By Sharon Zhang
Copyright truthout
Amnesty International is calling on economic actors to “pull the plug” on the economy supporting Israel’s genocide and apartheid in Palestine, naming 15 companies, including U.S. surveillance firm Palantir, acting as major backers.
In a report published Thursday, the human rights groups named a litany of actions that governments, companies, and other groups must take to eliminate the “political economy underpinning Israel’s international crimes.”
The report names three U.S. companies as contributors to Israel’s occupation: Arms makers Boeing and Lockheed Martin, as well as Palantir, which has close ties to the Trump administration.
It also names Israeli companies Corsight, Elbit Systems, Mekorot, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and Israel Aerospace Industries; as well as Chinese company Hikvision, Spanish manufacturer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, and South Korean conglomerate HD Hyundai.
The group calls on states to take actions like halting trade with and divesting from companies contributing to the genocide, and for companies to suspend contracts with Israeli forces, among other actions. It notes that the 15 companies it names in its report are a small sample of the ones making up the economy surrounding the genocide.
“Human dignity is not a commodity. While Palestinian mothers in Gaza are left to watch their children waste away from starvation under Israel’s genocide, arms companies and others continue to reap substantial profits,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, in a statement. “Amnesty International calls on its members and supporters the world over to demand an immediate end to the political economy underpinning Israel’s international crimes.”
The report was released on the same day as the expiration of a deadline set by the UN General Assembly resolution for Israel to end its occupation of Palestine that has been completely disregarded by Israel and the U.S.
The companies named in the report have deep ties to Israel’s violence. Boeing manufactures bombs and bomb kits that Israel has used extensively in its bombardment of Gaza, while Lockheed makes the F-16s and F-35s that the Israeli military uses as a significant part of its air fleet.
Palantir, meanwhile, is a supplier of AI products and services that Israel is using as part of its vast surveillance and data collection network across Gaza. The company has a strategic partnership with the Israeli military to “significantly aid in support of war-related missions.”
The report also calls out companies it’s previously named as complicit in furthering Israel’s apartheid. Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, and TripAdvisor have helped maintain and support tourism listings in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, which are helping to develop Israeli settlements in Palestine, the group wrote in 2019.
The report follows a similar analysis by UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese from July. The human rights expert named dozens of companies, including numerous U.S. firms, that are key participants in Israel’s “economy of genocide.”
