Press for Conversion! (Issue # 66) Spring 201224

Dell IncDell IncDell IncDell IncDell Inc..... computers (PCs). Globes reportedthat this three-year contract was“financed from US military aid toIsrael.” The paper also noted thatthe IDF tender was “thought to bethe largest of its kind in Israel andis divided into three categories:laptops, PCs and servers.”

Another Israeli paper,Haaretz, confirmed this as “oneof the Israeli army’s biggestcomputer tenders,”and said “thearmy is payingbetween $600 to$700 per unit” making “thecontract worth about $30 million to $35million to Dell Israel.” It noted that Dellhad also won a separate contract “tosupply portable computers to the Israeligovernment.” Globes’ also mentionedthis other contract saying Dell wouldalso supply 2,500 PCs to various un-specified government offices.

In 2009, Michael Dell acceptedanother invitation to Israel, this timefrom the country’s President, ShimonPeres. Dell had met Peres earlier thatyear at the global power elite’s “WorldEconomic Forum” in Davos, Switzer-land. At that time, Peres suggested toDell “that he should [start] a businessdevelopment center in Jerusalem” andDell did just that.

In early 2010, Dell Inc. paidUS$12 million for Exanet, an Israelidata-storage systems firm. This allowedDell to open its Israeli R&D center inearly 2011. Exanet’s key executives areclosely tied to several large companiesthat supply Israel’s military:

Cofounder/CEO, Giora Yaron, wason Rafael’s advisory board. (See“State-owned Israeli War Indus-tries,” pp.48-49.) He is also an Am-docs director. (See pp.5-6.)CEO/President, Mark Weiner, wasin various executive positions atNetApp. (See table “CPP invest-ments,” p.53.)President of Exanet Americas,Bruce Chumley, held key posts atEMC and Hitachi Data Systems.(See pp.30-31 and p.38.)Chief Financial Officer, MichaelBerger, filled “various financial andmanagerial roles” at Motorola Com-munications Israel. (See table “CPPinvestments,” p.53.)

ReferencesDell Inc.finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=Dell&annual

Michael Dellwww.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Michael_Dell.html

Connecting Technology, Michael Dell Key-note Address, May 15, 2001.www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/speeches/msd/2001_05_15_connecting_tech.pdf

Michael Dell Remarks, Air Force IT Con-ference, August 27, 2002.www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/speeches/msd/2002_08_27_USAF_IT.pdf

Michael Dell Remarks, US Army DOIMConference, September 1, 2004.www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/speeches/msd/2004_09_01_msd_army.pdf

Top 100 Defense Contractorswww.govexec.com

“Michael Dell to Visit Israel,” Globes, Sep-tember 26, 1999.www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=378369

“The computer and Internet markets,” IsraelHigh-Tech & Investment Report, April 2006.www.ishitech.co.il/0406ar3.htm

HP, Dell win govt, IDF computing tenders,Globes, May 23, 2006.www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000094945

Guy Grimland, “Dell day: Won Israeli armytender too,” Haaretz, May 24, 2006.www.haaretz.com/themarker/economy-finance/dell-day-won-israeli-army-tender-too-1.188474

Shmulik Shelah, “Michael Dell in privatevisit to Israel,” Globes, June 22, 2009.www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000460724

“Dell Purchases Israeli Data Firm,” Globes,February 8, 2010.www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000537300

Mark Weinerinvesting.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=30560699

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Dell, the world’s third largestcomputer company, is a USmultinational with assets of

US$38 billion. A significant amount ofthat wealth comes from military sales.Between 2000 and 2009 alone, Dell re-ceived US$6.2 billion in US militarycontracts. During each of those tenyears, Dell was among the Pentagon’stop 100 suppliers and, overall, placed39th for the whole decade.

In his speech to a US Navy tech-nology conference in 2001, companyfounder, chairman and CEO, MichaelSaul Dell, said he was “very proud” the“Navy is one of Dell’s largest custom-ers.” At a US Air Force technology con-ference in 2002, he said “the Air Forcehas become one of our largest custom-ers.” When introducing Dell at a USArmy technology event in 2004, Gen-eral Steven Boutelle said there are

“soldiers all over the Middle Eastthat are Dell employees functioningin reserve units. They have contrac-tors in the Middle East. They aresupporting us throughout Baghdad,Iraq and the rest of the world.”

Dell’s speech then noted that “[t]hisyear, the Army is going to be one ofour largest customers in the world.”

Dell also supplies US allies andhas had a subsidiary in Israel since1999. That year, Michael Dell, ac-cepted an invitation to visit Israel fromthe director-general of Israel’s Indus-trial Cooperation Authority. The Ameri-can-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise hasnoted that Dell was “born…to awealthy Jewish family in Houston,Texas,” and “is one of the richest peo-ple in the world...with a net worth of$14.6 billion in 2011.”

By 2005, Dell was the third larg-est supplier of PCs and laptops in Is-rael. This was thanks, in part, to one ofDell’s largest buyers, the Israel DefenseForces (IDF). In 2006, the IDF con-tracted Dell to supply 50,000 personal