Between 1994-2014, Israel’s security service was transformed, becoming one of the most extreme examples of privatised security in the world. This book is an investigation into this period and the conditions that created ‘Occupation Inc.’: the institution of a private military-security-industrial complex. State sponsored violence is increasing as a result of this securitisation, but why is it necessary, and what are its implications? In this book, Shir Hever considers the impact of the ongoing Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, the influence of U.S. military aid and the rise of neoliberalism in Israel, to make sense of this dramatic change in security policy. Through the lens of political economy, this book shows how the Israeli security elites turn violence into a commodity in order to preserve their status and wealth, providing a fresh new perspective on the Israeli occupation. 'Shir Hever has emerged as one of the most incisive analysts of the critical Israeli Left.' -- Jonathan Nitzan, Professor in the Department of Political Science, York University 'Shir Hever is an "engaged intellectual" par excellence. As a political economist and activist, he is well-placed to explore a little-known but key facet of Israel's occupation: the privatization of Israeli security and the economic and political benefits that accrue from both Israel's Occupation and its constant state of militarism' -- Jeff Halper, author of War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians, and Global Pacification (Pluto, 2015) '[An] important study' -- Socialist Review 'Shir Hever has emerged as one of the most incisive analysts of the critical Israeli Left.' 'Shir Hever is an "engaged intellectual" par excellence. As a political economist and activist, he is well-placed to explore a little-known but key facet of Israel's occupation: the privatization of Israeli security and the economic and political benefits that accrue from both Israel's Occupation and its constant state of militarism' '[An] important study' Shir Hever is an economic researcher based at the Alternative Information Centre in Jerusalem. He is the author of The Political Economy of Israel's Occupation , also published by Pluto Press.   The Privatization of Israeli Security By Shir Hever Pluto Press Copyright © 2018 Shir Hever All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-7453-3719-7 Contents List of Tables, vi, List of Graphs, vii, Acknowledgements, viii, Abbreviations, x, Preface, xi, 1. Introduction, 1, 2. Theoretical Framework, 13, 3. Developments in Israel's Military and Security Institutions, 29, 4. Processes of Privatization of Security in Israel, 58, 5. Outsourcing the Occupation, 94, 6. Global Dimensions of Security Privatization in Israel, 134, 7. Conclusions, 170, Appendix: Overview of Privatization of Security in Israel, 178, Notes, 190, Filmography, 196, Bibliography, 197, Index, 232, CHAPTER 1 Introduction The key to corporate survival resides increasingly in a political or even a cultural capacity; the ability to influence future customers and suppliers. ... The form of this emphasis on persuasion, however, is distinctive to the arms sector, where it is bound up with the prospect of war, the security potential of new technologies, and so on. Companies have power because they can present themselves as possessing unique knowledge of these issues. This is particularly prominent in the current flurry of claims and counter-claims concerning the future of war. (Lovering, 2000: 170) In Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine (2007), she writes: "The fact that Israel continues to enjoy booming prosperity, even as it wages war against its neighbors and escalates the brutality in the occupied territories, demonstrates just how perilous it is to build an economy based on the premise of continual war and deepening disasters" ... "clearly, Israeli industry no longer has reason to fear war" (Klein, 2007b:428, 440). These claims are both fascinating and unsatisfying. They raise the questions: Who profits from war? And for whom is the war economy perilous? In Israel's Occupation (2008), Neve Gordon developed the idea that the privatization ideology has been implemented in the occupation of the Palestinian Territory, conceptualizing Israel's reliance on the Palestinian Authority (PA) for policing and maintaining the occupation as a form of outsourcing. It was no coincidence that Gordon proceeded from researching the implementation of privatization in the occupation to the study of Israel's arms industry (Gordon, 2009). And yet he did not discuss the connection between the two. The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008/09 is a good example of this nexus. The PA played an important role in enforcing order in the West Bank and allowing the Israeli military to move its troops into Gaza (Human Rights Council, 2009:335–45). Following the attack, the Israeli military held a trade fair in which the technologie