As the war on Gaza rages on, leaving in its wake a trail of unspeakable devastation, shattered families, and erased futures, it is no longer possible—nor ethically tolerable—to speak only of military strategies and political calculations. A far more unsettling dimension of this protracted tragedy is now emerging: the role of powerful multinational corporations in not merely profiting from the conflict, but actively sustaining and enabling it.
In a world where the language of human rights is too often weaponized and selectively invoked, the recent report presented by Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, demands our collective attention. Her findings, meticulously documented and courageously articulated before the UN Human Rights Council on 3 July 2025, lay bare an economic machinery behind the violence—one in which major American tech and defense companies play a central, deeply troubling role.
Albanese’s report, aptly titled “From the Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide,” moves beyond the well-worn diplomatic euphemisms and legal technicalities. It asserts, with formidable evidence, that the systematic targeting of Gaza’s civilian population—through relentless aerial bombardments, mass displacement, and the destruction of vital infrastructure—constitutes not just a military campaign but a profitable enterprise.
Among the entities named in the report are Microsoft, Amazon, Google’s parent company Alphabet, IBM, and Palantir Technologies. These corporations are accused of providing advanced surveillance technologies, cloud computing services, AI-driven military systems, and digital infrastructure that facilitate Israel’s military operations and the maintenance of its illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
For example, Palantir—a data analytics firm with longstanding contracts with US intelligence agencies—is alleged to supply the Israeli military with predictive policing tools and battlefield analytics. Microsoft and Amazon Web Services reportedly host vast data centers and cloud services for Israeli security institutions, enabling real-time intelligence sharing and operational coordination. Alphabet’s AI and mapping technologies have similarly been implicated in aiding precision targeting systems—a deeply sinister irony given their public declarations of ethical AI commitments.
Albanese argues that these corporations, far from being neutral service providers, are complicit in what she terms an “economy of genocide”—a structure where violence against civilians not only occurs with impunity but generates financial dividends for global stakeholders.
Unsurprisingly, the report provoked immediate outrage from both the Israeli government and its allies, particularly the United States. On 9 July 2025, the US government imposed unprecedented sanctions on Francesca Albanese, accusing her of antisemitism and alleged support for terrorism—a familiar tactic employed against those who challenge entrenched power structures.
The move was widely condemned by human rights organizations and legal experts as a blatant assault on the independence of UN mandate holders. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, denounced the sanctions as “politically motivated and legally baseless,” while organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch characterized them as a dangerous precedent for silencing international accountability mechanisms.
But perhaps the most revealing aspect of this episode lies in the very ferocity of the backlash. If Albanese’s claims were groundless—if her report lacked substance—it would have been easily discredited through facts and legal argument. Instead, her detractors resorted to personal vilification and punitive sanctions—a response that, in its very excess, affirms the threat her report poses to vested interests.
History teaches us that those who dare to unmask the nexus between profit and atrocity often pay a steep price. Francesca Albanese now joins a long lineage of whistleblowers, dissidents, and principled international figures targeted for refusing to remain silent in the face of state violence.
The sanctions imposed upon her are not merely punitive; they are a tacit admission of the uncomfortable truths her report exposes. The involvement of Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, IBM, and Palantir in sustaining a brutal war against an occupied people demands urgent scrutiny—not only within the walls of international courts but in the court of global public opinion.
The real question is whether we, as a global community, will have the moral clarity and political will to confront these corporate enablers, or whether we will allow the machinery of war to continue enriching the few at the catastrophic expense of the many.
For in the end, the silence of the world will echo far longer than the sound of the bombs.
Dr. Hatem Sadek – Professor at Helwan University
