What to Know About HD Hyundai’s Alleged Role in Palestinian Home Demolitions

I live in the Bader neighborhood in Hizma.^[2]

My husband was tortured while imprisoned for a year and a half in 1984 and suffers from schizophrenia. Since his release, he has been unable to work and receives a monthly stipend from the Palestinian Martyrs Foundation. We have three daughters in university, and our eldest son, who is now 38, has both a mental and physical disability. Occasionally, we receive financial donations to support our family and our daughters in university.

Hizma is a village in the Palestinian Jerusalem Governorate. There used to be a bus that connected the village to Jerusalem, but after the construction of the separation wall and the establishment of the Hizma military checkpoint by the Israeli occupation, the bus service was stopped. This has prevented residents and workers from accessing Jerusalem unless they obtain a permit from the Israeli Civil Administration and pass through the Qalandia military checkpoint.

The village is also impacted by the establishment of settlement outposts in the wilderness of Hizma. Settlers prevent the village’s shepherds from grazing their flocks in the area, and the policy of demolitions of houses and commercial shops is widespread. Part of the village lies within the Jerusalem municipality’s borders, but despite the presence of the wall, shops and industrial businesses in that area are continuously demolished by the Jerusalem municipality. In the West Bank part of the village, the Civil Administration demolishes houses and commercial stores. These demolition policies have led to widespread poverty among workers, traders, and car repair shop owners. Since October 7, 2023, due to the war in Gaza, workers have been denied permits to enter the Green Line and Jerusalem.

As a resident of Hizma, I have particularly suffered from the demolition policy since 2014. My father-in-law donated his land in Area C of the West Bank for us to build a house. We obtained a building permit from the Hizma municipality (which is under the administration of the Palestinian Authority), but in 2017, the Israeli Civil Administration (which governs the West Bank) issued a stop-work order. I consulted several lawyers, but none were able to cancel the demolition order. Several other houses in our neighborhood also have demolition orders that have not yet been executed.

On September 8, 2024, three people arrived in a white Jeep and started taking pictures of the houses in our neighborhood. One of them was wearing an Israeli military uniform. My husband went out to speak with them, and they said, “Nothing will happen, God willing.”

The next day, on September 9, 2024, at 5 a.m., I heard loud knocking on the door. My husband and I opened it, and an official from the Civil Administration told us that we had to evacuate the house immediately because it was going to be demolished. I asked if they could help move my disabled son out of the house. The official replied, “That is not our job. We only remove the furniture.” Relatives came and took my son to a neighbor’s house, but before we had even left, bulldozers began demolishing the wall around the house.

They refused my request to see the demolition order. The demolition lasted three hours, with two bulldozers—one black with the word ‘Hyundai’ written on it, and the other orange with ‘HITACHI’ written on it. I stood there watching the demolition, filled with sorrow and pain, crying and shouting at them, “This is unfair! Why are you doing this to us? We have nowhere else to go!” The soldiers watching the demolition looked at me, but they just smiled, as if watching a comedy movie.

Currently, our family is staying at my husband’s brother’s house in Hizma. Not only our family but also my father-in-law, mother-in-law, and my husband’s brother all live together on the first floor. This has placed a heavy economic burden on my husband’s brother, as he had already lost his job in Jerusalem due to the cancellation of his work permit on October 7, 2023, following the Gaza war. He has no income to support all of us, and his family consists of seven members. On the day our house was demolished, new demolition orders were also issued for two neighboring houses.

I have lived in the village of Al-Jiftlik in Jericho for decades, working mainly in agriculture and livestock farming. I have suffered greatly due to the continuous human rights violations by the occupying forces. My family and relatives have been displaced many times, and we have been driven out of our pastures. We have been exiled from our lives. Even today, the occupation does not leave us in peace within our villages, preventing us from building anything for our families.

The morning of September 18, 2024, was like a nightmare. Army Jeeps, many Civil Administration vehicles, and soldiers suddenly appeared, surrounding my house. This was the house I built for my family to live in, but it was still not completed. I was shocked to see a large bulldozer with endless tracks, marked “Hyundai” on the back and hammer. The moment I saw that, I realized they had come to demolish my house.

Soon after, the bulldozer destroyed my dreams and those of my family. The driver of the bulldozer parked next to my other structures and began to demolish everything, leaving me with nothing but rubble. They destroyed everything standing on the land with false excuses. They don’t want us to live here. They bring huge machinery and soldiers to destroy everything we own.

Every day, I hear about houses being demolished, and these large bulldozers are used in the destruction. When you see such large equipment with your own eyes, fear sets in even before the demolition starts. The appearance of a bulldozer means the entire area will be destroyed. The soldiers, their escorts, and the drivers are merciless. They destroyed everything I had. I struggle to live, but I managed to gather my strength and build a house out of bricks, hoping to live like everyone else.

My children’s dreams were shattered, and everything I worked for was lost under the tracks of that massive machine. All that remains is rubble. I see the ruins every morning and evening, and it constantly reminds me of the moment my house was destroyed. On the same day my house was demolished, they used the same large machinery to demolish several homes in nearby villages. Now, people know that when this equipment appears, it is an ominous sign, signaling the destruction of water tanks or other residential structures. This deprives people of their lives and destroys their hope of living peacefully and safely with their families on their land.

I am a Palestinian Bedouin refugee who was displaced from the Beer Sheva area in 1948, and my family has been living in the town of Anata for 25 years.

Our family consists of five members: my son Shadi, and four married daughters. Including three families living in the same neighborhood, we have a total of 18 people, including 10 children and four women. I am a construction worker, and I also maintain a Bedouin lifestyle by raising sheep. However, due to the occupation’s demolition policies, the construction of the apartheid separation wall, and the confiscation of land for settlements, the pastures we once used around Anata before 2000 are no longer available. I used to have a herd of 60 sheep, but now I only have 10.

Anata is a Palestinian town suffering from demolition and siege policies due to the separation wall and Israeli military checkpoints. Anata has four administrative areas: Areas A, B, and C according to the Oslo Accords, and the Al-Salam neighborhood, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem municipality. The Al-Salam neighborhood is located outside the separation wall and is inhabited by Palestinians with Israeli residency permits. These individuals can only enter Jerusalem by passing through the Shuafat checkpoint and the Hizma checkpoint. These Palestinian residents, despite paying taxes to the Jerusalem occupying authorities, are restricted in their freedom of movement, as they can only move through the military checkpoints controlled by the occupying forces.

The demolition that my family and I, along with my son Shadi and my brother Yusuf, experienced occurred on June 28, 2022. On that day, two Hyundai bulldozers arrived at 5 a.m. accompanied by occupation soldiers and Israeli Civil Administration officials. The surprise was that the demolition order had been issued three months earlier without our knowledge! We were only aware of a stop-work order from five years ago, and a human rights organization was following the case, but nothing had been resolved. We had forgotten about the stop-work order and no other human rights organizations had contacted us since.

The demolition took place from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., and three residential sheds and two sheep sheds were demolished. After the bulldozers left, we rebuilt three wooden residential sheds, and the sheep were sent to the barn of a nearby family from the Ar’arah tribe. However, two months later, the Israeli Civil Administration demolished the new houses, claiming they were unauthorized buildings. Two months prior to this testimony, after the second demolition, a demolition order was issued for the three houses we had rebuilt.

Demolition is an economic disaster for Palestinians. Building a house with brick walls, panel roofs, and tiled floors, similar to urban homes, requires a lot of money. As you can see, my family now lives in a house made of wood and a zinc roof because we cannot afford to rebuild it like the house that was demolished.

As mentioned earlier, the number of sheep I own has decreased due to the demolition policies, the construction of the wall, and the lack of pastures. Additionally, two sheep sheds, one 40 square meters and the other 60 square meters, were demolished on June 28, 2022. As I mentioned, my sheep have decreased from 60 to 10, and my brother Yusuf’s sheep have decreased from 80 to 20. Of course, raising sheep is no longer economically viable, but it is part of the Bedouin heritage, and Bedouins take pride in the number of sheep they own. However, raising sheep has become expensive because there is a lack of pastures and the need to feed them industrial feed. Therefore, reducing the number of sheep has become a custom and tradition.

My family and I live in a state of anxiety and tension, as we never know when the occupation authorities’ bulldozers might come to demolish our rudely built home made of wood and zinc roofing.

I am a resident of Anata in the West Bank, and for 11 years, I ran an auto repair shop in Hizma, a village in East Jerusalem, just a 5-minute drive away. My family consists of three people, including one child. My brother Ishaq’s family consists of five people, including three children. The repair shop is run by both Ishaq and me.

Both Hizma, where my business is located, and Anata, where I live, have suffered from demolition policies throughout the year. The targets of these demolitions are homes and businesses. Hizma has also been under siege in recent years. The village entrance has been blocked with cement blocks, and if you don’t have an ID card that says you’re a Hizma resident, you’re not allowed in. Customers trying to visit the repair shop or buy car parts can’t get in either, causing damage to the business.

Before the construction of the apartheid separation wall in 2000, Hizma and Anata were both part of Jerusalem. There was public transportation connecting these two villages to the Old City of Jerusalem. People were connected to Jerusalem in terms of economy, healthcare, and religion, and they could go to Al-Aqsa Mosque for prayers. However, due to the apartheid separation wall, life for the residents of Hizma and Anata has shifted away from Jerusalem, and now Ramallah in the West Bank has become the center for them. People now go to Ramallah for medical treatment and to use commercial services.

About a month ago, I expanded my repair shop by adding a zinc roof, bricks, and waterproof cloth. The original garage could only fit one car. By expanding the area to 27 meters by 30 meters, I was able to fit three cars at once. Shortly after, I found a demolition order from the Civil Administration attached to the door of the repair shop. I consulted with a lawyer, and he told me to bring a ‘heir decision’ document. The landowner did not have such a document. The lawyer said there was nothing he could do legally to stop the demolition.

On Monday, September 9, 2024, at 9 AM, a Hyundai bulldozer arrived with occupation soldiers and Civil Administration vehicles. They demolished the expanded part of the repair shop. An Israeli officer in civilian clothes entered the shop and instructed me to move two cars out within five minutes. I watched as the result of years of hard work disappeared in front of me. Compressors, a car lift, used car parts, and other equipment I hadn’t been able to remove were buried under the rubble of the demolition. The demolition lasted about an hour and a half. They demolished only the part I had expanded with bricks, zinc, and cloth, leaving the original garage section, which was already used as a repair shop.

The estimated economic loss, including the cost of the building and equipment, is about 50,000 shekels($12,600 USD). I am heartbroken because I have lost my source of income. The remaining repair shop is only 20 square meters, making it difficult to repair even one car.

Tuesday, September 10, 2024, 9:30 AM – I was at home when I saw the demolition equipment arrive. Two Hyundai excavators, one Volvo bulldozer, three civil administration vehicles, one work vehicle, and four military vehicles used by the border guards and army appeared. The equipment and vehicles approached from the 317 settler road, which is about 3 km from my house in the Aghziwa area, east of Yatta. I did not expect the demolition to be carried out in this manner. A week earlier, I had contacted a lawyer who told me that the lawsuit regarding my house had been postponed, and that there was a possibility of winning the case.

However, the equipment passed by other houses in the village and stopped right next to mine. Around 30 soldiers got out, some surrounding my house and pushing away relatives and neighbors who had gathered nearby. At the same time, about 10 soldiers forcibly dragged me, my brother, my father, my mother, and my brother’s wife out of the house. I told the person in charge of the demolition that my lawyer was working on the case, but he replied, “That’s none of my concern,” and then said, “We will begin the demolition in 3 minutes. You have 7 minutes to take anything you can from the house.”

In those few minutes, we tried to take as many belongings as possible. We managed to get out the refrigerator, mattresses, three doors, a third of our clothes, and a few small cabinets. However, most of the furniture had to be left behind inside the house. One of the demolition workers climbed onto the roof and cut the electricity wires, and one bulldozer destroyed the roof of the well I built 20 years ago.

Then, the second excavator moved to the opposite side of the first one and started demolishing the house. I watched in despair as the house I had spent years building was destroyed so easily. I had saved up about 240,000 shekels($68,800 USD) ​over several years while working hard, and that was the cost of building the house. A month before the demolition, I had spent around 20,000 shekels($5,440 USD) buying a new bedroom set and remodeling the kitchen, but they were all destroyed in the demolition, along with most of the other furniture.

The excavators completely demolished the house in just 30 minutes. The bulldozer then dumped debris into the well, making the water unusable before leaving.

The demolished house was 180 square meters, and I had built it three years ago with the savings I accumulated from working as a construction laborer. On June 23, 2023, a civil administration official came and placed a work stoppage order on the house. I immediately went to consult a lawyer. The lawyer advised me to get a certificate of full tax payment and to submit a detailed survey of the neighboring land and its exact boundaries to apply for a permit. I followed the advice and submitted the documents.

However, the civil administration argued that the place name marked on the house ownership documents we submitted was “Aghziwa” according to Jordanian documents, while British documents listed it as “Marah Al-Batia,” and they claimed that the house should be demolished. I managed to get documents stamped by the Jerusalem authorities, proving that the place name was not wrong, but the civil administration demolished the house without notifying either me or my lawyer.

Had we received prior notice, we could have emptied the house completely before the demolition equipment arrived. The legal process cost me about 17,000 shekels($4,624 USD), but in the end, I lost everything.

I had been planning to marry and start my family in this house, which I built three years ago to live independently and with dignity. The house, which was destroyed, had three rooms, two bathrooms, and a living room. It was meant to be the home for my brother Muhannad’s family, with his wife and three children, as well as my mother. Now, Muhannad’s family is living with my uncle, and I have to move back in with my parents. My wedding, which was scheduled for September 20, 2024, has been indefinitely postponed due to the destruction of the house. In a situation without a job or money, I now face several years of setbacks in my life.

I work as a welder and am solely responsible for supporting my family.

Thirteen years ago, I built a house with my father in the village of Tuqu’ in the eastern part of Bethlehem, in the West Bank. Our family originally lived in an old house of about 100 square meters. Two families lived together, so we decided to build a new house on our own land. It was located 100 meters from Road 356, which runs through the center of the village. Settlers use this road to travel to the Tekoa settlement and other nearby settlements.

The new house was a two-story building with a roof. The 1st floor, about 105 square meters, was where my father’s family lived, and on the 2nd floor, my wife and I lived with our four children: 14-year-old Tala, 12-year-old Mohammad, 7-year-old Talin, and 5-year-old Jude. Below the house, we also built a well with a capacity of about 70 cubic meters.

Twelve years ago, the Civil Administration sent us a demolition order for our house, and I contacted a human rights organization to defend our house legally. About a year and a half ago, at the request of my lawyer, I submitted a new blueprint for the house, but since then, I received no communication. And then suddenly, the demolition took place. Had I known in advance, I would have removed the furniture and belongings from the house. However, all the items that held memories with my wife and children were destroyed.

On Tuesday, August 20, 2024, around 10 AM, I received a call from my wife while I was at work. She told me that the soldiers had come to demolish our house. I arrived at the house 40 minutes later, but the soldiers were already there. The soldiers took my ID card and took a photo of me.

The workers, following the soldiers’ orders, began to remove furniture from the house. The soldiers and the Border Police completely surrounded the house, preventing the residents and family members from getting too close. The workers moved some of our furniture, including about a quarter of our clothes. In the kitchen, only the refrigerator was removed, but it was damaged while being pulled outside. We couldn’t remove anything from the bedroom or kitchen, and everything inside the house was destroyed along with the house itself.

The demolition took about an hour with a Hyundai excavator. There was another excavator from the same company and a Volvo bulldozer, but only the Hyundai excavator was used in the actual demolition.

When the demolition started, my wife, Nada, was watching from the window of my uncle’s house across the street and fainted. She couldn’t bear watching our house, which we had worked so hard to build and decorate with our children, being destroyed. We took her outside for first aid. The soldiers called an Israeli ambulance, and paramedics attended to her. Later, my brother took my wife to Al-Hussein Hospital, where she was prescribed sedatives. My wife is currently receiving psychiatric treatment.

My wife, children, and I are now living back in the old house with my father’s family.

I live in Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem. I am a father of three and work at a car wash. I lived in a two-story house in Beit Hanina with my father, Omar, who is 58 years old. The house was ours, and each floor was 150 square meters. I lived on the second floor, and my father’s family of six lived on the first floor.

The house has been demolished twice. The first demolition was in 2021 when the floor I lived on was destroyed. As a result, our family lived with my father on the lower floor, and eventually, we divided the house into two apartments. However, in 2023, my father’s house was also demolished, leaving both families without a place to live.

In the most recent demolition, two bulldozers that had “Hyundai” written on them, came at 6 a.m. and demolished our house. We were left out on the street without a home. Now, we are renting two apartments, each at a cost of $1,500 per month.

The pain our family has endured due to the demolitions started in 2016. At that time, the Jerusalem occupation authorities began to redevelop our village, issuing demolition orders and fines for five houses in the village. Our house was built in 1996, but at that time, the authorities rejected my father’s application for a building permit without any reason.

Our family was fined 256,000 shekels(approx.$70,000 USD) for building without a permit, and the authorities rejected my father’s building permit application once again. Two months before the most recent demolition order was issued, an additional fine of 50,000 shekels($13,600 USD) was imposed, and eventually, the demolition was carried out in 2023. We are paying the 50,000 shekel($13,600 USD) fine in monthly installments of 1,000 shekels($272 USD).

Two months before the final demolition, the city court dismissed our appeal against the demolition order and issued the final order. According to the order, our family was supposed to demolish the house ourselves, but my father and our family naturally refused to do so. If residents refuse to carry out a self-demolition order, the city charges them for the cost of the bulldozers and workers involved in the demolition. We are currently waiting for the bill to arrive so that we can pay the demolition costs to the city authorities. We refused to carry out the self-demolition order in 2021, and we also refused to pay the 174,000 shekel(approx.$47,328 USD) demolition agent fee. I am not sure what legal actions will be taken against me for not paying the demolition costs.

Our house was demolished, and we are completely financially drained. Now we live without our own house, paying rent. Isn’t it enough for this to stop? Losing our home and paying rent is a burden both mentally and financially. Living with the constant fear that rent could increase at any time feels like a sword hanging over my neck.

I live in the village of Birin in the West Bank with my wife and three children. I work as a plumber in various places in the West Bank.

In 2019, the occupying authorities demolished my first home, which was 80 square meters in size. I rebuilt the house in 2020, and my family and I lived there. Later that same year, a demolition order was issued. I went to see a lawyer, and he asked for a land registration certificate and a detailed design plan that included information about the house and land. It cost 5,000 shekels($48,000 USD) to prepare these documents.

On Thursday, July 4, 2024, while I was on my way to work as a plumber, I received a call from the head of the village council. He said that demolition equipment had gathered at the entrance to the village and that they seemed to be planning to demolish the village houses. I had already arrived in Bethlehem, but I immediately headed back to the village.

I arrived home around 9 a.m. Neighbors had gathered, watching to see where the demolition equipment would go, which were waiting at the village entrance. There were four military Jeeps, one Hyundai excavator, one bulldozer, another excavator, three Civil Administration vehicles, and a vehicle for workers to remove furniture before the demolition.

They stopped right in front of our house. About 30 heavily armed soldiers and Border Police ordered us to move 100 meters away from the house. The workers entered the house and began removing furniture and belongings. I saw the workers knock over the refrigerator, smashing it on the ground. They threw other furniture, including wardrobes, about 10 meters away from the house. Then the Hyundai excavator moved in and started demolishing the roof of our house, which was made of bricks and tin.

It took about 20 minutes for our 90-square-meter house to be destroyed. They then demolished nine other houses in the neighborhood in the same way, as well as a barn. That day was difficult and exhausting for all of us. Nine families in the village were left homeless.

That afternoon, we set up five tents on the ground and sat inside them. Around 10 p.m., three settlers wearing military uniforms arrived in an old car. They were people I had seen before. They started shouting insults at me. I told them to leave and asked what they wanted. When they aimed guns at me, I ran away. They also yelled at my wife, children, and female neighbors. Villagers gathered, and after about 10 minutes, the settlers left.

About a month later, on August 7, 2024, the military, Border Police, and Civil Administration returned to the village and even seized our tents.

I plan to set up a caravan on the land in Birin and move there. Even if the occupying authorities demolish the house again, I will rebuild.

In 2002, two settlers were mistakenly identified as targets and were killed by an Israeli military plane. They died on village farmland about 200 meters from our house. Settlers from Pnei Hever built a small memorial for them. These settlers would occasionally visit the memorial, and from there, they would attack us in the village. However, they did not always stay at or reside in the memorial site.

After the war on October 7, the situation changed. The settlers expanded their presence at the memorial site, adding buildings and installing caravans for residential purposes. They also built a road leading from the Pnei Hever settlement to this site and started traveling back and forth through our village multiple times a day with tractors. Sometimes, these settlers, dressed in military uniforms, would come to our homes to search, instilling fear in us. Now, as they continue to expand their facility, which serves as a military outpost, they travel freely through our village. The situation has become frightening, and we feel that the lives of the villagers and children are at risk.

We are forced to ask difficult questions: How much longer can we live in this village under these circumstances?

The occupying authorities continue to demolish our homes, which have been here for generations, while denying our basic rights. At the same time, they allow settlers to build structures, establish roads, and install electricity and water in our land. This is a clear policy to expel us from our land and hand it over to the settlers.

HD Hyundai’s equipment has been used in human rights violations in the Palestinian occupied territories since at least 2008, according to available online sources. Despite this being a situation that raises international legal and ethical issues beyond mere business activities, HD Hyundai has avoided taking responsibility or engaging in dialogue on the matter.

2011 – The first official raising of concerns regarding human rights violations in Palestine.

December

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, an international NGO that extensively collaborates with companies on human rights issues, sent a query to HD Hyundai regarding human rights violations. However, HD Hyundai did not respond. This can be seen as the first official instance where the company, despite recognizing the seriousness of the issue, took no action.

2013 – UN’s Warning and the Korean Civil Society’s Protest

January
In 2013, the South Korean civil society organization, the Palestine Peace & Solidarity, raised concerns to HD Hyundai (then Hyundai Heavy Industries), pointing out that their products were used in house demolitions in East Jerusalem. In response, HD Hyundai stated, “Our equipment is simply moved and supplied as equipment itself, not intentionally supplied for any specific purpose. Furthermore, it is not supplied for military use, but rather for civilian purposes.” HD Hyundai also mentioned that “a formal letter notifying the termination of trade with Israel’s AEG (Automotive Equipment Group) was already sent in early January 2013.” However, it was later confirmed that EFCO became the new dealer in the region, meaning that the termination of the contract with AEG was merely the expiration of the contract at its end date.

April
Civic organizations held the first rally in front of the HD Hyundai (formerly Hyundai Heavy Industries) headquarters in Gye-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, to raise awareness about the human rights violations associated with HD Hyundai.

May
Richard Falk, the former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine, directly mentioned that HD Hyundai’s equipment was being used in the expansion of illegal settlements, emphasizing that this is illegal under international law. HD Hyundai did not provide an official response to this statement.

2017 – The Start of the Global Campaign

January
The BDS National Committee, the central organization of the non-violent movement BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) founded by Palestinian civil society, exposed the use of HD Hyundai machinery in Negev Umm al-Hiran and launched a global boycott campaign against HD Hyundai. This marked a significant turning point, as HD Hyundai began to face widespread international criticism regarding the use of its products in the demolition of Palestinian homes.

2022: The Residents of Masafer Yatta sent a letter to HD Hyundai.

February
The residents of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, facing the largest forced eviction order since 1967, with around 1,150 people affected, sent a letter to HD Hyundai Construction Equipment requesting that the company stop its construction machinery from being used in their area.

2023 – Joint Press Conference by Amnesty International and Korean Civil Society on HD Hyundai’s Annual General Meeting.

March
Amnesty International Korea, alongside Korean civil society, organized a press conference coinciding with HD Hyundai’s annual general meeting to draw attention to the company’s complicity. They began publicly raising awareness of HD Hyundai’s involvement in human rights violations and holding the corporation accountable for its actions.

2024 – 2nd Press Conference and Over 10,000 Signatures from Korean Civil Society

March
Amnesty International Korea, alongside Korean civil society, organized a press conference coinciding with HD Hyundai’s annual general meeting to draw attention to the company’s complicity. They began publicly raising awareness of HD Hyundai’s involvement in human rights violations and holding the corporation accountable for its actions.

April
A coalition of South Korean civil society organizations united in their support for Palestine, formed during the Gaza genocide in 2023, sent HD Hyundai an official inquiry about its construction equipment being used to destroy Palestinian homes and build illegal Jewish settlements. The group pointed out that HD Hyundai had acknowledged in media interviews that it knew its excavators were being used illegally by Israeli forces. They asked HD Hyundai for more details about the company’s investigation into this, but did not get an official response.

May
A coalition of South Korean civil society organizations united in their support for Palestine, delivered 10,500 global signatures, gathered between March 26, 2024, and May 15, 2024, to HD Hyundai, holding the company accountable.

HD Hyundai has been fully aware of the warnings and requests from the international community over the past 14 years, yet has failed to take any meaningful actions or address the issue. Furthermore, the company’s continued disregard for communication with civil society and its lack of willingness to investigate the evidence clearly demonstrate a lack of commitment to fulfilling its responsibility for human rights.