UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has released a report into the role of the private sector in facilitating and profiting from Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories. Titled “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide” (A/HRC/59/23), it investigates the economic structures and corporate involvement underpinning Israel’s prolonged occupation of the Palestinian territories, describing how these have evolved into a system that facilitates apartheid and genocide.
The report considers corporate entities such as arms manufacturers, tech firms, building and construction companies, extractive and service industries, banks, pension funds, insurers, universities and charities. It calls on the international community to fulfil its legal obligations by ending the complicity of corporate actors in sustaining the illegal occupation and dismantling the global system that has permitted this genocide to occur.
The report found evidence of over 60 organisations that are directly complicit in what has been called rampant opportunism of states and corporations alike who profit enormously from the economy of apartheid, occupation, and genocide.
Senator Lidia Thorpe has welcomed the report and its recommendations, calling on the Albanese government to consider the report in full and support an inquiry into the Red Lines Package of bills currently before parliament. This package, co-sponsored by Senator Fatima Payman, includes three bills that would provide the legislative framework required to implement the advice of Ms Albanese’s report. This includes a mandatory risk reporting and compliance regime, prohibition on funding and arming crimes against humanity, including genocide, and accountability mechanisms for both civil and criminal breaches.
The Albanese Government, however, intervened earlier this year to prevent Senators Thorpe and Payman from sending these bills to inquiry, a right that is generally afforded by convention to all senators for Private Senators bills.
Quotes attributable to Lidia Thorpe, Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung independent Victorian Senator:
"The colonisation of Palestine, as well as the colonisation of so-called Australia and so many other places, has been driven and enabled by the drive for profit in the private sector.
"Corporations, aided by governments and their militaries, have played a key role in the dispossession of First Peoples from our land and the extraction of resources, in order to maximise their profits.
"The land, resources, and wealth stolen through the genocide of First Nations people here at home are used to fuel genocide abroad.
"Leading legal experts, UN officials and human rights organisations have warned that both the public and private sector in Australia is funding and arming genocide.
"Just as the world united to end apartheid in South Africa, we must call for the same collective action to end Israel’s apartheid and genocide in Palestine.
"This report shows how a range of private entities, many of which receive public funding, are involved in human rights abuses and may be complicit in breaches of international law.
"The Red Lines Package, which Senator Payman and I introduced into parliament earlier this year, is a concrete response to the advice provided by Francesca Albanese in this report.
"Yet both Labor and the Coalition have blocked an inquiry into these bills, something that is rarely done when senators seek an inquiry into their own bills.
"If the government has nothing to hide, then why would they oppose an inquiry into these bills?
"Is it not in the public interest to know if governments or corporations in this country are funding or arming genocide?
"Genocide is the worst of all crimes, and all countries must come together through coordinated legal and diplomatic measures, to end these grave violations of international law against the Palestinian people.
"Countries like Ireland are advancing legislation to ban trade and imports from illegal Israeli settlements, while South Africa has called for urgent international intervention to address the apartheid practices of the Israeli state."
Key quotes from the report, attributable to Ms Francesca Albanese:
"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 complicity exposed by this report is just the tip of the iceberg; ending it will not happen without holding the private sector accountable, including its executives.
"Israeli and international weapons manufacturers have developed increasingly effective systems to drive Palestinians off their land. By collaborating and competing, they have refined technologies that enable Israel to intensify oppression, repression and destruction.
"Prolonged occupation and repeated military campaigns have provided testing grounds for cutting-edge military capabilities: air defence platforms, drones, AI-powered targeting tools and even the US-led F-35 programme. These technologies are then marketed as “battle-proven”.
"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."