Microsoft, Amazon and Google among major
corporations identified as being part of a “joint criminal enterprise” in
helping Israel carry out a genocide in Gaza. The companies have made
unprecedented profits from the slaughter of more than 62,000 Palestinians since
October 2023.
In a landmark report released on 30 June, UN special rapporteur for the occupied
Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese exposes the corporate machinery both
sustaining and profiting from Israel’s occupation and apartheid in Gaza and the
West Bank – and now its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The report – entitled “From economy of
occupation to economy of genocide” – identifies 48 separate corporate actors in
sectors including, arms, tech, construction, tourism, energy, finance, academia
and agriculture. According to the report, they represent only the “tip of the
iceberg” as the broader web of corporate complicity is far larger.
It outlines how tech giants Microsoft,
Alphabet (parent company of Google) and Amazon grant Israel access to their
cloud and AI technologies, enhancing the Israeli government’s ability to
process data, make decisions and conduct surveillance and analysis.
Israel’s apartheid and military systems
require ever-growing cloud storage and computing capacity. To meet these needs,
the Israeli government and military’s cloud computing project – known as Project Nimbus – brought Google and Amazon onboard with a $1.2bn contract
in 2021.
When the Israeli internal military cloud
overloaded in October 2023, Microsoft, Google and Amazon stepped in to provide
crucial cloud and AI tech. IDF computer chief Col. Racheli Dembinsky recently
described cloud tech as part of “a
collection of systems with which the IDF fights to the end”, citing these
companies in her onscreen presentation. Dembinsky said: “You have to understand
that it’s a platform that’s a weapon.”
What’s more, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have
established research and development (R&D) hubs and local data centres in
Israel, while they enjoy what the report describes as “unprecedented
government-granted access to data and a captive population”. According to
Albanese’s report, this has helped unleash “the first AI-driven and
livestreamed genocide, while providing the data sovereignty to shield
impunity”.
Microsoft reported $70bn in sales and an 18%
increase in profits in the first quarter of
2025, boosted by its cloud computing and artificial intelligence business. In
the fourth quarter of 2024, Google Cloud revenues increased 30% to $12bn led by growth across core Google Cloud Platform products, AI
Infrastructure, and generative AI solutions, while Amazon Web Services segment
sales increased 19% to over $28bn.
The report states: “[Israel’s]
forever-occupation has become the ideal testing ground for arms manufacturers
and big tech – providing significant supply and demand, little oversight, and
zero accountability – while investors and private and public institutions
profit freely.”
During the past 21 months of Israel’s genocide
in Gaza, 85,000 tons of bombs have been dropped on the strip of land – nearly
six times the explosive power of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The bombs are
deployed by F-35s, F-16s, drones and targeting tech developed and supplied by
companies including Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin, Israel Aerospace Industries
(IAI) and Palantir.
Elbit and IAI have profited hugely from
Israel’s genocide thanks to an increase in Israeli military spending, which
more than doubled to $46.5bn between 2023 and 2024. Elbit’s profits jumped by
18.7% in this period – with a 27% increase in aerospace
revenues due to profits on drones
and precision guided munitions (or ‘smart bombs’).
Britain’s biggest pension provider – the
auto-enrol, government-backed Nest scheme – invests its most popular
default pension fund in Israeli weapons
company Elbit.
The report also identified international
partnerships providing weapons and technical support as sustaining the genocide
in Gaza. Israel benefits from the largest-ever defence procurement programme
for the F-35 fighter jet – led by US company Lockheed Martin alongside at least
1,650 other firms. The UK is heavily implicated in the Lockheed Martin F-35
consortium and continues to allow the export of F-35 fighter jet components to
Israel via a global supply pool.
Albanese’s report states: “This is a ‘joint
criminal enterprise’, where the acts of one ultimately contribute to a whole
economy that drives, supplies and enables this genocide.”
The report also details complicity from British bank Barclays, which was involved in underwriting Israel’s international and
domestic treasury bonds to boost market confidence. Asset management firms
including BlackRock, Vanguard and Allianz subsidiary PIMCO purchased these
bonds.
US investment firm BlackRock’s name is
peppered throughout Albanese’s report, as one of the largest institutional
investors in many companies supporting and profiting from Israel’s genocide.
The report cites BlackRock’s status as the second largest institutional
investor in Palantir, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and IBM, and third largest in
Lockheed Martin and Caterpillar – the US engineering manufacturing company that
has provided Israel with equipment to demolish
Palestinian homes and infrastructure for decades, and for use in the ground invasion
of Gaza.
Popular online travel platforms like
Booking.com and Airbnb are also implicated in sustaining illegal settlements
and legitimising the annexation of Palestinian land. Both companies list
properties and hotel rooms in illegal Israeli settlements.
From 2018 to 2023, Booking.com more than
doubled its listings in the West Bank – from 26 to 70 – and tripled its East
Jerusalem listings to 39 in the year from October 2023. In Israeli settler
village Tekoa in the West Bank, Airbnb allows settlers to list
properties as “in a warm and loving
community settlement”, erasing escalating violence against neighbouring Palestinian village Tuqu.
Amazon also operates directly in illegal
settlements and the report accuses the ecommerce retailer of “sustaining their economy, enabling
expansion and participating in apartheid through discriminatory service delivery”. In 2020, Amazon was found to be offering free shipping to
illegal settlements – but not to their Palestinian neighbours
in the West Bank.
While the eyes of the world and global media
are on the brutal bombing campaign in Gaza, Israeli violence and land seizure
has surged in the West Bank. In 2024, unprecedented levels of settler violence
were recorded, while in January this year, the IDF launched Operation Iron
Wall, targeting Jenin with airstrikes and ground operations, alongside other
cities and refugee camps across the West Bank. Since 7 October 2023, Israel has
killed at least 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank.
The report calls on all governments to impose
a full arms embargo and sanctions both on Israel and companies enabling
international crimes, and to enforce corporate accountability under domestic
and international law. It also urges businesses and investors to end commercial
relationships linked to illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide, and commit
to reparations – one suggested form is in an “apartheid wealth tax”.
Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Booking.com,
Airbnb, Barclays and Caterpillar have been approached for comment. BlackRock
declined to respond.
Harriet Williamson is a commissioning editor
and reporter for Novara Media.
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