Registry

Does JCB support Israel?

J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited

Owned by JCB Service Records for the parent company are kept separately.

Business presence documentedupdated 2026-09-25

JCB does business in Israel — we found records of its operations there, but no record of donations, aid, or a public statement of support. Every claim below links to its source.

Filed under: Car & automotive brands · Companies that support Israel

Background

JCB, formally J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited (UK company number 00561597, incorporated 1956), is a privately held British manufacturer at Rocester, Staffordshire. Its connection to Israel is a trading one, and it has been the subject of sustained allegations by others that its machines are used in demolitions of Palestinian property and in settlement construction. Those allegations belong to the organisations making them. Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights told the UK National Contact Point it had recorded JCB products at 'at least 60 out of the 266 demolitions' in one year — a figure the Contact Point expressly said it had not verified. Amnesty International UK published a 92-page report, JCB Off Track, in November 2021 with a map of incidents its Evidence Lab attributes to JCB machinery; Amnesty also says it obtained maintenance contracts between Comasco and Israel's Ministry of Defence covering JCB backhoe loaders, and that it is therefore 'more likely' that Israeli government bodies buy from Comasco than from elsewhere. That last step is Amnesty's own inference, and the contracting party in those documents is Comasco, the independent Israeli importer, not JCB. JCB rejects the allegations: it says it does not operate in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, sells only to Comasco, cannot trace a machine without its serial number, and 'does not contribute to, or is in any way responsible for, or otherwise linked to adverse human rights abuses in the OPTs, either directly or indirectly.' On LiveLink, the telematics system Amnesty says could locate or disable machines remotely, JCB says it 'fits the system to machines, but it is up to the customer how it is configured and operates.' JCB has also been a target of boycott campaigns by the Palestinian BDS National Committee and, in the UK, by Palestine Action. None of this is support for Israel in the sense this site records: across every source checked there is no donation, no aid, no sponsorship and no public statement of support for Israel by JCB. Separately, openDemocracy reported in March 2024 that since the UN report was published the Conservative Party had accepted more than £1.3m from JCB and the Bamford family, which runs the company: almost £218,000 from JCB companies, £983,000 given personally by Mark Bamford, one of the directors of JC Bamford Excavators Ltd., and a further £100,000 from the company's chair, Anthony Bamford, a Conservative peer. Only the £218,000 is corporate money; the rest is two individuals' personal giving. Either way it is domestic British party funding and not a payment to or for Israel.

Companies House — J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited (00561597), persons with significant control UK NCP — Final Statement: LPHR complaint about JCB (12 November 2021) Amnesty International — JCB Off Track (MDE 15/4985/2021, November 2021) Amnesty International — press release on the JCB Off Track report (18 November 2021) StaffordshireLive — JCB spokesman's response to the NCP finding and the Amnesty report (24 November 2021) openDemocracy — 'Conservative Party took £1.3m from donor group linked to Israeli settlements' (12 March 2024)

Timeline of documented records

196319721981199019992008201720261966 — Operations in Israel: Comasco Ltd. — JCB's importer and dealer in IsraelOperations in Israel19662021-11 — Operations in IsraelOperations in Israel2021-112025-09 — Operations in IsraelOperations in Israel2025-09

Documented records

TypeDateAmountRecipientSources
Operations in Israel1966—Comasco Ltd. — JCB's importer and dealer in Israel
JCB's construction and agricultural machines have been sold in Israel since 1966 by Comasco Ltd., a privately owned Israeli importer based at Tzur Yigal. Comasco's own company history dates the start of its JCB representation to 1966 and says it now imports 270 machine models and serves more than 5,000 customers in Israel plus Israeli contractors working abroad; its site markets JCB backhoe loaders, excavators, telehandlers and JCB's LiveLink telematics. Comasco is not a JCB subsidiary — the same history records that Haim Danon bought 100% of Comasco's shares from the Blackwood Hodge B.M. Group in 1993 — and the UK government's National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines recorded JCB's statement that its contract 'expressly prohibits Comasco from holding itself out, directly or indirectly, as the agent or representative of JCB.' In its submission to that body, published on 12 October 2020, JCB 'confirmed that all of the products they supply to Israel are via a third-party independent distributor, Comasco' and stated 'that they have not sold any machinery directly to the Israeli authorities.' Selling machines to an independent importer is commerce: it is not a donation, aid, or a statement of support, and the Israeli buyers of those machines are Comasco's customers rather than JCB's.
Operations in Israel2025-09-26——
J.C. Bamford Excavators Ltd. is entry 86 in Annex I of the UN Human Rights Council's database of business enterprises involved in activities linked to Israeli settlements (report A/HRC/60/19, 26 September 2025). It is listed under two activity subparagraphs: (a) 'the supply of equipment and materials facilitating the construction and the expansion of settlements and the wall, and associated infrastructure', and (c) 'the supply of equipment for the demolition of housing and property, the destruction of agricultural farms, greenhouses, olive groves and crops'. Annex I is the current list; Annex II holds enterprises the review found to be no longer involved, and JCB is not in Annex II. JCB was first placed on this database in February 2020, and it told the UK National Contact Point that it is challenging its inclusion. The report publishes only these activity-category codes for each company: it gives no incident-level detail, names no Israeli purchaser, and makes no finding about donations or support.
Operations in Israel2021-11-12——
On 12 November 2021 the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises published its final statement on a complaint brought in December 2019 by Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights over JCB machines used in demolitions of Palestinian property in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The outcome was split. Two grounds were rejected at the initial-assessment stage; of the three examined, JCB was cleared on one and found wanting on two. On the first, the NCP could not establish that the machines in the complainant's photographs and videos came from Comasco rather than from the second-hand market, other dealers or neighbouring countries, and concluded that 'the alleged adverse human rights activities as depicted in the photographs and videos cannot be conclusively linked to JCB'. On the other two it found JCB 'did not fully observe the Guidelines ... by not having a policy commitment to respect human rights' and 'did not observe its obligations ... by not carrying out human rights due diligence in its supply chain', called it 'unfortunate' that the company 'did not take any steps to conduct human rights due diligence of any kind', and recommended JCB write a human rights policy and run due diligence as a regular exercise. JCB had declined the mediation offered earlier in the process. Responding publicly, a JCB spokesman said the NCP 'has firmly rejected the various allegations', that the finding 're-affirms the NCP's position ... that there has been no wrongdoing by JCB', that 'JCB does not condone any form of human rights abuse', and that the due-diligence recommendations were 'an ancillary matter' the company would 'consider ... in due course'. The NCP's published text does not support a reading that every allegation was rejected.

Frequently asked questions

Did JCB donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?

We have no records of donations. What is on record is commercial activity in Israel (Operations in Israel), which is not the same as support — see the records on this page.

Where does this information come from?

Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 10 distinct sources are cited for JCB. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-09-25

Companies with documented support