Businesses need to uphold corporate accountability when it comes to Palestine

As Gaza continues to suffer under Israeli-induced starvation, governments around the world offer words of support and promises of recognising the Palestinian state. While important, these are not what is immediately needed. The siege of Gaza needs to be immediately lifted so that all the aid that is needed is allowed to enter. On 22 August 2025, an analysis by Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirmed what most of us already know: famine is taking place in Gaza.

As the Global Sumud Flotilla prepares to set sail with participants from 44 countries by end-August and early September, continuing the work laid by the previous two Freedom Flotilla, the world moves at an infuriatingly snail pace while babies die of starvation. None of us, in this highly connected digital age, can claim that we are not aware of the man-made starvation happening in Gaza.

Corporate complicity in Palestine

The free people of the world are taking action while governments utter words of long overdue support in an attempt to whitewash their support of genocide. One party missing from this scenario are corporations. It is not just weapons manufacturers and tech companies that are complicit in the genocide in Gaza as outlined in the damning report prepared by the courageous Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

The report, titled “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide — Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967” (OHCHR report) outlines the complicity of various corporate entities in sustaining the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. These entities are connected to the displacement AND replacement of Palestinian people from their land. 

In our increasingly cynical and apathetic world, some may opine that it is futile to call for corporations to do good. However, the corporate sector itself have announced with much fanfare over the past few years of their commitment to the principles of ESG (environment, social and governance), climate action in the form of ambiguous net-zero ambitions and sustainable development goals (SDGs). 

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights 

Businesses have also begun adopting the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The UNGPs constitute the normative framework at the international level for the regulation of corporate conduct with respect to human rights. They outline what states and corporate entities need to do to comply with existing obligations under international human rights law. The UNGPs are concerned both with preventing adverse human rights impacts and ensuring remedial actions are taken where a corporation’s conduct causes, contributes, or is directly linked to such impacts. In the context of conflict and occupation, the application of the UNGPs is heightened.

The framework of the UNGP comprises the three pillars of protect, respect and remedy. States are obligated to protect human rights, corporations are required to respect human rights, and both states and corporations must provide access to remedy. For corporations, what this mean is their business operations must not only respect but also prevent human rights violations throughout their supply chain. Their human rights policy must extend to vendors, partners, suppliers both domestically and abroad. In cases where there is violation of human rights, access to remedy to the aggrieved party must be provided meaningfully and in an accessible and transparent manner. 

The OHCHR report goes into further detail how corporations should operationalise its the obligations outlined under the UNGPs. In particular, the UNGPs expect corporate entities to undertake periodic human rights due diligence (HRDD) to identify concerns and adjust their conduct. In situations of armed conflict, occupation and other instances of widespread violence, corporate entities are expected to engage in heightened human rights due diligence throughout the period of the conflict. 

For corporations intending to whitewash its responsibility in occupation and genocide due to its indirect link, the UNGPs make it clear that this is not possible. According to the OHCHR report, a corporate entity’s responsibility depends primarily on whether its activities or relationships throughout its supply or value chain contribute to violations through its own activities — either directly or through some outside entity (government, business or other). This includes any activity or relationship where a causal link can be established between the corporate entity’s actions and the resulting violation.

Business enterprises and corporate entities involved in this economy of occupation and genocide, as outlined in the OHCHR report, comprise those from various sectors including arms manufacturers, tech firms, building and construction companies, extractive and service industries, banks, pension funds, insurers, universities and charities.

Photo by John Price on Unsplash

Corporations implicated in the OHCHR report by sector

Arms manufacturers:

1. Elbit Systems

2. Aerospace Industries

3. Lockheed Martin

4. Leonardo S.p.A

Arms suppliers:

1. FANUC Corporation

2. Danish A.P. Moller — Maersk A/S

Arms manufacturers are the most obvious participant in the illegal occupation of Palestine, particularly as demonstrated through the use of F-35 and F-16 fighter jets, which have been estimated to have dropped 85,000 tons of bombs to kill and maim Palestinians and destroy all of the infrastructure in Gaza. Social media have highlighted the horror of drones and quadcopters used to mercilessly attack civilians. 

In terms of logistics, shipping companies such as Danish A.P. Moller — Maersk A/S have been transporting components, parts, weapons and raw materials to the US since October 2023. On the other hand, Japanese firm FANUC Corporation supplies robotic machinery for weapons production line. These two companies are participants of the occupation supply chain. 

Tech companies:

1. NSO Group

2. IBM

3. Hewlett-Packard Enterprises

4. Microsoft

5. Alphabet Inc. (Google)

6. Amazon.com

7. Palantir Technologies Inc. 

The tech sector, particularly big tech firms based in the US, has been in the spotlight recently due to the relentless expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its implication on various aspect of people’s lives, not limited to jobs, privacy, and cognitive abilities. A much darker side has been less explored in mainstream media: the utilisation of AI as tools of the occupation. According to the OHCHR report, there is reasonable grounds to believe that Palantir Technologies Inc. provided the Israeli military with automatic predictive policing technology, core defense infrastructure for rapid and scaled-up construction and deployment of military software, and its AI platform, which allows real-time battlefield data integration for automated decision-making. 

Though not mentioned in the report, this article explains how AI input has been used to indiscriminately label women and children as potential “terrorists” and the decision to attack “terrorist” suspects at home (often at night when they are with their families) was because from an intelligence point of view, it was easier to mark family homes using automated systems.

Tech giants such as Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon provide services in the form of cloud and artificial intelligence technologies, which enhances data processing, decision-making and surveillance and analysis capacities. 

Citing these companies, an Israeli colonel, in July 2024, described cloud tech as a weapon in every sense of the word. When the Israeli internal military cloud overloaded in October 2023, Microsoft, with its Azure platform, and Project Nimbus (a US$1.2 billion consortium between Google and Amazon) stepped in with critical cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Their Israel-located servers ensure data sovereignty and a shield from accountability, under favourable contracts offering minimal restrictions or oversight.

Microsoft employees occupied the tech firm’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, on 19 August 2025 to protest the use of Azure to store surveillance data collected on Palestinians. The protests were organised by the No Azure for Genocide group, which has demanded Microsoft divest from Israel. 

Building and construction companies:

1. Caterpillar Inc. 

2. HD Hyundai

3. Volvo Group

4. Heidelberg Materials AG

5. Construcciones Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles

Real estate:

1. Keller Williams Realty LLC

Illegally taking over the homes of Palestinians requires machinery and equipment to destroy existing properties and construct (i.e., replace) new properties. Already known to those familiar with the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement, Caterpillar Inc. stands out as having been involved for decades by providing the equipment used to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure. Beyond this, since 2000, Israel has deployed Caterpillar’s D9 bulldozer in almost every military activity including clearing incursion lines, “neutralising” the territory and killing Palestinians.

Other heavy machinery providers such as Hyundai HD and Volvo Group have signed exclusive deals with the Israeli government and part of these deals include the provision of equipment used to destroy Palestinian properties and raze farmlands. 

Once the destruction is completed, construction begins. Corporate firms such as Heidelberg Materials AG, through its subsidiary Hanson Israel, have pillaged millions of tons of dolomite rock from the Nahal Raba quarry on seized Palestinian land in the West Bank. These materials are used for the construction of new buildings. In terms of road and transport infrastructure, the Spanish/Basque Construcciones Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles joined a consortium with an Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) database-listed company to maintain and expand the Jerusalem Light Rail Red Line and build the new Green Line, despite other companies having withdrawn from the project due to international pressure. In 2020, the OHCHR presented a report that listed 112 companies which have participated in various human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

As Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich announced in August 2025 that 3,401 illegal housing units will be built in the controversial E1 settlement project in the West Bank, there is urgency to call out the companies complicit in the activities related to illegal settlements.

Natural resources:

1. Mekorot (water)

2. Drummond Company, Inc. (coal)

3. Glencore PLC (coal)

4. Chevron Corporation (natural gas, oil)

5. BP PLC (natural gas, oil)

Agriculture:

1. Tnuva (majority-owned by Chinese Bright Food (Group) Co., Ltd.

2. Netafim (majority-owned by Mexican Orbia Advance Corporation)

The extraction of natural resources in Palestine continues in blatant disregard of human and environmental rights. Since 1967, Israel has enforced systematic control over Palestinian natural resources, built infrastructure that integrated its colonies into Israeli national systems and imposed Palestinian dependency on them. The Israeli national water company Mekorot has a water monopoly in the occupied Palestinian territory.

In Gaza, more than 97% of water from the coastal aquifer does not meet the water quality standards of the World Health Organization, making residents dependent on Mekorot pipelines for most of their drinking water. For at least the first six months post-October 2023, Mekorot operated its Gaza pipelines at 22% capacity, leaving areas such as Gaza City without water 95% of the time, effectively turning water into a tool of genocide.

Firms in the business of electricity, energy and fuel have been active in Palestine for reasons including the availability of gas fields. Israel relies on fuel and coal imports. Its integrated energy infrastructure serves both Israeli and the occupied Palestinian territory, efficiently powering illegal settlers while controlling and obstructing access to the Palestinians. 

US-based Drummond Company, Inc and Swiss-based Glencore PLC are the primary suppliers of coal to Israel while Chevron Corporation, in consortium with Israeli NewMed Energy (a subsidiary of the OHCHR database-listed Delek Group), supplies more than 70% of Israeli energy consumption. Companies in the OHCHR database are those identified by the UN Human Rights office as having conducted business activities in illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

British company BP PLC expanded its involvement in the occupation economy, with natural gas exploration licences confirmed in March 2025, which allowed BP to explore Palestinian maritime expanses illegally exploited by Israel. BP and Chevron also supply crude oil to Israel, with each conglomerate providing 8% of Israeli crude oil between October 2023 and July 2024. According to the OHCHR report, oil from these companies supplies two refineries in Israel: Haifa and Ashdod. From the Haifa refinery, two OHCHR database-listed companies supply their petrol stations throughout Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, including the colonies, and the military, through government-awarded contracts. From the Ashdod refinery, a subsidiary of the OHCHR database-listed company Paz Retail and Energy Ltd. provides jet fuel to the Israeli Air Force operating in Gaza. 

In the agribusiness sector, extractivism and land-grabbing have expanded market dominance and attracted global investment — while erasing Palestinian food systems and accelerating displacement of the Palestinian people. Tnuva, one of the largest food conglomerate in Israel, source products from colonies and then exploit the resulting captive Palestinian market to build market dominance. Palestinian dependence on the Israeli dairy industry has increased 160% in the decade following destruction caused by Israel to Gaza’s dairy industry in 2014, amounting to sector losses estimated at $43 million. One important thing to note is that Tnuva is majority owned by China’s Bright Food (Group) Co., Ltd. 

Netafim, a firm that specialises in irrigation drip technology, has enabled intensive exploitation of water and land in the West Bank, further depleting Palestinian natural resources, while being refined through collaboration with Israeli military-technology firms. Netafim-aided irrigation systems have facilitated Israeli crop expansion in the Jordan Valley, while Palestinian farmers are denied water. When 93% of Palestinian farms are without irrigation, they are unable to complete with Israeli production. 

The OHCHR report strongly condemns Netafim and Tnuva, it states that the two corporations continue to manufacture food security for Israelis, while causing food insecurity and even famine, for others. Netafim, in particular, brands itself as a sustainable innovator but has demonstrated the age-old techniques of colonial exploitation.

Tourism:

1. Booking Holdings Inc.

2. Airbnb, Inc. 

Major online travel platforms such as Airbnb, Inc. and Booking Holdings Inc. profit from the occupation by peddling tourism that sustains the illegal colonies, excludes Palestinians and promotes settler narratives and legitimises annexation. Both have been in the OHCHR database since 2020. 

Booking.com has more than doubled its listings in the West Bank — from 26 in 2018 to 70 by May 2023 — and tripled its East Jerusalem listings to 39 in the year post-October 2023. Airbnb grew its listing from 139 in 2016 to 350 in 2025, collecting up to 23% in commissions. These listings are connected to the restriction of Palestinian access to land and endangering nearby villages. In Tekoa, Airbnb whitewashes settler violence against the neighbouring Palestinian village of Tuqu’ by describing it as a “warm and loving community”.

Finance:

1. BNP Paribas

2. Barclays

3. Blackrock

4. Vanguard

5. Allianz

6. PIMCO (Allianz’s asset management subsidiary)

7. AXA

8. Norwegian Government Pension Fund

9. Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (a Canadian pension fund)

Enablers to the illegal occupation of Palestine include financial, research, legal, consulting, media and advertising firms but this section will focus on the financial enablers. 

The financial sector is responsible for channeling critical funding to both state and corporate actors behind the Israeli occupation and apartheid, despite many of them committing to the Principles for Responsible Investment and the United Nations Global Compact.

BNP Paribas and Barclays boosted market confidence by underwriting Israel’s international and domestic treasury bonds, allowing it to contain the interest rate premium, despite a credit downgrade. From 2022 to 2024, the Israeli military budget grew from 4.2% to 8.3% of GDP, which drove the public budget into a 6.8% deficit. Israel funded this expanding budget by increasing its bond issuance, which were underwritten by BNP and Barclays. 

These international and treasury bonds were then purchased by asset management firms such as Blackrock (US$68 million), Vanguard (US$546 million) and Allianz’s asset management subsidiary PIMCO (US$960 million). They were among at least 400 investors from 36 countries who purchased them. Blackrock and Vanguard are among the largest institutional investors in many companies. Blackrock is the second largest institutional investor in Palantir (8.6%), Microsoft (7.8%), Amazon.com (6.6%), Alphabet (6.6%) and IBM (8.6%), and third largest in Lockheed Martin (7.2%) and Caterpillar (7.5 per cent). Vanguard, on the other hand, is the largest institutional investor in Caterpillar (9.8%), Chevron (8.9%) and Palantir (9.1%), and second largest in Lockheed Martin (9.2%) and Elbit Systems (2.0%). Through their asset management, Blackrock and Vanguard implicate universities, pension funds and ordinary people who passively invest their savings through the purchase of their funds and electronically traded funds (ETFs).

Speaking of pension funds, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund increased its investment in Israeli companies by 32% to US$1.9 billion after October 2023, despite claiming that it follows one of the world’s most comprehensive ethical guidelines. By end-2024, the Fund had US$121.5 billion (6.9% of its total value) invested in companies named in the 2025 OHCHR report alone.

Another pension fund, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), which manages Can$ 473.3 billion (US$328.9 billion) in pension funds for six million Canadians, has almost Can$ 9.6 billion (US$6.67 billion) invested in companies named in the present OHCHR report, even though it adopts a sustainable investment policy and human rights policy. From 2023 to 2024, CDPQ’s investment in Lockheed Martin increased almost threefold, investment in Caterpillar increased fourfold while its investment in HD Hyundai increased 10-fold.

The investments choices made by these two pension funds alone demonstrate how corporations do not consider human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory in their assessment of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. This is reflects the trend in the corporate sector to focus more on the environmental and governance aspect of ESG but not so much on the social aspect which naturally has a strong focus on justice and human rights. 

Universities/Education:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2. The European Commission’s Horizon Europe programme

3. The Technical University of Munich

4. University of Edinburgh

Universities, particularly law schools, archaeology and Middle Eastern studies departments, are complicit in the illegal occupation of Palestine. They contribute to the ideological scaffolding of apartheid, cultivate Israel-aligned narratives and erase Palestinian history while justifying occupation practices. The role of science and technology departments are particularly egregious as they serve as research and development hubs for collaborations between the Israeli military and arms contractors, including Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, IBM and Lockheed Martin, and thus contribute to producing the tools for surveillance, crowd control, urban warfare, facial recognition and targeted killing, tools that are effectively tested on Palestinians.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have labs that conduct weapons and surveillance research funded by the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Significant Israeli Ministry of Defense projects include drone swarm control (a distinct feature of the Israeli assault on Gaza since October 2023), pursuit algorithms and underwater surveillance. 

In Europe, the Horizon Europe programme (under the European Commission) actively facilitates collaboration with Israeli institutions. Since 2014, the European Commission (EC) has granted over €2.12 billion (US$2.4 billion) to Israeli entities, including the Ministry of Defense, while European academic institutions both benefit from and reinforce this entanglement. The Technical University of Munich receives €198.5 million (US$218 million) in EC Horizon funding, including €11.47 million (US$12.6 million) for 22 collaborations with Israeli partners, military and tech firms. 

Many universities, including the University of Edinburgh, have upheld ties with Israel despite the post-October 2023 escalation. It holds nearly £25.5 million (US$31.72 million) (equivalent to 2.5%of its endowment) in four tech giants: Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM. With both direct and indexed investments, the university ranks among the most financially entangled institutions in the UK and Northern Ireland. The university also partners with firms aiding Israeli military operations, including Leonardo S.p.A. and Ben-Gurion University, through the AI and Data Science Lab at Ben-Gurion University, sharing research that directly links it with assaults on Palestinians.

Charities:

1. US-based Christian Friends of Israeli Communities

2. Dutch Christians for Israel

3. The Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF)

Faith-based charities have also acted as key financial enablers of illegal projects, including in the occupied Palestinian territory, often receiving tax deductions abroad despite strict regulatory charitable frameworks. US-based Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, Dutch Christians for Israel and global affiliates, sent over US$12.25 million in 2023 to various projects that support colonies, including some that train extremist settlers. The Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) and its over 20 affiliates bankroll settler expansion and military-linked projects. Since October 2023, platforms such as Israel Gives have enabled tax-deductible crowdfunding in 32 countries for Israeli military units and settlers.

Incoming Legal Liability

Corporations can take example from Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, estimated to be the largest in the world, which announced on 25 August 2025 that had divested from Caterpillar over the firm’s purported involvement in rights violations perpetrated by Israel in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Before the announcement, the fund held a 1.17% stake in Caterpillar valued at US$2.1 billion as of 30 June 2025. The fund also divested from five Israeli banks, after recommendation from its council on ethics.

In early August 2025, the United Methodist Church (UMC) stated that it would divest from Israel bonds AND from other governments maintaining illegal military occupations. This made it the first church in the world to make such a pledge. According to the church’s retirement-benefits agency, Wespath, it is now excluding investments in the bonds of Israel, Morocco and Turkey.

Governments that outwardly condemn the illegal occupation of Palestine and genocide in Gaza yet still maintain business ties with corporations listed in the OHCHR report as well as those listed in the OHCHR database must conduct a comprehensive human rights-based due diligence and take the appropriate tangible action. Feigning ignorance or citing the “complexity” of the situation may not necessarily hold up in the court of law.

Credit: International Court of Justice

While the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Israel to stop creating life destroying conditions in Gaza, the opposite has happened and the situation has catastrophically worsened. As a result, it may seem unlikely that corporations complicit in illegal occupation and genocide in Palestine would face any legal consequences, for now. However, there is no guarantee that corporations would escape accountability in the years to come. 

The OHCHR report reminds us of the post-Holocaust industrialists’ trials. According to this academic paper by Anita Ramasastry, after World War II, a group of major industrialists were prosecuted by the United States Military Tribunal (USMT) for their companies’ use of slave labour. Similarly, a group of Japanese mining officials were prosecuted by a British military court concerning forced labour activities in Formosa. These cases demonstrate that legal consequences can be applied to cooperation between enterprises and repressive governments, across international boundaries. These trials laid the groundwork for recognising the international criminal responsibility of corporate executives for participation in international crimes.

In the case of South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa helped shape corporate responsibility for human rights violations by addressing corporate complicity in apartheid. The rise in domestic and international litigation showcase a growing trend toward corporate accountability.

As mainstream Western media continue to act as state stenographers, independent media, social media commentators, courageous Palestinians sharing the daily atrocities on the ground, and the public witnessing all this in real time are ensuring this genocide is well documented. 

Historical records may have been erased in the past but there are many now who will ensure this does not and will not happen. Evidence is available, what happens next would be for people to create the conditions that would allow due process to take course. 

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