Two Greater-Cleveland companies have close connections with the Israel Defence Force

TransDigm and Greenkote count the IDF and IDF-suppliers as major customers.

Hazel Stevens Jan 3

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“IDF Merkava Mk. 4M with Trophy APS, of the 401st Armored Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces” by Michael Shvadron, Israel Defense Forces/ licensed under CC BY 2.0

For nearly 3 months, much of the world has borne witness to the industrialized mass murder of Palestinian’s in Gaza at the hands of the Israel Defence Force (IDF). Behind the IDF stands legions of company’s from around the world, quietly cashing in on the opportunity to supply one of the most murderous armies in the world with the goods and services it requires.

At least two such companies are headquartered in Greater Cleveland: Greenkote and TransDigm.

Greenkote

Founded in 1999, Greenkote produces anti-corrosion coatings for metals and other materials. Greenkote’s website lists the IDF as a major customer, and the company’s 2005 Prospectus notes that the IDF had plans to use Greenkote’s products on equipment used in military vehicles. 

While the company is registered in the U.K., its headquarters sits in Brook Park, a suburb of Cleveland. According to a 2016 article, the company's Brook Park facility is used to apply materials made by the company in what the article refers to as “Israel.” 

In truth, the facility making the materials which are applied in Brook Park is located in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory known as the West Bank. More specifically, the facility is in the Israeli-run Barkan industrial zone, one of the many industrial zones operating in the West Bank and benefiting from cheap Palestinian labor and favorable tax rates. Greenkotes Barkan facility earned the company a spot in the United Nations 2020 list of companies with business activities related to illegal Israeli settlements.

Greenkote’s connections to Israel’s military-industrial complex run deep. Founding board member Dr. Hanan Geist was the managing director of Palindent Ltd., a marketing subsidiary of the Israel Military Industries (IMI), from 1990-91. Greenkote co-founder and seed investor Zvi Mendolson was a consultant to the IDF from 2000-07. He was also the founder and first CEO of Elipse engineering, an Israeli service provider for defense companies that counts Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons supplier, as a major customer. 

TransDigm

Founded in 1993 by Nicholas Howley, Cleveland-based TransDigm is a leading designer, producer and supplier of aircraft components. Transdigm made a name for itself by buying companies that are the sole producers of certain aircraft parts and then jacking up the prices on those parts. 

The price gouging made Howley a billionaire. In 2017, Howley’s last year as CEO of the company, he was the third highest-paid head of a U.S.-based public company with a compensation of $61 million.

In 2020, Howley’s successor Kevin Stein led the company through an acquisition of aerospace engineering company Cobham Aero Connectivity (CAC). A major customer of CAC is Elbit Systems.

According to Who Profits Research Center, an independent research center dedicated to exposing the role of the private sector in the Israeli occupation, Elbit supplies Israel with a wide range of military and surveillance products. These include two of the three UAVs used by the Israeli military for attack purposes, much of the electronic detection fence system on the West Bank’s Apartheid wall, training centers used by the Israeli military and data collection systems used to monitor the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

The veil of secrecy hovering over companies complicit in the IDF’s crimes is beginning to fade. On December 29, pro-Palestine protesters held a demonstration outside of TransDigm’s Cleveland headquarters.

At the demonstration, protestors marched, chanted and educated one another on the role of TransDigm in Israel’s occupation of Palestine and its genocide of Gaza. 

“Just as [TransDigm] makes valves, cogs and pulleys for the war machine, we will dismantle them bit by bit,” proclaimed one speaker to the cheering crowd.

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