By Ubai al-Aboudi, Vijay Prashad
On June 16, 2025, the United Nations Particular Rapporteur on the State of affairs of Human Rights within the Palestinian Territories Occupied Since 1967, Francesca Albanese, revealed a brand new report titled From Economic system of Occupation to Economic system of Genocide. Spanning over thirty-nine pages, the report indicts a number of main multinational firms of benefiting from the occupation and genocide of Palestinians. Among the many implicated are acquainted names: Amazon, Blackrock, Google, Lockheed Martin, and Volvo. Every of those companies, and plenty of universities (notably the Massachusetts Institute for Expertise), have differential investments within the displacement of Palestinians and their substitute by Israeli settlers. Albanese ends her report with affordable requests: cease benefiting from the genocide and minimize ties with Israel.
On July 9, the USA State Division sanctioned Albanese for her work, which prevents her from any entry to her personal property in the USA. The US State Division claimed that “Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed assist for terrorism, and open contempt for the USA, Israel, and the West”. The United Nations responded that this imposition of sanctions units a “harmful precedent”. “The usage of unilateral sanctions towards Particular Rapporteurs or another UN skilled or official is unacceptable,” mentioned UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. Albanese just isn’t the primary particular person to be sanctioned on this manner. In June 2025, the US sanctioned Worldwide Prison Court docket judges based mostly on the identical US Government Order.
The furore round US sanctions towards excessive United Nations officers and its establishments distracts individuals from the elemental arguments specified by the report by Albanese and her workforce. It’s nearly as if US Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined to make use of the sanctions weapon to make it the centre of consideration. In some ways, Rubio succeeded. The central argument of the report was put aside, as the principle concern turned whether or not or not it was acceptable for the USA to sanction UN officers.
Genocide within the clouds
Albanese’s report signifies that a number of main multinational companies are concerned in benefiting from the genocide. These companies are from the next areas: development, schooling, finance, service provision, and weapons manufacturing. There are names one would anticipate: the key arms producers, akin to Lockheed Martin. A full record of those arms corporations is maintained by the American Buddies Companies Committee (AFSC). The AFSC part on Amazon is value studying:
Israeli army intelligence makes use of AWS [Amazon Web Services] servers to retailer plenty of intelligence data on nearly everybody in Gaza. Since 2021, Amazon has been offering cloud companies to the Israeli authorities beneath Challenge Nimbus, a USD 1.2 billion contract it shares with Google. It supplies cloud companies to all branches of the Israeli authorities, together with the army, the Israeli Safety Company (Shabak/”Shin Guess”), Police, and Jail Companies; weapons producers Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael; and authorities businesses associated to Israel’s unlawful settlement enterprise within the occupied West Financial institution.
Albanese’s report mentions Challenge Nimbus and informs us that it’s primarily funded by the Israeli Ministry of Protection. Then her report dives deeper:
Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon grant Israel nearly government-wide entry to their cloud and synthetic intelligence applied sciences, enhancing knowledge processing, determination making and surveillance and evaluation capacities. In October 2023, when the Israeli inner army cloud overloaded, Microsoft, with its Azure platform, and the Challenge Nimbus consortium stepped in with vital cloud and synthetic intelligence infrastructure. Their Israel-located servers guarantee knowledge sovereignty and a defend from accountability, beneath beneficial contracts providing minimal restrictions or oversight. In July 2024, an Israeli colonel described cloud tech as a weapon in each sense of the phrase, citing these corporations.
It’s clear that these tech corporations not solely present data for the Israeli occupation and genocide, however in addition they present a “defend from accountability” since they shield key data that may be actionable in a world battle crimes tribunal. Albanese referred to Colonel Racheli Dembinsky, the commander of Israel’s Heart of Computing and Info Techniques, which supplies knowledge processing for the Israeli armed forces. At a convention known as IT for IDF at Rishon Lezion, close to Tel Aviv, Colonel Dembinsky mentioned that Israel’s military relied upon the cloud storage and synthetic intelligence companies from these multinational tech giants (which, in her lecture slides, are Amazon Internet Companies, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure). Colonel Dembinsky acknowledged that her military unit – often known as Mamram – used an “operational cloud” in its inner servers that she mentioned is a “weapons platform”. There isn’t a public data of the overall quantity that these companies have made out of the genocide.
In 2024, workers from Amazon and Google created the No Tech for Apartheid marketing campaign. At an occasion in New York, as Barak Regev of Google Israel was talking, a Google worker interrupted him and mentioned, “I’m a Google Cloud software program engineer and I refuse to construct know-how that powers genocide, apartheid, or surveillance.” Scores of Google engineers have been fired for his or her affiliation with the No Tech for Apartheid marketing campaign. It has not stopped the group from organizing extra protests.
The blind one
In 2003, Peter Thiel and others based a tech firm known as Palantir. The title comes from Lord of the Rings and refers back to the crystal ball that may see from afar. Thiel, a deeply conservative libertarian who essentially believes in “Western Civilization”, made his cash in PayPal and Fb earlier than getting into the extremely profitable world of army and intelligence contracts (Palantir’s first main investor was the Central Intelligence Company’s enterprise capital agency In-Q-Tel). In 2015, Palantir started to do enterprise in Israel, notably with its army and intelligence advanced, by offering knowledge integration, knowledge evaluation, and the usage of synthetic intelligence. In December 2023, in the course of the first part of the Israeli genocide, Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp instructed Fox Enterprise, “We’re well-known in Israel.”
On January 12, 2024, Palantir fashioned a partnership with the Israeli army trade to help within the genocide. Palantir’s Government Vice President Josh Harrish mentioned at the moment, “Each events have mutually agreed to harness Palantir’s superior know-how in assist of war-related missions.” The phrase “war-related missions” is straight-forward and will in any other case be described as genocide, which is strictly what the Worldwide Court docket of Justice known as it on January 26, 2024. Palantir’s TITAN system is being used for precision concentrating on, which – given the variety of civilian casualties in Gaza – has been exact within the homicide of non-combatants. On April 30, 2025, on the Hill & Valley Discussion board, Palantir’s CEO Karp was requested in regards to the loss of life of Palestinians, and he answered that Palantir had been chargeable for killing “largely terrorists, that’s true”. That is, in fact, not true, since the general public killed in Gaza have been civilians (it could be helpful to have a look at the total knowledge on Palestinian loss of life tolls since 2008, held by the United Nations; if all these killed had been a part of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, then these teams would have been an much more formidable armed drive). Primarily based on Karp’s feedback on the 2024 assembly in Tel Aviv and on the 2025 Hill & Valley Discussion board, Albanese’s report concludes that they’re “indicative of executive-level information and goal vis-à-vis the illegal use of drive by Israel, and failure to forestall such acts or withdraw involvement”.
As information experiences have come out of the affiliation of Palantir with the deportation of migrants from the US, protests have mushroomed throughout the USA at Palantir places of work. These protests hyperlink the genocidal work of Palantir towards the Palestinians and the collaboration with the US state to deport migrants.
Profiting off the occupation
For many years now, investigators with the United Nations and different teams (together with Palestinian organizations) have documented the way in which by which firms have profited off the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Based on a conservative estimate by UNCTAD, Israel generates USD 41billion yearly from its direct exploitation of the West Financial institution (round 7% of Israeli GDP). This doesn’t keep in mind different oblique advantages that emanate from having a captive inhabitants to use.
In 2020, the United Nations revealed a database of corporations that had been benefiting from the unlawful settlement exercise within the West Financial institution. A lot of the corporations within the database had their domicile inside Israel, however many have been multinational firms. The acquainted ones included Airbnb (United States), Reserving.com (Netherlands), Expedia (United States), TripAdvisor (United States), Basic Mills (United States), and Motorola (United States). The WhoProfits web site, in the meantime, not solely has an correct database of companies concerned in profiteering from the genocide and the occupation, however it additionally produces necessary experiences on particular areas of exercise – akin to its 2024 report on Greenwashing Dispossession: The Israeli Renewable Vitality Business and the Exploitation of Occupied Pure Sources. The Don’t Purchase Into Occupation coalition’s report from December 2023 lists European monetary companies and their worthwhile tentacles throughout the unlawful Israeli settlement undertaking.
On June 10, 2025, the World Authorized Motion Community (GLAN), Sadaka Eire, and al-Haq (Palestine) introduced a sequence of lawsuits in Eire, the UK, and the USA towards Airbnb for its operations within the Occupied Palestine Territory. In 2018, Airbnb mentioned that it could “take into account the influence we now have and act responsibly”, however it then reversed course and – as GLAN notes – “continues to record over 300 lodging listed for lease” within the West Financial institution. These three organizations argue that one of many crimes right here is the “cash laundering by Airbnb of proceeds of Israeli battle crimes.” These are severe fees, notably in Eire and the UK, which have robust cash laundering laws. GLAN’s senior lawyer, Gerry Liston mentioned, “These are the primary ever instances to use anti-money laundering laws within the UK and elsewhere to enterprise exercise within the unlawful Israeli settlements. They reveal that senior executives of corporations benefiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory threat prosecution for a really severe prison offense.”
The influence of those corporations profiteering from occupation just isn’t restricted to the earnings they generate on the expense of Palestinians, however in addition they contribute to land grabbing and environmental air pollution. One instance is the Geshuri agrochemical firm, which impacts indigenous Palestinian communities in Tulkarem and leads to larger charges of most cancers, bronchial asthma, and eye and respiratory well being anomalies. This instance is sadly not distinctive within the West Financial institution as Israeli corporations profiteer from extractive and polluting practices throughout the West Financial institution.
Having a captive inhabitants with no rights to experiment on has confirmed to be a useful useful resource for the event of intrusive espionage applied sciences. A chief instance is the Pegasus spyware and adware, which was developed in shut cooperation between the Israeli military notorious intelligence unit 8200, Israeli academia, and personal capital. This spyware and adware was utilized by repressive governments globally to crack down on dissidents with over 50,000 individuals focused.
Based on the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions motion (BDS), “In 2020, Israeli cyber companies acquired roughly 31% of worldwide funding within the sector. Acquisitions of Israeli cyber corporations generated some USD 4.7 billion, and Israeli cyber exports stood at USD 6.85 billion. Israel has turn out to be a pacesetter within the spyware and adware and surveillance market, offering knowledge assortment and processing experience, together with spyware and adware, facial recognition, “consumer monitoring instruments” used for policing, electoral manipulation, and extra.
Genocide gentry
The concentrate on senior executives is notable. A brand new undertaking, Genocide Gentry, focuses instantly on the senior executives of weapons producers (Boeing, Elbit Techniques of America, Basic Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX – previously Raytheon). These are the principle protection contractors for the US Pentagon. The group – developed by the open-source on-line platform LittleSis – names the senior management of those companies, tracks their connections to different firms, after which finds their linkage to cultural establishments. It’s these establishments which are the weakest hyperlink within the chain, since they don’t prefer to be related instantly with genocidal firms even when they want the cash.
Genocide Gentry affords a easy three-step technique:
- Higher perceive your metropolis/college/office’s connection to genocide. Their database helps monitor whether or not a member of a weapons firm sits on a board of establishments in a metropolis.
- Establish cultural and academic establishments in your group with ties to weapons corporations.
- Make the most of the profiles of board members and donors to particular examples of how native establishments are linked to the battle machine.
Right here’s an fascinating instance: Kathy Warden is the CEO of Northrop Grumman and on the board of administrators of Catalyst, a world nonprofit that helps construct workplaces that “work for girls”. UN Girls estimates that a minimum of 28,000 girls and women have been killed in Gaza by weapons – a few of them from Northrop Grumman, and UN Girls warns that 1,000,000 girls and women are dealing with hunger in Gaza as a result of battle machine fuelled by Northrop Grumman. A lot for Catalyst’s “model” of standing for girls.
There are successes to this technique. In early 2024, activists started to stress musicians who had been slated to play on the South by Southwest SXSW pageant in Austin, Texas. In March, Ella Williams (who performs as Squirrel Flower) introduced that she wouldn’t go to SXSW as a result of it was sponsored by arms producers. On Instagram, she wrote, “SXSW is platforming protection contractors together with Raytheon subsidiaries in addition to the US Military, a most important sponsor of the pageant…. Genocide profiteers like Raytheon provide weapons to the IDF, paid for by our taxes. A music pageant shouldn’t embody battle profiteers. I refuse to be complicit on this and withdraw my artwork and labor in protest.” Seventy-nine different performers determined to boycott the pageant. By June 2024, SXSW mentioned it could minimize its hyperlinks to the US Military and to Raytheon (RTX).
What is clear because the genocide continues, is that there are vested pursuits of huge traders to guard their earnings that end result from the continued occupation of Palestine. The state of affairs is grim and ugly, however there’s now enough proof – akin to from – Albanese’s report – of the wretchedness of Zionism’s occupation of Palestine and its therapy of Palestinians. There may be additionally loads of indeniable proof that reveals how firms and their applied sciences have been used to repress Palestinians, and proceed to seek out their manner for use globally. This proof should be acted upon, both by worldwide our bodies, by courts, or by public opinion. Silence just isn’t an possibility.
We’re not free till everyone seems to be free.
Ubai al-Aboudi is the Director of the Bisan Heart for Analysis and Growth (Ramallah, Palestine). Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, and journalist. He’s a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He’s an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Analysis. He has written greater than 20 books, together with The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His newest books are On Cuba: Reflections on 70 Years of Revolution and Battle (with Noam Chomsky), Battle Makes Us Human: Studying from Actions for Socialism, and (additionally with Noam Chomsky) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of US Energy.
This text has been republished from Peoples Despatch.
