Israeli weapons unlawful.
Key Leverage Points
- Ask every buyer about the same weapon's record in Gaza. Who Profits recorded the Negev 7 entering operational use during the October 2023 assault on Gaza, and Micro Tavor X95 rifles and M5 sniper rifles deployed there in the same month. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, a panel appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, found in September 2025 that genocide has been committed against Palestinians in Gaza. Send a purchasing officer the model names and dates, and ask them to answer.
- Press India's carbine award before it is signed. An order for roughly 170,000 carbines was still unsigned in December 2025, with IWI's joint venture bidding for about 40% of it. Amnesty International's report of 30 July 2026 gives Indian campaigners a published finding to put to the buyer now.
- Ask your government to ban imports, not just exports. Spain's Royal Decree-Law 10/2025, ratified on 8 October 2025, prohibits importing defence material from Israel. An export ban does not touch IWI; an import ban closes a market to it. Send legislators the Spanish law as precedent.
- Request the contract file from any police force buying IWI. IWI US sells into the American law enforcement market. Where the buyer is a police department or state agency the paperwork is public and requestable; get it, then take it to the body that signs the budget.
- Tell retailers what else this owner makes. The privately held SK Group of Samy Katsav owns IWI outright, along with Israel Shipyards, Camero-Tech and Meprolight, whose M5 sights were fitted to the Arad rifles the Israeli military distributed in January 2026. Ask any retailer carrying Meprolight optics what it knows about the group behind the brand, in writing, to its buying office.
Documented Impact
Who Profits recorded the Negev 7 machine gun entering operational use during the October 2023 assault on Gaza, in a version made more powerful after military feedback from 2014. It recorded Micro Tavor X95 rifles and M5 sniper rifles deployed there the same month. A sniper rifle is aimed at one person at a time. That is what was deployed into Gaza in October 2023. The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organisation that researches corporate involvement in war, records that the Tavor and the Negev are "standard issue weapons in the Israeli military". It records that since mid-October 2023 IWI has reportedly been producing hundreds of Tavor rifles each day (sources).
The Israeli Ministry of Defence's Defense Procurement Directorate signed an agreement worth about NIS 67 million on 16 July 2025 for Negev 7 and Negev UX machine guns, for delivery in 2026 and 2027. The Ministry's own release states that the Negev UX was developed with the Israeli military and "has demonstrated its effectiveness in current operations". The Ministry does not say which operations. In July 2025 they included Gaza. In January 2026 the Ministry completed a separate NIS 100 million programme distributing thousands of Arad rifles to civilian "rapid response teams" (armed standby squads based in Israeli communities) fitted with Meprolight M5 sights drawn from military stocks. Its second phase equipped teams in the occupied Syrian Golan (timeline).
PLR Systems, a plant at Malanpur majority-owned by Adani Defence & Aerospace, licence-builds the Negev for the Indian Army as the "Prahar" and delivered the first 2,000 of roughly 40,000 in March 2026. On 30 July 2026 Amnesty International documented 2,596 shipments of weapons and components sent from India to Israel between October 2023 and November 2025, among them at least 390,516 small arms parts. Amnesty named PLR Systems as a manufacturer of machine gun parts, and its Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, said India "stands in clear violation of its duty to prevent genocide" (sources).
Engagement Strategy
Every route runs through someone who buys from IWI, licenses from it or sells for it.
- Governments. Ask for an import ban on Israeli defence material on the Spanish model, and for any existing IWI contract to be suspended in the meantime.
- Police forces and public agencies. Ask what IWI equipment they hold, when the contract renews, and whether they will let it lapse. Councils, oversight boards and residents can all ask.
- Distributors and retailers. Ask them to delist IWI rifles and Meprolight optics, in writing to the buying office.
- Adani Defence & Aerospace. As majority owner of PLR Systems it can be asked, in India, what the plant ships to Israel and whether it will stop.
Evidence & Sources
Verified sources including NGO reports, regulatory filings, and primary documents. Use these to substantiate your correspondence. Entries marked First-hand were reported directly to this site and are published without identifying the source.
Amnesty analysed 2,596 shipments of weapons, ammunition, parts and components exported from India to Israel between 7 October 2023 and 30 November 2025, including at least 390,516 small arms parts for military-grade weapons. It names PLR Systems Private Limited, 'who manufacture parts for machine guns and is a joint venture between Adani Defence & Aerospace and Israel Weapon Industries'. Secretary General Agnès Callamard: 'By knowingly allowing the transfer of arms to Israel, India stands in clear violation of its duty to prevent genocide under the Genocide Convention.' Amnesty calls on India to cease authorising weapons exports to Israel and to accede to the Arms Trade Treaty.
Open sourceIsrael's Ministry of Defence announced on 2 June 2026 that defence exports reached $19.2 billion in 2025, up from $14.8 billion in 2024, a rise of about 30% and a fifth consecutive record. Air defence, missiles and rockets accounted for 29% and surveillance and optoelectronics for 22%; firearms fall within the residual category and are not separately broken out. The commercial context in which IWI's export programme sits: embargo measures adopted by individual states have not yet reversed the overall trend.
Open sourceIWI US states that it operates from Andersonville, Tennessee, that it is owned by the SK Group headed by Samy Katsav, that IWI Ltd traces to 1933 when Israel Military Industries began firearms production under the British Mandate, and that the Israeli government privatised IMI's small arms division in 2005 to create IWI. The company states that IWI develops small arms systems in collaboration with the Israel Defense Forces 'based upon the demands of troops fighting in urban areas and harsh environments'. Primary self-published confirmation of the ownership chain and of the military design relationship.
Open sourceAdani Defence and Aerospace delivered an inaugural batch of 2,000 Prahar light machine guns to the Indian Army from its small arms complex at Gwalior, against a total order of 40,000 to be completed within three years and eleven months ahead of the original schedule. The Prahar is the 7.62x51 mm IWI Negev built under licence: the same outlet reported on 6 December 2025 that IWI would supply 40,000 light machine guns to India from early 2026 through the PLR Systems joint venture. Establishes that the Indian production line is live and delivering.
Open sourceThe Ministry's Defense Procurement Directorate and Land Acquisition Unit completed distribution of thousands of IWI Arad rifles to civilian rapid response teams, at approximately $31 million (NIS 100 million) including ten years of maintenance and sustainment, with Meprolight M5 optical sights drawn from Israeli military stocks. The Ministry states the programme creates 'a standardized, Israeli-manufactured defense system for rapid response teams'.
Open sourceValues the completed programme at NIS 100 million, about EUR 27 million, covering a ten-year maintenance and sustainment package and Meprolight M5 red dot sights from existing Israeli military inventories. Quotes Ronen Hamudot, vice chairman of IWI's parent SK Group, on the Israeli military's expanded adoption of the Arad. Establishes the completion date and the corporate spokesman.
Open sourceIWI is to supply the first batch of 40,000 light machine guns to India from early 2026, delivered over five years, following receipt of the production licence. IWI chief executive Shuki Schwartz: 'We have completed all tests, trials, and government checks, and we have received the license for production.' A separate order for roughly 170,000 close quarter battle carbines was at pre-signing stage, with IWI supplying about 40% through the PLR Systems joint venture with the Adani Group and Bharat Forge the remaining 60%. Establishes the chief executive and the structure of the Indian programme.
Open sourceSpain's parliament ratified on 8 October 2025 the royal decree-law approved on 23 September 2025. The law 'bans all exports of defence equipment, products and technology to Israel as well as the import of such goods from the country', and restricts transit, barring ships and aircraft carrying such cargoes from Spanish ports and airspace. Spain had already cancelled a EUR 6.6 million ammunition order from an Israeli manufacturer in April 2025. The clearest legislative precedent available for closing an export market to Israeli small arms manufacturers, and the only kind of measure that reaches an Israeli manufacturer directly rather than through its customers.
Open sourceIWI US is relocating from Pennsylvania to Andersonville, Tennessee on a $15.7 million investment creating 72 jobs, to increase manufacturing capacity and strengthen design and development. IWI US chief executive Casey Flack: 'This move enables us to expand our operations, enhance production capabilities and create new opportunities for growth and collaboration.' The relocation was announced by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development on 22 September 2025, and the new headquarters opened with a ribbon-cutting on 22 April 2026.
Open sourceThe Commission concluded that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, finding that four of the five acts of genocide defined in the Genocide Convention were committed. The finding is confined to Gaza.
Open sourceThe Defense Procurement Directorate signed an agreement with IWI, through its Ground Forces Procurement Unit, for advanced 7.62 mm machine guns from the Negev 7 and Negev UX series plus a comprehensive maintenance package, at approximately $20 million (NIS 67 million), with deliveries scheduled for 2026 and 2027. The release states the Negev UX was developed in collaboration with the Israeli military and has demonstrated its effectiveness in current operations, and frames the purchase within Director General Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amir Baram's policy of expanding Israel's defence production base.
Open sourceRecords that IWI manufactures small arms for the Israeli military and for export, including assault and sniper rifles, pistols, grenade launchers and the Uzi submachine gun, that it was demerged from Israel Military Industries in 2005 and is owned by SK Group, and quotes the company's description of its weapons as shaped by 'ongoing interaction, field tests, situational functionality and modifications resulting from live combat demands'. The page carries no publication or revision date.
Open sourceRecords an approximately NIS 50 million procurement of more than 9,000 Arad rifles from IWI, on top of some 5,000 already procured since the start of the war, under the 'Mashiv Ha'ruach' programme. Phase one re-equipped 97 rapid response teams, battalions and companies in communities along the northern border, naming Nahariya, Kiryat Shmona, Ma'alot-Tarshiha, Metula, Shlomi, Hurfeish, Peki'in and Kfar Vradim. States that 'Phase 2 of the program has now begun, focusing on equipping rapid response teams in the Golan Heights', that is, the occupied Syrian Golan.
Open sourceThe International Court of Justice found Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful and set out obligations on states in relation to trade and dealings arising from it. The legal framework on which import restrictions and procurement exclusions rest.
Open sourceLists SK Group under the tags Gaza Genocide and Weapons and Military Equipment. Records that IWI makes the Tavor assault rifle and Negev machine gun, 'both of which are standard issue weapons in the Israeli military', and that 'since mid-October 2023, IWI has reportedly been producing hundreds of Tavor rifles each day' for the Israeli military and the domestic commercial market. Also records Meprolight's through-wall radar, first used by the Israeli military in its 2014 attacks on Gaza, and Israel Shipyards' vessels for the Israeli Navy and Border Police, including the first Shaldag MK V launched on 5 December 2023. Valid as of 1 May 2024.
Open sourceRecords that IWI produces and designs small arms deployed by the Israeli military through joint research teams with it; that the Negev 7 machine gun entered operational use during the October 2023 assault on Gaza as a version made, on 2014 military feedback, more powerful and deadly than its predecessor; and that Micro Tavor X95 rifles and M5 sniper rifles were deployed there in the same month. Also records that in November 2023 the Israeli Ministry of Defence procurement division ordered thousands of long-barrelled M4-type assault rifles from IWI and another Israeli company for over NIS 100 million, and that sister company Israel Shipyards maintains the Sa'ar 6 corvettes that took part in the October 2023 operations.
Open sourceThe parent company's field record. Sector Military, Security and Surveillance; involvement Population Control, Specialized Equipment and Services; region Gaza; revenue banded $100m to $250m; headquarters P.O.B 63, Ramat HaSharon. Records that IWI firearms are, in the company's own words, developed in close collaboration with the Israeli army through established joint research teams; that the Tavor was deployed in the 2006 assault on Lebanon and the 2014 assault on Gaza; and that Tavor rifles have been exported to police units in the United States, Thailand, India and Cyprus. Also covers Meprolight, Camero-Tech and Israel Shipyards. The page footer states the information is valid until 02/01/2022.
Open sourceUpdates & Milestones
- Amnesty International names the Indian joint venture
Amnesty International publishes 'Made in India: The Supply of Weapons and Ammunition to Israel', documenting 2,596 shipments from India to Israel between October 2023 and November 2025 including at least 390,516 small arms parts, and naming PLR Systems as a manufacturer of machine gun parts and a joint venture between Adani Defence & Aerospace and Israel Weapon Industries.
- Israeli arms exports reach a record $19.2 billion
Israel's Ministry of Defence announces on 2 June 2026 that defence exports grew by almost 30% in 2025 to a record $19.2 billion, the fifth consecutive record year.
- IWI US opens its Tennessee headquarters
IWI US holds the ribbon-cutting for its new headquarters at Andersonville, Anderson County, Tennessee, completing the move from Middletown, Pennsylvania.
- First Indian-built machine guns delivered
PLR Systems delivers the first batch of 2,000 licence-built Negev light machine guns, designated 'Prahar', to the Indian Army from its Malanpur plant, against a total order of roughly 40,000.
- Arad distribution completed
The Ministry of Defence completes distribution of thousands of Arad rifles to civilian rapid response teams at about NIS 100 million, including a ten-year sustainment package and Meprolight M5 sights drawn from military stocks, creating what the Ministry calls a standardised, Israeli-manufactured system.
- Indian production licence granted
IWI chief executive Shuki Schwartz confirms the company has completed all tests, trials and government checks and received the licence to produce in India, ahead of deliveries of 40,000 light machine guns from early 2026. A separate order for roughly 170,000 carbines remains unsigned, with IWI's venture bidding for about 40% against Bharat Forge at 60%.
- Spain bans imports of Israeli defence material
Spain approves Royal Decree-Law 10/2025, ratified by parliament on 8 October 2025, prohibiting both exports of defence equipment, products and technology to Israel and imports of such goods from Israel, and restricting transit through Spanish ports and airspace.
- IWI US announces relocation to Tennessee
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development announces IWI US's relocation from Middletown, Pennsylvania to Andersonville in Anderson County, a project of about $15.7 million creating 72 jobs.
- UN Commission of Inquiry finds genocide in Gaza
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry publishes A/HRC/60/CRP.3, finding that genocide has been committed in Gaza.
- NIS 67 million machine gun contract signed
The Israeli Ministry of Defence's Defense Procurement Directorate signs an agreement worth about NIS 67 million for Negev 7 and Negev UX 7.62 mm machine guns plus a maintenance package, with deliveries scheduled for 2026 and 2027. The Ministry states the Negev UX was developed in collaboration with the Israeli military.
- Arad rifles ordered for civilian rapid response teams
The Ministry of Defence agrees an approximately NIS 50 million order for over 9,000 Arad rifles, on top of some 5,000 already procured since the start of the war, under the 'Mashiv Ha'ruach' programme. Phase one re-equipped 97 rapid response teams along the northern border; phase two focused on equipping teams in the occupied Syrian Golan.
- ICJ rules the occupation unlawful
The International Court of Justice finds Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful and sets out obligations on states in relation to trade and dealings arising from it.
- Ministry of Defence orders thousands of rifles
Who Profits records that the Israeli Ministry of Defence procurement division ordered thousands of long-barrelled M4-type assault rifles from IWI and another Israeli manufacturer for over NIS 100 million.
- Negev 7 enters operational use in Gaza
Who Profits records that the Negev 7 machine gun entered operational use during the October 2023 assault on Gaza, in a version made more powerful following military feedback from 2014, and that Micro Tavor X95 rifles and M5 sniper rifles were deployed there in the same month.
- Adani takes majority control of the Indian joint venture
Adani Group acquires the majority stake in PLR Systems Private Limited, IWI's Indian joint venture at Malanpur near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, described as India's first privately owned small arms manufacturing plant. IWI retains the minority holding and supplies the designs and production licence.
- Tavor deployed in the assault on Gaza
Who Profits records the Tavor rifle in use during the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza, having previously been deployed in the 2006 assault on Lebanon. Sister company Meprolight's through-wall radar is used by the Israeli military in Gaza for the first time in the same operations.
- IWI US begins operations
The American subsidiary begins operations at Middletown, Pennsylvania, bringing commercial versions of the Tavor to the US civilian and law enforcement market.
- Privatised out of Israel Military Industries
The Israeli government privatises the small arms division of Israel Military Industries, which is renamed Israel Weapon Industries and passes into the ownership of the SK Group, the privately held holding company of Samy Katsav.
- Uzi enters production
The Uzi submachine gun enters production and goes on to become one of the most widely exported firearms ever made, with more than ten million units produced.
- Firearms production begins
Firearms production begins in Palestine under the British Mandate within the organisation that became Israel Military Industries. IWI dates its own history to this year.