We now know that a military contractor in the Grand Rapids area is providing military assault vehicles to Israel, enabling them to commit war crimes

In early November, GRIID reported that there is an Israeli military contractor that is located in the Greater Grand Rapids Area.   Plasan North America, is a subsidiary of Plasan Sasa Ltd, which has a facility just two miles from the Lebanon border in northeastern Israel. According to Plasan Sasa Ltd, “Its people have been working “flat out” since the Hamas attacks.” 

Indeed, all of the Plasan factories have been busy since early October and we now know that some of the military vehicles and other military items that Plasan makes at their Walker, MI plant is being used in the Israeli ground assault on Gaza.

A new report from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), documents how many US-based military contractors have been providing weapons and military vehicles for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). According to the AFSC report:

The scale of destruction and war crimes in Gaza would not be possible without this continued flow of weapons from the U.S. Despite massive public protests, the Biden administration has been working to give Israel over $14 billion to buy more weapons. This is on top of the $3.8 billion the U.S. already gives to the Israeli military annually. Israel is required to use this money to buy U.S.-made weapons. This is a form of corporate welfare for the largest weapon manufacturers, like Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing, and General Dynamics, which have seen their stock prices skyrocket, but also for companies that are not part of the weapon industry, such as Caterpillar, Ford, and Toyota.

One of those companies that is making it possible for the Israeli military to commit war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank is Plasan North America, based right here in Walker, MI. What follows the content on Plasan North American that is included in the American Friends Service Committee report.

Plasan North America

• A private Israeli military vehicle manufacturer that makes the SandCat light armored vehicle for the Israeli military. At least some of these vehicles are manufactured at the company’s factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
• Since Oc. 7, Plasan has delivered dozens of SandCat Tigris armored vehicles to the Israeli military and has produced “hundreds of ballistic plates every day” for its use.
• The company also makes the armor for Oshkosh’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs). According to the section in the AFSC report – “In October, Israel requested to purchase 75 Oshkosh Joint Light Tactical Vehicles for its 2023 attack on Gaza.” In addition, Plasan makes AM General’s Humvees and JLTVs, which are included in the AFSC report. The Israeli military has used all of these vehicles in its 2023 attacks on Gaza.
• On Dec. 6, a U.S. cargo plane delivered Plasan-armored Humvees to Israel.

This information should help those resisting the Israeli war crimes being committed right now in Gaza, for two reasons.. First, this information should tell us something about the local commercial news media that is not reporting on the fact that a company in Walker, MI is manufacturing military equipment that is being used by the Israeli military in their assault on Gaza. 

The other thing we all need to think about is the fact that in most of the anti-war/anti-US intervention campaigns since the brutal US war in Vietnam, military contractors have been targets of resistance, We have already seen this kind of resistance happening with US complicity in Israeli war crimes, where military contractors are being targeted. Who will step up to organize a campaign here in Grand Rapids?