Corporate complicity in Israel’s occupation economy
JVL Introduction
Who Profits? is an Israeli NGO that has been investigating and documenting the role of Israeli and international corporations in Israel’s occupation economy for nearly two decades.
Here is its latest Newsletter published in advance of Nakba Day.
As Who Profits? says, the Nakba didn’t end in 1948. It is a work in progress in which hundreds of private corporations collude with the Israeli state and its military machine to continue the dispossession. And profit from it.
“The ongoing atrocities in Gaza serve as a stark reminder that military violence is deeply tied to corporate infrastructure and profit.“
RK
Perpetuating the Nakba: Corporate complicity in Israel’s occupation economy
On this Nakba Day, as we commemorate the historic injustice inflicted upon the Palestinian people in 1948 and the mass displacement and destruction that followed, we also recognize that the Nakba did not end in 1948. Seventy-eight years later, the forced displacement, fragmentation, dispossession, and erasure of Palestinians remain an ongoing reality, sustained through political and economic structures that maintain a captive Palestinian economy to Israel that is further exploited by private corporations. This is contingent on land takeovers, military aggression, and the systematic suppression of Palestinians to sustain Israeli domination over Palestinian industry, resources, and land.
Today, amid Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, the acceleration of settlement expansion and military assaults across the occupied West Bank, and Israel’s military aggressions and invasions throughout the region, the need to hold Israel accountable is more urgent than ever.
This period has also witnessed unprecedented attacks on Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including widespread reports of torture, systematic abuse, medical neglect, and expanding punitive measures targeting Palestinians.
For years, Who Profits has been investigating and documenting the role of Israeli and international corporations in Israel’s occupation economy. Our research exposes how companies profit from and facilitate the dispossession and genocide of Palestinians through the provision of military and surveillance technologies, weapon systems, heavy machinery, transportation infrastructure, and financial services to the Israeli state and its security bodies. In the face of escalating violence against Palestinian communities and narratives, the role of corporations in enabling, sustaining, and profiting from these systems has become even more visible and urgent.
Who Profits’ publicly accessible corporate database includes hundreds of companies complicit in Israel’s violations of the rights of Palestinians and Syrians living under occupation and is continuously updated to reflect ongoing developments and evolving forms of corporate involvement.
The ongoing atrocities in Gaza serve as a stark reminder that military violence is deeply tied to corporate infrastructure and profit. Israeli and multinational corporations continue to supply weapons systems, cloud infrastructure, surveillance technologies, logistics services, data management systems, and heavy machinery used by the Israeli military and security apparatus.
In recent years, Who Profits has increasingly focused on documenting the growing role of Big Tech corporations in developing and sustaining Israeli military infrastructures. These companies provide cloud computing services, artificial intelligence tools, servers, software, and data processing infrastructure used by Israeli military and security bodies to facilitate attacks on Gaza and maintain pervasive surveillance and control over Palestinians throughout the occupied Palestinian territory.
Who Profits has recently added and updated the profiles of eight major multinational technology providers: Amazon, Cisco Systems, Dell Technologies, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle Corporation, and Palantir Technologies, examining their close and evolving partnerships with Israeli security bodies.
Heavy machinery corporations remain central actors in the ongoing dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians dating back to 1948. Companies such as Caterpillar, Volvo, and HD Hyundai supply the machinery routinely used in home demolitions, settlement construction, and military operations across Gaza, Jerusalem, the Naqab, and the occupied West Bank.
Who Profits has also documented how infrastructure and urban development projects, alongside the promotion of settlement tourism, contribute to the consolidation of Israeli control over Palestinian land. This includes the Jerusalem Light Rail project carried out by the Spanish company CAF, as well as tourism platforms like Airbnb, which bolster the settlement economy and profit from the Israeli hold over Palestinian land and Palestinian refugee properties.
Beyond military and physical infrastructure, Who Profits continues to monitor the role of financial institutions, banks, insurance companies, and investment actors that finance, sustain, and normalize the occupation economy and settlement enterprise.
Who Profits operates as an information center supporting accountability efforts worldwide. Through our research, tailored responses to inquiries, and direct engagement with civil society organizations, campaigns, journalists, legal teams, UN bodies, and advocacy coalitions, we continue to support efforts to challenge corporate complicity and demand accountability.
On this Nakba Day, we reaffirm our commitment to exposing the corporate architecture that sustains occupation, apartheid, militarization, and displacement. Accountability remains essential not only for confronting ongoing violations but also for dismantling the economic structures that continue to perpetuate the Nakba to this day.
Visit our website to explore our corporate database and learn more about the political economy of Israel’s occupation.
The Who Profits Team
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