UN names 48 multinationals allegedly profiting from Palestinian occupation

United Nations says corporations are facilitating system of exploitative occupation

- SIPHELELE DLUDLA

THE United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories has unveiled a report listing up to 48 multinational corporations allegedly complicit in the ongoing war and profiting from the occupation of Palestine.

The findings, presented by Francesca Albanese during a media briefing in Geneva on Thursday, accuse these corporations of failing to uphold their legal responsibilities, thereby facilitating a system of exploitative occupation.

Albanese's report highlights a troubling landscape where corporations across various sectors—including weapons manufacturers, technology firms, financial institutions, and construction companies—are said to be contributing to what she describes as a “livestreamed genocide.”

The findings underscore a broader complicity, presenting a picture where corporate interests overshadow profound ethical considerations regarding human rights violations in the region.

“These actors have entrenched and expanded Israel's settler-colonial logic of displacement and replacement - and this is not accidental,” Albanese said.

“It is the function of an economy built to dominate, dispossess, and erase Palestinians from their land.”

She emphasised that, instead of using their leverage to oppose human rights abuses, these companies have normalised Israel’s oppressive actions as mere economic activities, ignoring the escalating atrocities following the 7 October 2023.