Corporations that are implicated in the commission of international crimes connected to Israel’s unlawful occupation, racial segregation, and apartheid regime - within or beyond the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 - are all complicit and must be held accountable. Direct complicity includes military, logistical, intelligence, financial, and infrastructure support. The corporations and their boards of directors and executives may face criminal liability for this complicity.
Corporate complicity in Israel’s atrocity crimes includes even just carrying out business activities in the country and contributing to the broader economy through taxes and other forms of support while knowing the state is committing:
- Genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza;
- Illegal military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem;
- Apartheid against the entire Palestinian people, including refugees;
- Other crimes connected to its settler-colonial regime.
Companies risk being complicit even if they have not directly participated in or benefited from a specific international crime. Continuing business-as-usual relations with the mere knowledge that the crime was occurring or that there is a credible risk of its occurrence may be sufficient to generate complicity.
Companies investing in or partnering with the Israeli government or Israeli State-owned enterprises face a particularly salient risk of aiding, abetting, facilitating, or otherwise contributing to Israel’s commission of genocide or other violations of international humanitarian law. Investors and financial institutions may also face accomplice or contribution liability for international crimes committed using funds they have provided.
To prioritize companies as targets, particularly for the BDS movement’s divestment campaigns, however, we focus in particular on the corporate complicity criteria below, which are based on the following:
- The January 2024 determination by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel is plausibly violating the Genocide Convention in Gaza;
- The July 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion determining that Israel’s entire occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal and that Israel is violating the prohibition against apartheid in the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD);
- The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) parameters used in deciding the complicity of corporations implicated in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory and included in its database;
- UN HRC resolution of April 2024 calling for a military embargo on Israel;
- UN General Assembly resolution of September 2024 calling on States to refrain from aiding or assisting the maintenance of Israel’s illegal occupation as defined by the ICJ;
- Authoritative statements and reports by UN special committees, UN human rights experts, and UN special rapporteur for human rights in the OPT.
Listed below are a number of non exhaustive examples pertaining to sectors that are central in enabling and maintaining Israel’s unlawful military occupation (including the wall, colonial settlement enterprise, forcible displacement, home demolitions, etc.), apartheid regime, and the commission of the crime of genocide. Participation in these activities implies a high degree of complicity.
The sale, transfer, or diversion of arms, munitions, and other military or security equipment to Israel (including Artificial Intelligence, cloud services, other technological infrastructure, and dual-use items);
The purchase of military or security material from Israel, including spyware, or conducting joint military training with it or its organs;
Conducting joint military-security research with Israel or with its complicit universities;
The sale or purchase of surveillance and identification equipment;
The supply of security services, equipment, and materials to enterprises operating in the illegally occupied territory or enforcing apartheid.
The provision of, inter alia, transport, telecommunications, technological solutions (cloud services, database technologies, AI, etc.), or other services and utilities supporting the maintenance of the regime of military occupation and apartheid or the commission of the crime of genocide;
The extraction and use of illegally acquired Palestinian natural resources, in particular water, land, and energy, for business purposes;
The sale or transfer of energy, inter alia, gas, oil, and coal that is essential for the commission of the crimes of genocide and apartheid and the maintenance of Israel’s illegal military occupation, including the settlements.
Third, Construction/Destruction, Infrastructure & Environmental Crimes:
The supply of equipment and materials facilitating the construction and the expansion of settlements, the wall, and associated infrastructure of the regime of military occupation and apartheid;
The supply of equipment for the demolition of Palestinian housing and property, the destruction of agricultural farms, greenhouses, olive groves, and crops, particularly in Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, and Al-Naqab (Negev);
Pollution and the dumping of waste in or its transfer to illegally occupied Palestinian territory.
The supply of equipment and materials facilitating the construction and the expansion of settlements, the wall, and associated infrastructure of the regime of military occupation and apartheid;
The supply of equipment for the demolition of Palestinian housing and property, the destruction of agricultural farms, greenhouses, olive groves, and crops, particularly in Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, and Al-Naqab (Negev);
Pollution and the dumping of waste in or its transfer to illegally occupied Palestinian territory.
Banking and financial operations, including loans for housing, infrastructure, and the development of businesses, that help to develop, expand, or maintain settlements or any other aspect of the regime of occupation and apartheid;
Insurance for projects, companies, and activities that are part of or enable Israel’s crimes;
The use of benefits and reinvestments of enterprises owned totally or partially by settlers for developing, expanding, and maintaining the settlements or any other aspect of the occupation;
Captivity of the Palestinian financial and economic markets, as well as practices that disadvantage Palestinian enterprises, including through restrictions on movement and administrative and legal constraints, including by pharmaceutical, water, electricity, and other companies.
