The document has had a great impact in the media and on social networks. Donald Trump’s far-right-wing government, as well as Netanyahu’s, reacted with particular virulence to its publication. The United States imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the author of the report, accusing her of waging a “campaign of political and economic warfare” against the United States and Israel.
The name of the report alludes to the economic support of large transnational and national Israeli companies involved in financing and materially sustaining Israel’s genocide in Gaza and throughout Palestine. It lists more than 60 companies that support the development of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and military actions in Gaza.
The companies include US telecoms transnationals IBM and Microsoft, which are responsible for collecting and storing biometric data on Palestinians and for the technology used in prisons and law enforcement operations, and Amazon and Google, which supply software for managing large databases for ‘Palestinian population control’. Palantir hassupplied artificial intelligence used for military purposes.
In the field of arms transport, the report mentions the large transnational shipping company Maersk, and likewise heavy machinery companies such as Caterpillar, Hyundai and Volvo, whose equipment was used to demolish buildings, destroy avenues and streets, and open up surveillance corridors. These companies also allegedly collaborated in the destruction of agricultural land and the construction of illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories. The Spanish company Railway Construction and Support (CAF – Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) also collaborated with Israel in this area. In the tourism sector, Booking and Airbnb have also collaborated.
The report concludes that these are not isolated companies, but an entire system, which it characterises as “the corporate machinery that sustains the Israeli project” in Palestine.
According to the report, this corporate network, which profits from genocide, is fully aware that it is contributing to the “maintenance of the illegal occupation and crimes of apartheid and genocide“. The document adds that “the corporate sector has contributed to the creation of the conditions for Palestinian ethnic cleansing“.
It makes clear the maxim that “Capital has no homeland and no heart“. The only thing that interests capitalists and big business is profit, regardless of the consequences for the people.
The UN Special Rapporteur’s document calls for “the investigation and prosecution of corporate executives and/or entities for their involvement in the commission of international crimes and the laundering of the proceeds of such crimes“. It further calls on governments to “impose sanctions and a total arms embargo on Israel, including all existing agreements and dual-use items, such as technology and civilian heavy machinery“.
We know that the UN is a body promoted and financed by imperialism, incapable of effectively condemning Israel and punishing the businessmen who have collaborated with apartheid throughout Palestine and the genocide in Gaza. However, it is important to vindicate the UN independent rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, who has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the Palestinian people, confronting Zionism and its attempt to execute a new ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Albanese joins the countless voices raised from different quarters against the Israeli genocide in Gaza, and which highlight the growing isolation of Israel.
But we are also aware that it will be international solidarity and the mobilisation of all the peoples of the world, together with the heroic Palestinian resistance, that will defeat Israeli Zionism and make it possible to realise the slogan that prevails in all the mobilisations: “Free Palestine, from the river to the sea“.
We demand an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of all Israeli troops and respect for the integrity of Gaza as part of Palestine; as well as the immediate liberation of all border crossings to guarantee the entry of food, medicine, fuel and water, and the immediate restoration of electricity. We demand the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Golan Heights and other areas of Syria. We reject the illegal detention and threat of deportation of activists defending the freedom of Palestine and Gaza, as has happened in the United States, Germany, France, Argentina and other countries. We demand that all governments break diplomatic, commercial, cultural and academic political relations with Israel, especially Arab and Middle Eastern regimes, which have done little for the Palestinian people. For a unique, secular, democratic and non-racist Palestine!
