UN rapporteur says tech firms and corporations profiting from Israeli genocide
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese's call for action comes in a scathing new report in which she names over 60 companies, including major technology firms like Google, Amazon and Microsoft, alleging their involvement in what she calls "the transformation of Israel's economy of occupation to an economy of genocide".
"By shedding light on the political economy of an occupation turned genocidal, the report reveals how the forever-occupation has become the ideal testing ground for arms manufacturers and Big Tech . . . while investors and private and public institutions profit freely," Albanese writes in the report.
"Too many influential corporate entities remain inextricably financially bound to Israel's apartheid and militarism."
The detailed, 24-page report, which is set to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday, identifies dozens of corporate actors, including those involved in the arms, technology, construction and energy sectors, which it says are complicit.
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They range from companies which the report says are destroying Palestinian life, including weapons companies Elbit Systems and Lockheed Martin, to heavy equipment manufacturers whose machinery is used in building illegal Israeli settlements, such as Caterpillar and HD Hyundai.
'Unique testing ground'
The report also focuses on the historic and current role of technology companies which it says have profitted from "the unique testing ground" of the occupied territories, highlighting how the repression of Palestinians has "become progressively automated".
In October 2023, when Israel's internal military cloud overloaded, Microsoft Azure and the Project Nimbus Consortium, run by Google and Amazon, "stepped in with critical cloud and AI infrastructure", the report says.
The report also focuses on AI systems that have been developed by the Israeli military to process and generate targets during the war on Gaza, pointing to the collaboration between Palantir Technology Inc and Israel which predates October 2023.
"There are reasonable grounds to believe Palantir has provided automatic predictive policing technology, core defence infrastructure for rapid and scaled-up construction and deployment of military software, and its Artificial Intelligence Platform, which allows real-time battlefield data integration for automated decision making," the report said.
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It said 48 of the companies named have been "duly informed of the facts" that led Albanese to make her allegations, 15 of which responded directly to Albanese's office. Their replies were not published.
Middle East Eye is seeking comments from all of the companies named in this article.
But these companies are "just the tip of the iceberg", the report says, adding that Albanese's office has developed a database of 1,000 entities in total from submissions received in a call for input into the investigation.
The report also finds that since the start of the Israeli assault on Gaza, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has risen by 179 percent, adding $157.9bn in market value.
Israel's mission in Geneva told Reuters that the report was "legally groundless, defamatory and a flagrant abuse of her office".
Albanese calls on UN member states to impose sanctions and full arms embargos on Israel, and suspend all trade agreements and investor relations on any inviduals or entities that endanger Palestinians.
She also says the International Criminal Court and national judiciaries should pursue investigations and prosecutions of corporate executives and entities for "their part in the commission of international crimes and laundering of the proceeds from those crimes".
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