By Diana Buttu
Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
The creation of the State of Israel has always been a project of erase/replace: erasing Palestinians and replacing Palestinians with imported Jewish immigrants from around the world. This is why Israel has always gone to extreme lengths to destroy Palestinian towns, villages, homes and communities; why they changed the names of places; why they planted (unwanted) European trees and why they have no problem blowing up hills to make way for ugly Israeli settlements or scarifying the landscape with an eight-meter (nearly 27 feet) high wall. But to do all of this requires money – a lot of it – and it requires complicity. It turns out, it is also very, very profitable.
That fact is underscored in a blistering report, released this week by UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, which documents more than 45 entities worldwide (among a database of 1,000 corporate entities) that it accuses of being complicit in Israel’s human rights violations and international crimes in Palestine. These entities, though wielding more power than many states, exploit gaps in international law.
The report traces those entities that are involved in the business of elimination, of replacing, and of course, of enabling. Some are the big military companies like Elbit, Caterpillar, and Lockheed Martin, but the report also lists financial institutions, educational institutions, and Big Tech companies, including Alphabet Inc. (Google), Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Palantir, as well as many, many others. (Read the report for a full list.)
And, surprise, surprise, killing Palestinians is big business. “Arms companies have turned over near record profits by equipping Israel with cutting-edge weaponry that has obliterated a virtually defenceless civilian population,” the report notes.
Albanese also writes that Israel’s “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.”
It is little wonder that despite the global protests to push for an end to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel’s killing machine continues unabated – because, as the report notes, “it is lucrative for many.”
“Too many influential corporate entities remain inextricably financially bound to Israel’s apartheid and militarism,” Albanese writes, adding that the complicity exposed in the report only represents the “tip of the iceberg.” Her findings are set to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.
The report notes more than 45 entities named in the report were “duly informed of the facts that led the Special Rapporteur to formulate a series of allegations.” Fifteen replied, but their responses were not published. Zeteo reached out to the companies listed in this article. Only Lockheed Martin immediately responded, writing: “Foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions. Discussions about those sales are best addressed by the U.S. government.”
BDS Marks 20 Years
Albanese’s report comes as we separately mark 20 years of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS); 20 years of consistent Israeli attacks and, more importantly, 20 years of achievements. The BDS movement began with the simple idea that if countries refuse to act, people can do so by focusing not only on government policy but on the corporations that have aided in the continuation of the occupation. In the case of Israel, there are plenty. It was founded exactly one year to the day after the International Court of Justice on July 9, 2004, issued its landmark decision in relation to Israel’s illegal ‘Wall.’ In that decision, the Court ruled that not only was that ‘Wall’ illegal, but that all states were required to neither recognize it nor provide aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the ‘Wall.’
As we mark 20 years of the BDS movement, it is not just time to push for BDS but also to push for corporate criminal accountability. As Albanese notes in her report, “the post-Holocaust Industrialists’ Trials laid the groundwork for recognizing the international criminal responsibility of corporate executives for participation in international crimes.” It is time for those responsible for the Gaza holocaust to face the same criminal responsibility.
Diana Buttu is a Haifa-based lawyer and analyst who was a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team in the early 2000s and is a frequent commentator and writer on Palestinian and Israeli issues. She writes Zeteo’s ‘A Diary from a Palestinian in Israel.’
