In (this) report, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 investigates the corporate machinery sustaining the Israeli settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory. While political leaders and Governments shirk their obligations, far too many corporate entities have profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now genocide. The complicity exposed by the report is just the tip of the iceberg; ending it will not happen without holding the private sector accountable, including its executives.
International law recognizes varying degrees of responsibility – each requiring scrutiny and accountability, particularly in this case, where a people’s self-determination and very existence are at stake. This is a necessary step to end the genocide and dismantle the global system that has allowed it. The document explicitly names the following corporate actors as supporting Israel in various capacities:
Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries – The two most prominent Israeli weapons companies – Elbit Systems, established as a public-private partnership and later privatized, and State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries – are among the top 50 arms manufacturers globally. Since 2023, Elbit Systems has cooperated closely on Israeli military operations, embedding key staff in the Ministry of Defense, and was awarded the 2024 Israeli Defense Prize. Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries provide a critical domestic supply of weaponry, and reinforce Israeli military alliances through arms exports and joint development of military technology.
Lockheed Martin and Leonardo S.p.A – Israel benefits from the largest-ever defence procurement programme – for the F-35 fighter jet, led by United States-based Lockheed Martin, alongside at least 1,650 other companies, including Italian manufacturer Leonardo S.p.A, and eight States. Components and parts constructed globally contribute to the Israeli F-35 fleet, which Israel customizes and maintains in partnership with Lockheed Martin and domestic companies. Israel was the first to fly the F-35 in combat, in 2018, and to use it in “beast mode”, in 2025. Post-October 2023, F-35s and F-16s have been integral to equipping Israel with the unprecedented aerial power to drop an estimated 85,000 tons of bombs, much of it unguided, to kill and injure more than 179,411 Palestinians and obliterate Gaza.
Caterpillar Inc. – For decades, Caterpillar Inc. has provided Israel with equipment used to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure, through both the United States Foreign Military Financing programme and an exclusive licensee requisitioned by Israeli law into the military. In partnership with companies such as Israel Aerospace Industries, Elbit Systems and Leonardo DRS, Inc.-owned RADA Electronic Industries, Israel has evolved Caterpillar’s D9 bulldozer into automated, remote-commanded core weaponry of the military, deployed in almost every military activity since 2000, clearing incursion lines, “neutralizing” the territory and killing Palestinians. Since October 2023, Caterpillar equipment has been documented as being used to carry out mass demolitions – including of homes, mosques and life-sustaining infrastructure – raid hospitals and bury alive injured Palestinians. In 2025, Caterpillar secured a further multi-million dollar contract with Israel.
HD Hyundai, Doosan and Volvo Group – The Korean HD Hyundai and its partially owned subsidiary, Doosan, alongside the Swedish Volvo Group and other major heavy machinery manufacturers, have long been linked to the destruction of Palestinian property, each supplying equipment through exclusively licensed Israeli dealers. Volvo’s licensee is an OHCHR database-listed company and together they own Merkavim Transportation Technologies Ltd., which produces armoured buses sold to service colonies. Since at least 2007, Volvo machinery has been used to raze Palestinian areas, including in East Jerusalem and Masafer Yatta. For over a decade, HD Hyundai machinery has been used to demolish Palestinian homes and raze farmland, including olive groves. After October 2023, Israel increased the use of the equipment of those companies in the urban destruction of Gaza, including in flattening Rafah and Jabalia, after which the military obscured their logos.
Heidelberg Materials AG (Hanson Israel) – The German Heidelberg Materials AG, through its subsidiary Hanson Israel, has contributed to the pillage of millions of tons of dolomite rock from the Nahal Raba quarry on land seized from Palestinian villages in the West Bank.
Construcciones Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) – The Spanish/Basque Construcciones Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles joined a consortium with a OHCHR database-listed company to maintain and expand the Jerusalem Light Rail Red Line and build the new Green Line, at a time when other companies had withdrawn owing to international pressure.
Keller Williams Realty LLC – The global real estate group, Keller Williams Realty LLC, through its Israeli franchisee KW Israel, has had branches based in the colonies.
Mekorot – The Israeli national water company Mekorot has a water monopoly in the occupied Palestinian territory. In Gaza, more than 97 per cent 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 ran its Gaza pipelines at 22 per cent capacity, leaving areas such as Gaza City without water 95 per cent of the time, actively aiding the transformation of water into a tool of genocide.
Chevron Corporation, NewMed Energy and Sonol Energy (Delek Group),Petrobras and BP PLC – The United States Chevron Corporation, in consortium with Israeli NewMed Energy and Sonol Energy (terminals and pipelines) both a subsidiary of the OHCHR database-listed Delek Group, extracts natural gas from the Leviathan and Tamar fields;187 it paid the Government of Israel $453 million in royalties and taxes in 2023. At a time of increasing brutality, the British company BP PLC is expanding involvement in the Israeli economy, with exploration licences confirmed in March 2025, which allow BP to explore Palestinian maritime expanses illegally exploited by Israel. BP and Chevron are also the largest contributors to Israeli imports of crude oil, as major owners of the strategic Azeri Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and the Kazakh Caspian Pipeline Consortium, respectively, and of their associated oil fields. Each conglomerate effectively supplied 8 per cent of Israeli crude oil between October 2023 and July 2024, supplemented by crude oil shipments from Brazilian oil fields, in which Petrobras holds the largest stakes, and military jet fuel. Oil from these companies supplies two refineries in Israel. 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 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.
Drummond Company, Inc. and Glencore PLC – Coal for electricity to Israel originates primarily from Colombia (60 per cent of Israeli coal imports in 2023-24);182 United States-headquartered Drummond Company, Inc. and the Swiss-based Glencore PLC are the primary suppliers.
Microsoft, IBM, Amazon.com, Inc. and Alphabet Inc. (Google) – In 2021, Israel awarded Alphabet Inc. (Google) and Amazon.com, Inc. a $1.2 billion contract (Project Nimbus) – largely funded through Ministry of Defense expenditure – to provide core tech infrastructure. Many universities have upheld ties with Israel despite the post-October 2023 escalation. One of many British examples, the University of Edinburgh holds nearly £25.5 million ($31.72 million) (2.5 per cent of its endowment) in four tech giants – Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM – central to the Israeli surveillance apparatus and the ongoing Gaza destruction. The University also partners with firms aiding Israeli military operations, including Leonardo S.p.A. (as above) and through the AI and Data Science Lab at Ben Gurion University, sharing research that directly links it with assaults on Palestinians. Microsoft has been active in Israel since 1991, developing its largest centre outside the United States. Its technologies are embedded in the prison service, police, universities and schools – including in colonies. Microsoft has been integrating its systems and civilian tech across the Israeli military since 2003, while acquiring Israeli cybersecurity and surveillance start-ups. Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon grant Israel virtually government-wide access to their cloud and artificial intelligence technologies, enhancing data processing, decision making and surveillance and analysis capacities. In July 2024, an Israeli colonel described cloud tech as a weapon in every sense of the word, citing these companies.
Palantir Technologies Inc. – Palantir Technologies Inc., whose tech collaboration with Israel long predates October 2023, expanded its support to the Israeli military post-October 2023.
NSO Group – Israeli tech firms often grow out of military infrastructure and strategy, as the NSO Group, founded by ex-Unit 8200 members, did. Its Pegasus spyware, designed for covert smartphone surveillance, has been used against Palestinian activists84 and licensed globally to target leaders, journalists and human rights defenders.85 Exported under the Defense Export Control Law, NSO Group surveillance technology enables “spyware diplomacy” while reinforcing State impunity.
Bright Food (Group) Co., Ltd. (Tnuva) – Tnuva, the largest food conglomerate in Israel, now majority-owned by the Chinese Bright Food (Group) Co., Ltd., has fueled and benefited from land dispossession.
Orbia Advance Corporation (Netafim) – Netafim, a global leader in drip irrigation technology, now 80 per cent owned by the Mexican company Orbia Advance Corporation, has designed its agritech in concert with the expansion imperatives of Israel.
A.P. Moller – Maersk A/S – Israeli products, including those from colonies, flood global markets through major retailers, often with no scrutiny. To dodge growing backlash, companies mask origin through misleading labels, barcodes and supply-chain mixing, effectively making occupation shelf-ready. Global logistics giants like A.P. Moller – Maersk A/S are integral to this ecosystem; for years they have shipped goods from the colonies and OHCHR database-listed companies straight to the United States and other markets. In many countries, no distinction is made between products from Israel and those from its colonies. Even in the European Union, where labelling is required, these goods are still allowed on the market, and the responsibility is put on uninformed consumers. Given the illegality of the colonies under international law, these products should not be traded at all. Supermarket chains, including many listed in the OHCHR database, and ecommerce platforms such as Amazon.com operate directly in colonies, sustaining their economy, enabling expansion and participating in apartheid through discriminatory service delivery.
Booking Holdings Inc. and Airbnb, Inc. – Booking Holdings Inc. and Airbnb, Inc. list properties and hotel rooms in Israeli colonies. Booking.com has more than doubled its listings in the West Bank – from 26 in 2018233 to 70 by May 2023 – and tripled its East Jerusalem listings to 39 in the year post October 2023. Airbnb has also amplified its colonial profiteering, growing from 139 listings in 2016 to 350 in 2025, collecting up to 23 per cent commission. These listings are linked with restricting Palestinian access to land and endangering nearby villages. In Tekoa, Airbnb enables settler promotion of a “warm and loving community”, whitewashing settler violence against the neighbouring Palestinian village of Tuqu.
Allianz and AXA – Global insurance companies, including Allianz and AXA, also invest large sums in shares and bonds implicated in the occupation and genocide, partly as capital reserves for policyholder claims and regulatory requirements, but primarily to generate returns. Allianz holds at least $7.3 billion and AXA, despite some divestment decisions, still invests at least $4.09 billion in tracked companies named in the present report. Their insurance policies also underwrite the risks other companies necessarily take when operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, thus enabling the commission of human rights abuses and “de-risking” the operational environment.
Norwegian Government Pension Fund – The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund , claims it has the world’s most comprehensive ethical guidelines. After October 2023, the Fund increased its investment in Israeli companies by 32 per cent to $1.9 billion. By the end of 2024, the Fund had $121.5 billion – 6.9 per cent of its total value – invested in companies named in the present report alone.
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec – The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which manages Can$ 473.3 billion ($328.9 billion) in pension funds for six million Canadians, has almost Can$ 9.6 billion ($6.67 billion) invested in companies named in the present report, despite its sustainable investment policy and human rights policy.
BNP Paribas and Barclays – Some of the world’s largest banks, including BNP Paribas and Barclays, stepped in to boost market confidence by underwriting international and domestic treasury bonds, allowing Israel to contain the interest rate premium, despite a credit downgrade. Asset management firms – including Blackrock ($68 million), Vanguard ($546 million) and Allianz’s asset management subsidiary PIMCO ($960 million)256 – were among at least 400 investors from 36 countries who purchased them.
Blackrock, Vanguard and PIMCO (Allianz subsidiary) – Some of the world’s largest banks, including BNP Paribas and Barclays, stepped in to boost market confidence (in Israel’s bond issue) by underwriting international and domestic treasury bonds, allowing Israel to contain the interest rate premium, despite a credit downgrade. Asset management firms – including Blackrock ($68 million), Vanguard ($546 million) and Allianz’s asset management subsidiary PIMCO ($960 million) – were among at least 400 investors from 36 countries who purchased them. Blackrock (and its subsidiary, iShares) and Vanguard are among the largest institutional investors in many companies, holding these shares for distribution among their indexes of mutual funds and electronically traded funds (ETFs). Blackrock is the second largest institutional investor in Palantir (8.6 per cent), Microsoft (7.8 per cent), Amazon.com (6.6 per cent), Alphabet (6.6 per cent) and IBM (8.6 per cent), and third largest in Lockheed Martin (7.2 per cent) and Caterpillar (7.5 per cent); Vanguard is the largest institutional investor in Caterpillar (9.8 per cent), Chevron (8.9 per cent) and Palantir (9.1 per cent), and second largest in Lockheed Martin (9.2 per cent) and Elbit Systems (2.0 per cent).
Paz Retail and Energy Ltd. – From Ashdod refinery, a subsidiary of the OHCHR database-listed company Paz Retail & Energy Ltd. provides jet fuel to the Israeli Air Force operating in Gaza.
These companies are implicated in activities ranging from arms manufacturing, construction, energy supply, surveillance technology, agribusiness, tourism, and financial investments that support Israel’s occupation and alleged violations of international law.1 The US has since placed sanctions on human rights lawyer Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says it is in response to her efforts to have American and Israeli figures prosecuted by the International Criminal Court, which he describes as “sanctioning lawfare”. Francesca Albanese told ABC News the Trump administration has “zero respect for international law”.2 For example, in February 2025, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which last year issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as several Hamas leaders.
Albanese, who regularly receives death threats and endures well-orchestrated smear campaigns directed by Israel and its allies, valiantly seeks to hold those who support and sustain the genocide accountable. The sanctions attack against Albanese presages a world without rules, one where rogue states, such as the U.S. and Israel, are permitted to carry out war crimes and genocide without any accountability or restraint. It exposes the subterfuges we use to fool ourselves and attempt to fool others. It reveals our hypocrisy, cruelty and racism. No one, from now on, will take seriously our stated commitments to democracy, freedom of expression, the rule of law or human rights. And who can blame them? We (the west) speak exclusively in the language of force, the language of brutes, the language of mass slaughter, the language of genocide.
- https://www.unz.com/article/the-persecution-of-francesca-albanese/ ↩︎
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-10/francesca-albanese-marco-rubio-sanctions-israel-gaza/105514754 ↩︎