Company Urged to Halt Tear-Gas Sales to Israel

TransTechnology Corp., again under pressure from critics of Israel’s tactics in quelling the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza, may stop selling tear gas to Israel.

TransTechnology, a Sherman Oaks company whose Federal Laboratories subsidiary is the biggest U.S. tear-gas producer, said it is reviewing reports of deaths and injuries from the alleged misuse of tear gas provided to the company by Stop the Tear-gassing of Palestinian People, a group of U.S. activists.

A spokesman for the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles denied that tear gas used by the Israel Defense Forces has killed Palestinians in conflicts in the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. “We are not aware of any casualties because of tear gas,” said spokesman Ilan Mor.

In mid-April, STOPP gave TransTechnology a report by a Canadian group, alleging that 35 Palestinian children have been killed by tear-gas inhalation. The report alleged that the deaths and injuries generally occured when canisters of the gas were tossed into homes by Israeli soldiers. Tear gas is meant to be used only in open spaces.

Sherna Gluck, the group’s spokeswoman, also cited claims made in the past by the Palestine Human Rights Information Center that 84 Palestinians have died from exposure to tear gas. And she said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency reported that 3,194 Palestinians were injured by tear gas last year.

The company has no firm deadline for reviewing the report and deciding whether it will affect its sales of tear gas to Israel, said TransTechnology Vice President Burl Alison. But Gluck said she expected the company to make a decision as early as this week.

Unless the company decides to stop tear-gas shipments to Israel, STOPP is planning a demonstration Saturday outside TransTechnology’s Federal Laboratories subisidiary, in Saltsburg, Pa., near Pittsburgh, Gluck said.

But a decision by the company to stop shipping tear gas to Israel might not have immediate effects. TransTechnology is not shipping the gas to Israel now--although it did earlier this year--and the company does not anticipate any orders from Israel, Alison said.

This is not the first time the company has come under pressure for selling tear gas to Israel. Two years ago, TransTechnology temporarily stopped selling the gas to Israel because of similar allegations, but resumed shipments after receiving assurances from Israel that the gas was being used properly.

Israel’s use of tear gas in the uprising has been controversial for some time. In February, 1989, Amnesty International told a U.N. conference that Israeli soldiers fired tear gas into hospitals and homes during the uprising and caused as many as 60 deaths.

But Israel’s Ministry of Justice issued a statement in May, 1989, vehemently denying the charges and claiming that Amnesty International’s “report and the media coverage are replete with errors, unfounded medical assumptions and erroneous medico-legal evaluations of injuries.”

“At times, during a riot, some of the tear gas used outside may penetrate buildings,” Mor said in a statement. “That effect, however, is unintentional.”

In the statement, Mor also cited a 1989 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office that he said found no medical evidence linking tear gas to deaths in the West Bank and Gaza.

Alison said TransTechnology is unhappy to find itself in the midst of a controversy over the tear-gas shipments. She said tear gas can only be sent abroad with the approval of the U.S. State Department.

But Alison added that although the company hasn’t yet decided whether STOPP’s allegations are true, “We’re concerned that it may not used properly and people are suffering because of it.”

Used properly, tear gas is better than the alternatives, Alison said. “What happens when your law enforcement don’t have tear gas. . . . They use bullets, or rubber bullets or clubs or whatever, and the situation is worse because of it. They are going to quell an uprising one way or another.”

Although TransTechnology’s tear-gas sales to Israel attract attention, they are a relatively small part of the company’s sales. Alison said all of its tear-gas sales amount to less than 10% of TransTechnology’s revenues, and tear-gas sales to Israel are only a very small percentage of that.

Federal Laboratories, which makes distress and signal flares, as well as tear gas, had sales of more than $10 million in the year ended March 31, 1989. TransTechnology overall earned $9.24 million on revenue of $235.2 million.