•Lockheed Martin
•Palantir
•Volvo
•World Banks: BNP, Paribas, and Barclays
•Asset Management Firms: Pimco (owned by the German-based financial services company Allianz) and Vanguard
•Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), (world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, increased its investment in Israeli companies by 32% since October 2023.)
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories has called for sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel and for global corporations to be held accountable for “profiting from genocide” in Gaza.
A report by Francesca Albanese to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday points to the deep involvement of companies from around the world in supporting Israel during its 21-month onslaught in Gaza.
“While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, this report shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,” the report says
While political leaders and governments shirk their obligations, far too many corporate entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and, now, genocide,” the report says.
The report says the Israeli military has benefited from “the largest ever defence procurement programme” for the F-35 fighter jet, made by Lockheed Martin with the involvement of more than 1,600 other manufacturers and eight states. It says Israel was the first to fly the warplane in “beast mode”, carrying 18,000lb of bombs at a time.
The US technology firm Palantir comes under particular criticism in the Albanese report for its close partnership with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), with which the company agreed a strategic partnership for Palantir to assist its “war-related missions”.
The Albanese report also criticises heavy equipment manufacturers such as Volvo for allegedly supplying heavy machinery used in mass demolitions of homes, mosques and infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank.
“These companies have continued supplying the Israeli market despite abundant evidence of Israel’s criminal use of this machinery and repeated calls from human rights groups to sever ties,” Albanese says in the report. “Passive suppliers become deliberate contributors to a system of displacement.”
“Some of the world’s largest banks, including BNP Paribas and Barclays, stepped in to boost market confidence by underwriting these international and domestic treasury bonds, allowing Israel to contain the interest rate premium, despite a credit downgrade,” it says.
It names asset management firms including Pimco (owned by the German-based financial services company Allianz) and Vanguard as major buyers of Israeli treasury bonds.
The report also points to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, for having increased its investment in Israeli companies by 32% since October 2023.
On Monday, Norway’s biggest pension fund, KLP, announced it would no longer do business with two companies – the Oshkosh Corporation in the US and ThyssenKrupp in Germany – because they sell equipment to the Israeli military that could be being used in Gaza. Neither company is named in the UN report.
In her recommendations, Albanese calls for sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel, and 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”.