US asks UN to sack Albanese, special rapporteur for occupied Palestine

The Trump administration has formally urged the United Nations to sack Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the 'Occupied Palestinian Territories', branding her “unfit for office” over what it described as her “virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism”.

In a private letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US acting representative to the United Nations Dorothy Shea took issue with Albanese’s penchant for firing off “threatening letters to dozens of entities around the world, including corporations and nonprofit organizations”. Her offence? Accusing them of complicity in “gross human rights violations”, “apartheid”, and “genocide” through their business dealings with Israel.

Shea further complained that Albanese “wrongly asserts that recipients have violated ‘preemptory norms of international law’ and face exposure to ‘potential criminal liability,’ and demands that they cease activities relating to Israel”.

On 3 July, Albanese ruffled diplomatic feathers by urging countries to pull the plug on all trade and financial ties with Israel, including a full-blown arms embargo. Why? Because, as she put it, the world is cheerfully bankrolling what she calls an “economy of genocide”, according to Al Jazeera.

Delivering her report with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Albanese didn’t mince words. “The situation in the occupied Palestinian territory is apocalyptic,” she declared. “Israel is responsible for one of the cruellest genocides in modern history.”

One might think such a bold statement would require an equally damning body of evidence — and Albanese came armed. Her latest report identifies dozens of companies allegedly complicit in supporting Israeli repression, from Big Tech titans to heavy machinery manufacturers. Because nothing says “peace” quite like a bulldozer.

Since the war began nearly two years ago, the UN estimates that almost 57,000 Palestinians have been killed, with hundreds of thousands displaced repeatedly, hospitals and schools bombed into oblivion, entire towns levelled, and a staggering 85 percent of Gaza now under Israeli military control. But sure, let's talk about “security concerns”.

The report singles out 48 corporate actors, including the usual Silicon Valley suspects: Microsoft, Alphabet Inc. (Google’s parent company), and Amazon. Apparently, the high-tech sector has become quite the enabler. “[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,” the report noted. It’s practically a business model.

“Companies are no longer merely implicated in occupation — they may be embedded in an economy of genocide,” the report added, in case anyone was still under the impression that this was just about “dual-use technology”.

Albanese, not one to shy away from controversy, previously stated there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Her latest report doubles down, noting that such a catastrophe continues “because it is lucrative for many.” It’s capitalism — just add conflict.

Military procurement, or how to monetise mayhem

Israel’s military shopping spree — including its flashy F-35 fighter jets — is part of what might be politely called an international group project, involving at least 1,600 companies across eight countries. Leading the charge is US-based Lockheed Martin, with Italy’s Leonardo S.p.A and Japan’s FANUC Corporation doing their bit to keep the production lines humming.

Then there’s the tech side of things, which has allegedly played a starring role in data gathering and surveillance. The report claims that Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon generously grant Israel “virtually government-wide access to their cloud and AI technologies”, beefing up its ability to monitor, sort, and control Palestinians with all the efficiency of an algorithm.

IBM, never one to miss a party, is said to be responsible for training military and intelligence personnel and managing Israel’s central biometric database.

Meanwhile, Palantir Technologies has reportedly stepped up its game since the war began, offering what the report describes as “automatic predictive policing technology” to identify battlefield targets using AI tools quaintly named 'Lavender', 'Gospel', and — yes — 'Where’s Daddy?'

Because nothing says occupation like a rental property

The list of implicated companies doesn’t stop at tech and weapons. Caterpillar, Rada Electronic Industries, South Korea’s HD Hyundai and Sweden’s Volvo Group were all named for supplying heavy machinery used to demolish Palestinian homes and build illegal settlements in the West Bank. Even Airbnb and Booking.com made the cut — apparently helping to turn war zones into “holiday destinations” by listing properties in occupied territory.

On the energy front, the report flags Drummond Company and Switzerland’s Glencore as major suppliers of coal to Israel. Tnuva, Israel’s food giant — majority-owned by China’s Bright Dairy & Food — is reportedly thriving on land seized from Palestinians. And Netafim, a drip-irrigation company 80-per cent owned by Mexico’s Orbia, is said to provide the infrastructure for exploiting water resources in the occupied West Bank. Hydration, apparently, is also geopolitics.

Even the banks are in on it. Treasury bonds have helped Israel stay afloat despite a credit downgrade, with France’s BNP Paribas and the UK’s Barclays handily stepping in to keep the war economy ticking.

Follow the money

And where does the real power lie? Unsurprisingly, the report traces much of it back to Wall Street’s finest. BlackRock — the world’s largest asset manager — is listed as a top institutional investor in companies like Palantir, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, IBM, Lockheed Martin, and Caterpillar. Vanguard, not to be outdone, holds massive stakes in Chevron, Elbit Systems, and many of the same firms.

Because if there’s one thing modern conflict proves, it’s that war might be hell — but it’s also apparently quite profitable.