0
0
From civilian machinists like Hyundai and Caterpillar, to tourist platforms like Airbnb and Booking, to more obvious culprits like Microsoft, IBM, Lockheed Martin, and Leonardo, many of the world’s largest firms are knowingly and willfully operating within what a UN expert called an “economy of genocide” in Gaza and Palestine.
Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, recently released a report on the corporate facilitation of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and serial land theft in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Called “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide,” it follows Albanese’s previous report “Genocide as Colonial Erasure,” for which she described herself as performing the duty of “chronicling a genocide”.
The names indicate what the world’s most experienced observer of how the Palestinians and their land are treated thinks of events in Israel and Palestine since 2023, and in this recent report, Albanese attempts to hold international economic actors to account for their involvement in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians.
“Weapons and data systems brutalize and surveil Palestinians,” she said in a speech at the UN office in Geneva. “Colonies spread—financed by banks and insurers, powered by fossil fuels, and normalized by tourism platforms, supermarket chains, and academic institutions”.
“There is a prima facie responsibility on every state and corporate entity to completely abstain from or end their relationships with this economy of occupation. What I expose is not a list, it is a system, and that is to be addressed”.
In the report—which bears over 400 citations of evidence—Albanese identifies 48 companies and institutions that are directly involved in the destruction of Gaza and the occupation of Palestinian land. Among them are Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Booking.com, Airbnb, Hyundai, Palantir, Blackrock, Vanguard, BNP Paribas, Allianz, Barclay’s, A.P. Moller, Maersk A/S, Chinese Bright Dairy & Food Co. Ltd, Netafim, Glencore PLC, Chevron, BP, Drummond Company, Keller Williams Realty LLC, Volvo, and Alphabet, but others as well.
Al Jazeera reported that Albanese stressed the information was there to help these companies, consumers of their products, and investors in their shares, make informed choices about where they want their dollars to go.
“Trade unions, lawyers, civil society groups, and ordinary citizens should encourage such behavioral change from the side of businesses and governments by pressing for boycotts, divestments, sanctions, and accountability,” Albanese said at the conclusion of her speech in Geneva. “What comes next depends on all of us”.
The background of the report is that while 200,000 Palestinians at least have been killed or wounded since October 7th, the general assumption is that this is a significant undercounting. Economically speaking, since October 7th, the Tel Aviv stock exchange has seen $220 billion of market gains, more than doubling the entire trading value therein.
Albanese told journalists that she had formally notified all companies named in her report, sharing with them “the facts that I found in violation of international law”.
“For each of them, I have provided a detailed analysis, a case by case legal analysis, so where I found their nonconformity with international law translating into violation of the right of self-determination, other human rights violations and even war crimes or crimes against humanity, and to an extent, in which case it could be embroiled in the crime of genocide”.
According to Albanese, 18 companies responded to her findings, while the others did not. Of these 18, she said that “only a small number” engaged with her in good faith. WaL
We Humbly Ask For Your Support—Follow the link here to see all the ways, monetary and non-monetary.
PICTURED ABOVE: Francesca Albanese delivers a speech on her new report. PC: UN © screenshot
