Tech firms complicit in ‘economy of genocide’, says UN rapporteur
Technology firms globally are actively “aiding and abetting” Israel’s “crimes of apartheid and genocide” against Palestinians, said United Nations (UN) special rapporteur in an urgent call for the companies to cease their business activities in the region.
In an investigative report published 30 June examining “the role of corporate entities in sustaining the illegal Israeli occupation and its ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza”, Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur for the “human rights situation in Palestine”, outlined the key role the technology sector plays in “sustaining the Israeli settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement”.
In particular, she highlighted how the “repression of Palestinians has become progressively automated” by the increasing supply of powerful military and surveillance technologies to Israel, including drones, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered targeting systems, cloud computing infrastructure, data analytics tools, biometric databases and high-tech weaponry.
She said that if the companies supplying these technologies had conducted the proper human rights due diligence – including IBM, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Palantir – they would have divested “long ago” from involvement in Israel’s illegal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.
“After October 2023, long-standing systems of control, exploitation and dispossession metamorphosed into economic, technological and political infrastructures mobilised to inflict mass violence and immense destruction,” she said. “Entities that previously enabled and profited from Palestinian elimination and erasure within the economy of occupation, instead of disengaging are now involved in the economy of genocide.”
Under international law, however, Albanese pointed out the mere fact that due diligence has been conducted does not absolve companies from legal liability over their role in abuses. Instead, the liability of companies is determined by both their actions and the ultimate human rights impact.
“At a minimum,” said Albanese, “corporate entities directly linked to human rights impacts must exercise leverage or consider termination of their activities or relationships. Failure to act accordingly may give rise to liability.”
Noting that “colonial endeavours and associated genocides have historically been driven and enabled by the corporate sector”, Albanese called on all corporate entities active in Israel to “promptly cease all business activities and terminate relationships directly linked with, contributing to and causing human rights violations and international crimes against the Palestinian people”.
She added that these corporate entities should also pay reparations to the Palestinian people, which should happen in the form of a wealth tax along the lines of post-apartheid South Africa.
“The Special Rapporteur urges the International Criminal Court and national judiciaries to investigate and prosecute corporate executives and/or corporate entities for their part in the commission of international crimes and laundering of the proceeds from those crimes.”
In her recommendations, Albanese also calls on UN member states to impose sanctions and full arms embargoes on Israel, including for dual-use technologies and machinery, as well as to suspend all trade agreements and investment relations.
Tech sector complicity
Giving specific examples, Albanese highlighted Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s supply of technologies to the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT, which oversees the implementation of Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza), as well as the Israeli prison service and police; Microsoft’s embedding of its tech throughout the police, prisons, universities and schools, as well as the integration of its tech directly into the military apparatus since 2003; and Palantir’s supply of various data platforms and automated decision-making systems.
Albanese added that, because many of the systems implemented to monitor and control Palestinians “generate increasing volumes of data”, cloud storage and computing technologies have also become increasingly important for Israel.
In July 2024, an Israeli colonel described cloud tech as a weapon in every sense of the word Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur
“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,” she said.
“In October 2023, when the Israeli internal military cloud overloaded, Microsoft, with its Azure platform, and the Project Nimbus consortium stepped in with critical cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Their Israel-located servers ensure data sovereignty and a shield from accountability, under favourable contracts offering minimal restrictions or oversight. In July 2024, an Israeli colonel described cloud tech as a weapon in every sense of the word, citing these companies.”
Such cloud platforms also underpin the use of AI-powered targeting systems, such as Lavender, Gospel and Where’s Daddy?, which process vast amounts of data to generate target lists for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).
An investigation by Israeli outlet +972 Magazine found in April 2024 that thousands of Gazans have been marked for death by Lavender, while a former Israeli intelligence officer previously told the same outlet in November 2024 that the Gospel system essentially facilitates a “mass assassination factory”.
Albanese further highlighted how IBM has been involved in training Israeli military and intelligence personal since 1972, and since 2019 has operated a vast biometric database that underpins “the discriminatory permit regime of Israel”.
As a result, Storebrand, which manages more than £74.5bn in assets and investments, sold the 750,000 shares it held in the company in March 2024, which had a reported value of approximately £110m.
Interconnected corporate complicity
However, the analysis is not limited to the technology sector alone, with Albanese also discussing the separate but intersecting roles of arms manufacturers, construction companies, service industries, banks, pension funds, insurers, universities and charities.
For example, while Caterpillar would ordinarily fall into the construction sector, she noted how it supplies automated, remote-controlled bulldozers directly to the Israeli military, which it then uses to demolish homes, mosques and life-sustaining infrastructure. There have also been reports of these bulldozers being used by the IDF to bury wounded Palestinians alive.
Similarly, while AirBnB and Booking.com would usually be classified as part of the service or tourism industry, their nature as online travel platforms mean there is a technological component to their listing of properties located in territories that Israel illegally occupies.
“Booking.com has more than doubled its listings in the West Bank – from 26 in 2018 to 70 by May 2023 – and tripled its East Jerusalem listings to 39 in the year post-October 2023,” she said. “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.”
Albanese also collapses the distinction between technology and arms firms, noting that “Israeli and international weapons manufacturers…have refined technologies that enable Israel to intensify oppression, repression and destruction”, including air defence platforms, drones, AI-powered targeting tools and advanced fighter jets.
She added that much of this innovation, particularly for the technology and defence sectors, is underpinned by close collaboration with the education sector, which actively contributes to the “ideological scaffolding of apartheid” while also providing material support in the form of technical expertise.
“Science and technology departments serve as research and development hubs for collaborations between the Israeli military and arms contractors, including Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, IBM and Lockheed Martin, and so contribute to producing the tools for surveillance, crowd control, urban warfare, facial recognition and targeted killing, tools that are effectively tested on Palestinians,” she said, adding that many universities have upheld ties with Israel despite the post-October 2023 escalation.
“One of many British examples, the University of Edinburgh holds nearly £25.5m ($31.72m) (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. With both direct and indexed investments, the university ranks among the most financially entangled institutions in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”
She added that the university also directly partners with firms aiding Israel’s military operations through its sharing of research that “directly links it with assaults on Palestinians”.
Conclusions
Albanese ends her report by noting that “while life in Gaza is being obliterated,” the “genocide” continues “because it is lucrative for many”.
She added that business and human rights obligations “cannot be isolated from Israel’s illegal settler-colonial enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory, which now functions as a genocidal machine”.
“Business continues as usual, but nothing about this system, in which businesses are integral, is neutral,” she said. “The entities named in the present report constitute a fraction of a much deeper structure of corporate involvement, profiteering from and enabling violations and crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Had they exercised due diligence, corporate entities would have ceased involvement with Israel long ago…any investment sustains a system of serious international crimes Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur
“Had they exercised due diligence, corporate entities would have ceased involvement with Israel long ago. Today, the demand for accountability is all the more urgent: any investment sustains a system of serious international crimes.”
She noted the “immense asymmetry of power” between these entities and the international justice system “exposes a fundamental global governance gap” that must be closed.
Albanese is not the first to raise concerns over tech companies’ role in Israel’s human rights abuses and system of apartheid.
“Tech companies, with a few exceptions, are opaque and largely unwilling to provide information and disclosures, especially around this conflict, in a way that is incomparable to most other sectors,” said Gayatri Khandhadai, head of technology and human rights at the BHRRC, at the time.
“Increasingly, we’re seeing the central role that technology is playing in conflict, and this role is only going to get more embedded as we go forward. With the increasing focus of the ICC, if I were a company or an investor, I would start worrying about what this means for me.”
Computer Weekly contacted every company mentioned in this story about their inclusion in Albanese’s report, as well as why they have not ceased their business activities in the region despite the litany of alleged human rights violations and international crimes perpetrated by Israel.
However, only Lockheed Martin – a key supplier in the international F-35 programme that provides advanced fighter jets to the US, UK, Israel and other allied countries – responded: “Foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions. Discussions about those sales are best addressed by the US government.”
Jonathan is a tech enthusiast and the mind behind Tech AI Verse. With a passion for artificial intelligence, consumer tech, and emerging innovations, he deliver clear, insightful content to keep readers informed. From cutting-edge gadgets to AI advancements and cryptocurrency trends, Jonathan breaks down complex topics to make technology accessible to all.
