Demolishing Muslim homes with British machinery

According to Middle East Eye, the billionaire Anthony Bamford is the chairman of JC Bamford Excavators Limited (JCB), which King Charles appointed with a royal warrant earlier this month.
According to reports, Bamford is close to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and donates to the Conservative Party.
As part of the "JCB: Stop Bulldozer Genocide" campaign, a coalition of British civil society organizations released a report on January 25th that describes how "the Israeli military has been photographed demolishing Palestinian homes with JCB bulldozers" starting in 2006.
The new report demonstrates that JCB equipment has been utilized in the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, building on a number of earlier studies.
JCB is controlled by Bamford family trusts.
Between 2018 and 2022, JCB equipment destroyed at least 767 structures on Palestinian territory, including 262 homes.
Oppression of Muslims in India
The report also describes how the Indian government "has repeatedly destroyed Muslim homes, shops, and places of worship in different Indian states using JCB bulldozers."
A day after JCB bulldozers destroyed Muslim-owned stores in Delhi, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson incited human rights organizations in April 2022 when he posed with a JCB bulldozer in Gujarat while on a visit to India.
On January 25, the campaign declared that it had lodged a complaint against the manufacturer, claiming that it had neglected to address the negative human rights effects of its products' use in India, with the UK National Contact Point, a government agency that promotes OECD guidelines on responsible business conduct.
In 2024, an Amnesty International report found that Narendra Modi's government had a "de facto policy of demolishing people’s homes as a form of extra-judicial punishment", commonly referred to by Indian politicians as "bulldozer justice".
Researchers estimate that tens of thousands of Muslim homes, businesses and places of worship have been destroyed in the past several years.
In 2023, an upsurge in the destruction of revered Islamic heritage sites saw 330 mausoleums alone demolished.
In January that year, the Supreme Court stayed an order for the demolition of around 4,000 Muslim homes that allegedly encroached on railway land.
'Today's robber barons'
At the report's launch on Saturday 25 January, Indian activist Afreen Fatima, whose home was demolished, said: "The need to address state violence through demolitions and hold JCB accountable is urgent, not just because it reflects corporate responsibility, but because it unearths a deeply entrenched system of oppression and hate that makes such violence possible and even celebrated."
She added: "Let me be clear from the outset, demolitions are not neutral acts of governance or administration. They are acts of violence, deliberate, punitive and deeply symbolic.
"They are weapons of terror. They destroy not just homes, but entire lives, communities and histories."
The Stop JCB Demolitions campaign demanded that JCB end its relationship with Israel's defence ministry, cease its activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, and commit to "ensuring that its products are not used for human rights violations in India and Kashmir through robust monitoring and prevention systems".
Mukti Shah from South Asia Solidarity Group, an organisation in the campaign coalition, said: "Today’s robber barons are ruthless and unethical multinational companies like JCB.
"It cannot continue to enjoy patronage and prestige while it is allowing its equipment to be used to advance the ethnic cleansing projects of Israel and the Indian state."