From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide
Editor’s note: The following is taken from the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
I. Introduction
1. Colonial endeavors and associated genocides have historically been driven and enabled by the corporate sector; commercial interests have contributed to the dispossession of Indigenous people of their lands — a mode of domination known as “colonial racial capitalism”. The same is true of Israeli colonization of Palestinian lands, its expansion into the occupied Palestinian territory, and its institutionalization of a regime of settler-colonial apartheid. After denying Palestinian self-determination for decades, Israel is now imperiling the very existence of the Palestinian people in Palestine.
2. The role of corporate entities in sustaining the illegal Israeli occupation and its ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza is the subject of the present investigative report, which is focused on how corporate interests underpin the Israeli settler-colonial twofold logic of displacement and replacement aimed at dispossessing and erasing Palestinians from their lands. The Special Rapporteur discusses corporate entities in various sectors: arms manufacturers, tech firms, building and construction companies, extractive and service industries, banks, pension funds, insurers, universities, and charities. These entities enable the denial of self-determination and other structural violations in the occupied Palestinian territory, including occupation, annexation, and crimes of apartheid and genocide, as well as a long list of ancillary crimes and human rights violations, from discrimination, wanton destruction, forced displacement, and pillage to extrajudicial killing and starvation.
3. Had proper human rights due diligence been undertaken, corporate entities would have long ago disengaged from Israeli occupation. Instead, post-October 2023, corporate actors have contributed to the acceleration of the displacement-replacement process throughout the military campaign that has pulverized Gaza and displaced the largest number of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967.
4. While it is impossible to fully capture the scale and extent of decades of corporate connivance in the exploitation of the occupied Palestinian territory, the present report exposes the integration of the economies of settler-colonial occupation and genocide. In it, the Special Rapporteur calls for accountability for corporate entities and their executives at both the domestic and international levels: commercial endeavors enabling and profiting from the obliteration of innocent people’s lives must cease. Corporate entities must refuse to be complicit in human rights violations and international crimes or be held to account.
IV. From the economy of settler-colonial occupation to the economy of genocide
22. Settler-colonialism involves extraction and profit from, and colonization of, land through the expulsion of its owners. In Palestine, historically, companies have driven and enabled the process of displacement and replacement of the Arab population, foundational to the logic of settler-colonial erasure. The Jewish National Fund, a land-purchasing corporate entity founded in 1901, helped plan and carry out the gradual removal of Arab Palestinians, which intensified with the Nakba and has continued ever since.
23. Increasingly aided by corporate entities, Israel has pursued Palestinian dispossession and displacement, especially after 1967. The corporate sector has materially contributed to this endeavor by providing Israel with the weapons and machinery required to destroy homes, schools, hospitals, places of leisure and worship, livelihoods and productive assets, such as olive groves and orchards, to segregate and control communities, and to restrict access to natural resources. By helping to militarize and incentivize illegal Israeli presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, the corporate sector has contributed to the creation of the conditions for Palestinian ethnic cleansing.
24. Corporate entities have played a key role in stifling the Palestinian economy, sustaining Israeli expansion in occupied land while facilitating the replacement of Palestinians. Draconian restrictions — on trade and investment, tree planting, fishing and water for colonies — have debilitated agriculture and industry and turned the occupied Palestinian territory into a captive market; companies have profiteered by exploiting Palestinian labor and resources, degrading and diverting natural resources, building and powering colonies and selling and marketing derived goods and services in Israel, the occupied Palestinian territory and globally. The Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Oslo II Accords) entrenched this exploitation, de facto institutionalizing the monopoly of Israel over 61 per cent of the resource-rich West Bank (Area C). Israel gains from this exploitation, while it costs the Palestinian economy at least 35 per cent of its GDP.
25. Financial and academic institutions have also enabled the conditions for Palestinian displacement and replacement. Banks, asset management firms, pension funds, and insurers have channeled finance into the illegal occupation. Universities — centers of intellectual growth and power — have sustained the political ideology underpinning the colonization of Palestinian land, developed weaponry, and overlooked or even endorsed systemic violence, while global research collaborations have obscured Palestinian erasure behind a veil of academic neutrality.
26. After October 2023, long-standing systems of control, exploitation, and dispossession metamorphosed into economic, technological, and political infrastructures mobilized to inflict mass violence and immense destruction. Entities that previously enabled and profited from Palestinian elimination and erasure within the economy of occupation, instead of disengaging, are now involved in the economy of genocide.
27. The following sections [in the full report] illustrate how eight key sectors, operating separately and interdependently through the core pillars of the settler-colonial economy of displacement and replacement, have adapted to its genocidal practices.
V. Conclusions
87. While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, the present report shows why the genocide carried out by Israel continues: because it is lucrative for many. 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 — providing boundless supply and demand, little oversight, and zero accountability — while investors and private and public institutions profit freely. Too many influential corporate entities remain inextricably financially bound to Israeli apartheid and militarism.
88. Post-October 2023, as the Israeli defense budget has doubled, and at a time of falling demand, production, and consumer confidence, an international network of corporations has propped up the Israeli economy. Blackrock and Vanguard rank among the largest investors in arms companies pivotal to the genocidal arsenal of Israel. Major global banks have underwritten Israeli treasury bonds, which have bankrolled the devastation, and the largest sovereign wealth and pension funds invested public and private savings in the genocidal economy, all the while claiming to respect ethical guidelines.
89. Arms companies have turned over near record profits by equipping Israel with cutting-edge weaponry that has devastated a virtually defenseless civilian population. The machinery of global construction equipment giants has been instrumental in razing Gaza to the ground, preventing the return and reconstitution of Palestinian life. Extractive energy and mining conglomerates, while providing sources of civilian energy, have fueled the military and energy infrastructures of Israel — both of which are used to create conditions of life calculated to destroy the Palestinian people.
90. And while the genocide rages on, the inexorable process of violent annexation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, continues. Agribusiness still sustains the expansion of the settlement enterprise. The largest online tourism platforms continue normalizing the illegality of Israeli colonies. Global supermarkets continue to stock Israeli settlement products. And universities worldwide, under the guise of research neutrality, continue to profit from an economy now operating in genocidal mode. Indeed, they are structurally dependent on settler-colonial collaborations and funding.
91. Business continues as usual, but nothing about this system, in which businesses are integral, is neutral. The enduring ideological, political, and economic engine of racial capitalism has transformed the Israeli displacement-replacement economy of occupation into an economy of genocide. This is a “joint criminal enterprise”, where the acts of one ultimately contribute to a whole economy that drives, supplies, and enables this genocide.
92. The entities named in the present report constitute a fraction of a much deeper structure of corporate involvement, profiteering from and enabling violations and crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory. Had they exercised due diligence, corporate entities would have ceased involvement with Israel long ago. Today, the demand for accountability is all the more urgent: any investment sustains a system of serious international crimes.
93. Business and human rights obligations cannot be isolated from the Israeli illegal settler-colonial enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory, which now functions as a genocidal machine, despite the International Court of Justice having ordered that it be fully and unconditionally dismantled. Corporate relations with Israel must cease until the occupation and apartheid end and reparations are made. The corporate sector, including its executives, must be held to account, as a necessary step towards ending the genocide and disassembling the global system of racialized capitalism that underpins it.
VI. Recommendations
94. The Special Rapporteur urges Member States:
(a) To impose sanctions and a full arms embargo on Israel, including all existing agreements and dual-use items such as technology and civilian heavy machinery;
(b) To suspend or prevent all trade agreements and investment relations, and impose sanctions, including asset freezes, on entities and individuals involved in activities that may endanger the Palestinians;
(c) To enforce accountability, ensuring that corporate entities face legal consequences for their involvement in serious violations of international law.
95. The Special Rapporteur urges corporate entities:
(a) To promptly cease all business activities and terminate relationships directly linked with, contributing to, and causing human rights violations and international crimes against the Palestinian people, in accordance with international corporate responsibilities and the law of self-determination;
(b) To pay reparations to the Palestinian people, including in the form of an apartheid wealth tax along the lines of post-apartheid South Africa.
96. The Special Rapporteur urges the International Criminal Court and national judiciaries to investigate and prosecute corporate executives and/or corporate entities for their part in the commission of international crimes and laundering of the proceeds from those crimes.
97. The Special Rapporteur urges the United Nations:
(a) To comply with the International Court of Justice advisory opinion of 2024;
(b) To include all entities involved in Israeli unlawful occupation in the OHCHR [Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights] database (to be properly accessible on the OHCHR website).
98. The Special Rapporteur urges trade unions, lawyers, civil society, and ordinary citizens to press for boycotts, divestments, sanctions, justice for Palestine, and accountability at the international and domestic levels; together, the people of the world can end these unspeakable crimes.
99. The present report is written at the cusp of a profound and tumultuous transformation. Globally witnessed atrocities require urgent accountability and justice, which demand diplomatic, economic, and legal action against those who have maintained and profited from an economy of occupation turned genocidal. What comes next depends on everyone.
Francesca Paola Albanese is an Italian legal scholar and expert on human rights. Since 2022he has served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.