Disability:IN Letter and Demands

Tell Disability:IN: No Partnerships with War Profiteers!

Disability:IN describes itself as "the leading nonprofit resource for business disability inclusion worldwide."

Disability:IN boasts that it "empowers over 500 leading companies to achieve disability inclusion and equality." Disability:IN give these companies disability inclusion awards.

Some of the companies Disability:IN has given awards to and accepted sponsorship money from make money from selling weapons and supplies to Israel. Israel uses these weapons and supplies to continue bombing and destroying Palestine.  

It is wrong for Disability:IN to claim they support disabled people while working with companies that are killing and disabling people in Palestine and other places in the Global South.

Use the template below to send a letter to Disability:IN and demand they cut ties with companies making money off of genocide!

Read the letter you'd send below with links to our sources

I Demand Disability:IN Cut Its Ties to War Profiteers

I am writing to demand that Disability:IN cut its ties to war profiteers. 

It is now estimated that at least 186,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, amounting to 8% of the population. According to Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a Palestinian surgeon who had to perform amputations on wounded Gazan children, Palestine now has the largest cohort of child amputees in history. 

Disability:IN continues to accept sponsorships and partnerships from, and continues to award, many of the companies that have created the weapons, vehicles, and technology being used by Israel to facilitate this genocide. Boeing, a Presenting Partner of the 2024 Disability:IN Conference, is the world's fifth largest weapons manufacturer, and it manufactures the Joint Direct Attack Munition Kits which convert unguided MK-80 bombs into guided munitions. These munitions were used to bomb the Jabalia refugee camp on November 1, 2023, killing hundreds of civilians, an act that may amount to a war crime according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Boeing also makes 250-pound GBU-39 guided small diameter bombs, which were used during the May 26 airstrike on Tel al-Sultan refugee camp, causing a massive fire that resulted in the death of at least 45 people. Among those casualties were Ahmad Al-Najar, a baby who was beheaded when the bomb struck. 

Boeing is just one example of the weapons manufacturers that Disability:IN partners with that has facilitated the slaughter of Palestinian civilians in this ongoing genocide. The following companies are recognized by the American Friends Service Committee as "publicly traded companies that consistently, knowingly, and directly enable or facilitate human rights violations or violations of international law as part of prolonged military occupations, apartheid, and genocide:" BAE Systems (2024 Best Places to Work Honoree), Boeing (2024 Presenting Partner and Best Places to Work honoree), Caterpillar (2024 Connector), General Dynamics (2024 Connector and Best Places to Work honoree), L3Harris (2024 Connector and Best Places to Work honoree), Leonardo (2024 Best Places to Work honoree), Lockheed Martin (2024 Influencer and Best Places to Work honoree), Northrop Grumman (2024 Influencer and Best Places to Work honoree), and RTX/Raytheon (2024 Thought Leader and Best Places to Work honoree).

On June 20, United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner called on weapons manufacturers to cease the sale, transfer, and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel, stating "these companies, by sending weapons, parts, components, and ammunition to Israeli forces, risk being complicit in serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law." They directed this call to companies including BAE Systems, Boeing, Caterpillar, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX. All of these companies are listed as Disability:IN Corporate Partners.

The 2023 Disability Equality Index awarded HP, Siemens, Barclays, Chevron, Intel, and eleven weapons manufacturing companies with the top score 100 of "Best Places to Work." All 16 companies are corporate partners with Disability:IN. The companies give Disability:IN their sponsorship money. Meanwhile, Disability:IN and your state affiliates award them the title of "best places to work" for disabled people. Those exact same companies build and send their weapons and technology to the governments and militaries exploiting and committing genocide against disabled Palestinians, Congolese, Sudanese, Tigrayans, and Haitians.

In order to be in solidarity with the Palestinian people and all people of the Global South, I demand:1. Disability:IN refuse donations, sponsorships, and partnerships from the weapons manufacturers listed above, and from other corporations that:- Create, finance, and sell the weapons and technology used to perpetuate the mass-disabling and genocide of Palestinian infants, children, and adults.- Invest in the exploitation of Palestinian land or the land of the Global South.
- Are otherwise complicit in or profiting from war crimes.2. Exclude war profiteers from its disability mentoring, hiring, and inclusion initiatives, such as the NextGen Leader Initiative which connects young disabled employees to corporate mentors. 3. Disability:IN end the practice of awarding war profiteers the title of "Best Place to Work" on the basis of disability inclusion. This year, the following companies profiting off of the genocide in Palestine earned a 100 score on the Disability Equality Index: This year, the following weapon-producing, survelliance, and BDS target companies profitting off of the genocide in Palestine earned a 100 score on the Disability Equality Index: 

Note: This is not an exhaustive list of the companies that benefit from the genocide in Palestine and violence in the Global South.

Disability:IN cannot claim to be a champion for disability rights while supporting companies that actively facilitate the killing of disabled people worldwide.