Studio 5000 not available in Israel?

I was contracted to build a package for a customer that is based in Israel. I used a L24 compactlogix that only supports studio 5000 version 20 or above. The customer says that only up to ver 19 logix5000 is available in Israel. That just doesnt seem right.

I sent in a request to rockwell to see if he is correct, but figured I might get a faster response here and I know I have seen a few posters from Israel around here.

My guess is that what the customer really means is "we won't pay for TechConnect, so we're stuck with Version 19".

As a USA-based company, RA observes the State Department embargoes on shipments to Syria, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Sudan as well as specific technology export restrictions for Russia and China.

But.. and this is a maybe... there were new encryption features introduced in Logix 5000 v20, and the Israel Ministry of Defence requires a license to import encryption technology into the country. These licenses are virtually always granted, but that's another level of paperwork and maybe it hasn't gotten done.

And if the end-user is inside the Palestinian Authority, the licensing is yet another level of paperwork.

I heard back from rockwell Israel and they said they arent aware of any issues with selling studio 5000 and would gladly sell a copy to the customer.