How the world enriches from the blood of the Palestinians

The report of the UN's rapporteur reveals the network of global companies that support and profit from Israel's genocidal policies against the Palestinian people.

On 16 June 2025, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967, issued a report titled "From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide." The report, which extends over 39 pages, makes direct accusations against major multinational corporations, among them Amazon, BlackRock, Google, Lockheed Martin, and Volvo, for taking advantage of the Israeli occupation and the genocide against the Palestinians. These companies, along with prestigious universities, especially the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, own varied investments in the project of organized displacement of Palestinians and their replacement with Israeli settlers. Albanese concluded her speech with a clear invitation: stop profiting from the genocide and sever ties with Israel.

On July 9, the U.S. Department of State imposed sanctions on Albanese, preventing her from accessing her properties in the United States. The State Department justified its decision, saying that Albanese publicly promotes anti-Semitism, supports terrorism, and expresses explicit contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West. The United Nations responded, warning that this measure creates a "dangerous precedent." At the same time, the spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, emphasized that "unilateral sanctions against special rapporteurs or any other UN official are unacceptable." It is worth noting that Albanese is not the first, as Washington had already sanctioned the judges of the International Criminal Court in June 2025 under the same executive order.

The US sanctions against senior UN officials and institutions sparked a major media uproar, overshadowing discussion of the core findings of the report by Francesca Albanese and her team. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wanted to employ sanctions as a political tool to make it the most prominent headline, and he succeeded in that to a great extent. Thus, the central question posed by the report was marginalized, and the discussion was reduced to a single issue: the legitimacy of the United States imposing sanctions on United Nations officials.

Genocide in the Cloud

Albanese's report reveals the involvement of major multinational corporations in profiteering from the genocide. These companies span across the sectors of construction, education, finance, services, and weaponization. Among these companies, some notable names stand out, including giant arms companies such as Lockheed Martin. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) prepared a complete list of these companies. Still, the part related to Amazon summarizes the story: Israeli military intelligence uses "Amazon Web Services" servers to store massive quantities of data on Gaza's population. Since 2021, Amazon has been involved with the Israeli government in a $1.2 billion contract as part of the "Nimbus" project, with Google as a partner. Under this contract, all State institutions must be provided with cloud computing services: the army, the Shin Bet, the police, the Prison Administration, arms manufacturing companies such as Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., and even the agencies responsible for the illegal settlement project in the Occupied West Bank.

Albanese's report refers to "Project Nimbus" and reveals that its primary funding source comes from the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and then goes on to elaborate: Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon all grant Israel almost complete access to their cloud computing techniques and artificial intelligence technologies, which enhances its capabilities in data processing, decision-making, monitoring, and analysis. In October 2023, when the Israeli internal military cloud exceeded capacity, Microsoft, through its platform "Azure," and the "Nimbus" coalition provided vital cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Its servers, located in Israel, guarantee data sovereignty and immunity from accountability, with lenient contracts that allow minimal restrictions or no monitoring. In July 2024, an Israeli colonel described cloud technology as a weapon in every sense of the word, citing these companies.

It is clear that the role of technology companies is not limited to supplying information to the Israeli occupation and its genocidal tools, but also extends to granting it "a shield of

Immunity,” as it protects critical data that may constitute conclusive evidence before any international tribunal for war crimes. Albanese's report cited Colonel Racheli Dembinsky, commander of the Computing and Information Systems Center in the Israeli army, responsible for processing the armed forces' data. At the "Israeli Army Information Technology Conference" held in Rishon LeZion near Tel Aviv, Dembinski explained that the army has come to directly rely on cloud storage and artificial intelligence services provided by the world’s tech giants: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. She added that the military unit "Mamram" uses an "operating cloud" in its internal servers, which she considered a "weapons platform." Until now, there is no general information about the amount of profits these companies made from the genocide.

In 2024, some Amazon and Google employees launched the "No Tech for Apartheid (NoTA) campaign" in New York, and during a speech for Barak Regev, Google Israel representative, a female software engineer from Google Cloud stood up to say in front of everyone: "I refuse to build technology that promotes genocide, supports apartheid, or reinforces surveillance." The company responded harshly, dismissing tens of engineers associated with the campaign. But this did not succeed in suppressing the campaign, which continued to escalate its protests and organize new movements.

The Blind

In 2003, Peter Thiel, together with a group of partners, co-founded a technology company called "Palantir", whose name is inspired by "The Lord of the Rings", a reference to the crystal ball that reveals what is happening at a distance. Thiel, known for his conservative libertarian tendencies and deep belief in what he calls "western civilization," made his fortune through "PayPal" and "Facebook" before turning to lucrative security and military contracts. He was the first major investor in "Palantir", the venture capital fund of the American Central Intelligence Agency, "In-Q-Tel." Since 2015, the company has been expanding its business in Israel, where it has been closely associated with the military and intelligence sectors, by providing data analysis, integration services, and artificial intelligence applications. In December 2023, with the start of the first phase of the genocide, CEO of the company Alex Karp told "Fox Business": ‘We are famous in Israel.’

On 12 January 2024, "Palantir" partnered with the Israeli military industry to assist in the genocide. Josh Harish, Executive Vice President of "Palantir" at that time, said: "The two parties agreed to harness Palantir's advanced technology to support missions related to the war." The phrase “missions related to the war” is clear and can be described as genocide, which the International Court of Justice confirmed on 26 January 2024. "Titan", a system affiliated with the company, is used for precise targeting, which – given the number of civilian casualties in Gaza – was accurate in killing non-combatants. On 30 April 2025, during the "Hill & Valley" Forum, the CEO of the company, Alex Karp, was asked about the killing of Palestinians, he replied that "Palantir is responsible for killing most of the terrorists, and this is correct." Of course, this is not correct, as most of those who were killed in Gaza were civilians (and it is helpful to refer to United Nations data on the death toll of the Palestinians since 2008; if all the deaths were members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, these two groups would have been a more formidable military force). Based on Karp's statements at the Tel Aviv meeting in 2024 and the "Hill and Valley" Forum in 2025, the Albanese report concluded that "they stand as evidence of knowledge and intention at the executive level regarding the unlawful use of force by Israel, and the failure to prevent these acts or withdraw from them." 

With the emergence of press reports about the connection of "Palantir" with the deportation of immigrants from the United States, a wave of protests broke out in front of the company's offices across the country, linking its genocidal work against the Palestinians to its cooperation with the American State in the deportation of immigrants.

Profit from the Occupation

Decades of investigations conducted by the United Nations and international and Palestinian organizations have shown how the Israeli occupation turned into a profit mine for companies. According to a conservative estimate issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Israel reaps $41 billion annually from its direct exploitation of the West Bank, which is equivalent to about 7 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). However, this figure does not reflect the whole picture, as it does not include what Israel gains from indirect benefits made possible by the existence of a captive nation open to exploitation.

In 2020, the United Nations published a database of companies that benefit from illegal settlement activities in the West Bank. Most of these companies are local, but the list also includes well-known international companies such as "Airbnb," "Expedia," "TripAdvisor," "General Mills," and "Motorola" from the United States, as well as "Booking.com" from the Netherlands. Besides that, the "Who Profits" website manages a minute database for companies involved in the economic exploitation of occupation and genocide, and it issues specific analytical reports, including a report in 2024 about "Greenwashing Dispossession: The Israeli Renewable Energy Industry and the Exploitation of Occupied Natural Resources." Additionally, the "Don't Buy into Occupation Coalition (DBIO)" issued a report in December 2023, which revealed the involvement of European financial institutions in funding the illegal settlement project.

On 10 June 2025, the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), in cooperation with The Ireland-Palestine Alliance "Sadaka" and the Palestinian Organization "Al-Haq," launched a series of lawsuits in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States against "Airbnb," due to its continued business in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The company, Airbnb, had announced in 2018 that "it would take its impact into consideration and act responsibly.” However, it quickly broke its promise, and, according to the Global Legal Action Network, it still offers more than 300 properties in the West Bank. These organizations believe that what is happening is not limited to supporting the occupation, but includes "money laundering resulting from Israeli war crimes." 

The gravity of these accusations is even greater in countries such as Ireland and the United Kingdom that have strict anti-money laundering systems. As Jerry Liston, a senior lawyer at the Global Legal Action Network, explained: "This is the first case of its kind where anti-money laundering laws in the United Kingdom and elsewhere are used to prosecute business activities in illegal settlements. It highlights that senior executives in companies that profit from the occupation face the risk of criminal prosecution for a serious crime."

These companies not only benefit from the occupation through the financial revenues they receive, but also extend to the seizure of Palestinian land and cause severe environmental damage. An example of this is the  "Geshuri" agrochemical company that pollutes the surroundings of the city of Tulkarm and directly impacts the Palestinian communities there, increasing the rates of cancer, asthma, eye diseases, and respiratory diseases. And such an example is no exception in the West Bank, where Israeli companies exploit resources through polluting, extractive, and lucrative practices.

Subjugating the Palestinians and depriving them of the most basic rights has turned into an open laboratory for the development of advanced espionage techniques. The most notable example is "Pegasus," a spyware program developed in close partnership among the Military Intelligence Unit 8200, Israeli universities, and private capital.

This program isn't limited to Palestine, but it has been used by dictatorial governments in various parts of the world to track and suppress dissidents, targeting more than 50,000 people.

According to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), Israeli cyber companies acquired about 31 percent of global investments in this field in the year 2020. The acquisition deals of these companies have gained about $4.7 billion, while their exports reached about $6.85 billion. Thus, Israel has become an essential player in the espionage and surveillance market, offering its expertise in data collection and processing. Its services include spyware programs, facial recognition technologies, and user-tracking tools used in policing, electoral manipulation, and other activities.

Genocide Gentry 

It is remarkable that the light shifts towards the executive leaders themselves. Project "Genocide Gentry" sheds light on senior executives at arms manufacturing companies, including Boeing, Elbit Systems America, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX (formerly Raytheon), all key contractors to the Pentagon. The project developed by the open-source platform "littleSis" reveals the names of senior leaders of these companies, follows their relations with other companies, and then tracks their connections with cultural institutions. These institutions are considered the weakest link because they avoid public association with companies involved in the genocide, despite their need for funding.

"Genocide Gentry" adopts a three-step strategy:

1. Understanding the relationship between your city, university, or workplace and the genocide, through a database that clarifies whether any arms company managers are included in councils of local institutions.
2. Identifying the cultural and educational institutions associated with arms companies.
3. Using the files of the board of directors and donors to uncover direct links between local institutions and war networks.

Here is an interesting example: Kathy Warden is the CEO of "Northrop Grumman" and a board member of "Catalyst," a global non-profit organization that helps build "women-friendly workplaces." UN Women estimates that at least 28,000 women and girls have been killed in Gaza by weapons, some of them manufactured by "Northrop Grumman," and warns the agency that more than one million women and girls in Gaza are threatened with famine due to the war machine fueled by the company itself. So this is the real face of “Catalyst” and its alleged slogan in defending women.

This strategy has made some gains. In early 2024, some activists put pressure on musicians participating in the "South by Southwest" (SXSW) festival in Austin. In March, artist Ella Williams (known as Squirrel Flower) announced her withdrawal from the festival due to its sponsorship by arms companies. She wrote on Instagram: "SXSW is platforming defense contractors, including Raytheon subsidiaries, as well as the U.S. Army, a main sponsor of the festival. Genocide profiteers like Raytheon supply weapons to the IDF, paid for by our taxes. A music festival should not include war profiteers. I refuse to be complicit in this and withdraw my art and labor in protest." She was followed by another 79 artists who decided to boycott. In June 2024, the festival announced it would terminate its relations with the American army and Raytheon (RTX).

What becomes clear as the genocide continues is that there are vested interests for major investors in protecting their profits resulting from the ongoing occupation of Palestine. The scene is dark and ugly, but now there is enough evidence, such as the Albanese report, that reveals the misery of the Zionist occupation of Palestine and its treatment of the Palestinians. There is also an ample amount of evidence that cannot be refuted, exposing how companies and their technologies have been used to oppress the Palestinians, and how they continue their path to be globally generalized. This evidence calls for some action from international bodies, courts, or public opinion. Silence is no longer an option.

We are not free until everyone is free.

Ubai Al-aboudi is Director of the Bisan Center for Research and Development in Ramallah, Palestine, and a research activist known for development issues and Palestinian rights.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian and journalist, serving as director at the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research and Editor-in-Chief of LeftWord Books.