[News] Leading global arms trade experts support report of UN's Francesca Albanese, describing the role of companies in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/unjustified-attacks-arms-trade-experts-back-albaneses-latest-report/>
‘Unjustified Attacks’ – Arms Trade Experts Back Albanese’s Latest
ReportSeptember
17, 2025
------------------------------
UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Palestine,
Francesca Albanese. (Design: Palestine Chronicle)

*By Palestine Chronicle Staff
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/palestine-chronicle-staff>*

The arms experts stressed the report’s significance at a time when Albanese
faces what they described as “unprecedented and unjustified attacks” from
the US and Israeli governments.

More than 20 leading global arms trade experts have expressed their full
support for UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, describing as
“accurate and extremely important” her recent report on the role of
companies in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

“‘From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide’ is a forensic,
detailed, accurate and extremely important report which lays bare corporate
complicity in the ongoing genocide,” the experts said
<https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/statements/arms-trade-experts.pdf>
in a statement on Tuesday released by Shadow World Investigations.

They stressed its significance at a time when Albanese faces what they
described as “unprecedented and unjustified attacks” from the US and
Israeli governments.

“Rather than attack this crucial report and its esteemed author, these
states, and all countries, should urgently apply and enforce all arms
export controls, which must lead to an immediate cessation of arms sales to
Israel while the genocide continues,” the experts said.
‘Measured in Human Lives’

Albanese’s report identifies both Israeli and Western defense corporations
as complicit in the assault on Gaza. It also points to technology companies
such as Palantir, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet for providing services
enabling surveillance, targeting, and military operations.

“The trade in weapons is described as a business that counts its profits in
billions while its losses are measured in human lives,” the statement said.

It added that nowhere has this been “more starkly seen than during the
genocide being perpetrated in Gaza with the active participation of Western
governments and their weapons manufacturers, the tech companies and
assorted other private corporations.”

These manufacturers, the experts said, have experienced a significant rise
in profits and share prices, “while tens of thousands of Palestinians have
been slaughtered using their products.”

They said Albanese’s report “identifies the complicit traditional weapons
manufacturers, as well as the technology companies whose involvement in
warfare generally, and specifically surveillance and targeting, has grown
exponentially: while Israeli companies Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace
Industries (IAI) feature prominently, so too do Western arms behemoths,
Lockheed Martin and the Anglo-Italian company Leonardo, along with many
others who provide the military matériel that has caused the killing fields
of Gaza”.
‘Web of Intermediaries’

In addition, as the report makes clear, they continued, “these companies
allow their products to be ‘battle-tested’ in the occupied Palestinian
territory (oPt), and base their subsequent marketing strategies on the
devastating harm caused.”

It also points to “the web of intermediaries who make this trade in weapons
possible, from the legal, auditing and consulting firms, and the arms
dealers, agents and brokers to the robotics suppliers like Japanese FANUC
Corporation, and logistics providers like A.P. Moller – Maersk A/S.”

The report also highlights the role of financial institutions, energy
giants, logistics providers, and consultancies.

“Tech companies especially have become central to conflict,” the statement
noted.

It stated that in the context of Gaza, Palantir has been central to the
specific targeting of individuals, families and groups. Many others,
including IBM, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, “provide a variety of
services to the Israeli military that assist in the perpetration of the
genocide.”
US Sanctions Condemned

The report, the experts said, suggests that “in excess of 1,650 private
companies are complicit just in the production of a single weapons system –
the F35 fighter jet. It signals a network of corporate complicity orders of
magnitude greater. This includes financial institutions, global
consultancies, energy, logistics and equipment companies, including well
known entities such as Caterpillar, BNP Paribas, Barclays, Allianz,
Chevron, BP, Petrobras, and A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S.”

The experts condemned Washington’s move to impose sanctions on Albanese and
to call for her dismissal, describing it as an attempt to “quash her superb
report.”

“It is unacceptable to us that arms manufacturers, with the support of
their governments, violate their own domestic arms export controls,
regional and international agreements such as the EU Common Position on
Arms Exports and the international Arms Trade Treaty,  as well as their
responsibilities under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human
Rights, which implicate the most serious international legal norms. ” the
statement noted.
Call to UN

The signatories urged the UN to reject calls by the US and Israel for
Albanese’s removal, and reiterated demands for an immediate halt to all
arms transfers to Israel, including weapons, munitions, military fuel,
dual-use items, and logistical services.

“We demand that arms export controls be applied domestically, regionally
and internationally, which must lead to an immediate cessation of arms
sales to Israel while the genocide continues,” they stated.

Furthermore, the signatories endorsed the call from The Hague Group “to
prevent the provision or transfer of arms, munitions, military fuel,
related military equipment, and dual-use items to Israel, including the
transit, docking, and servicing of vessels, and urge all other states to do
the same.”

Starting on October 7, 2023, the Israeli military, with American support,
launched a genocidal war against the people of Gaza. This campaign has so
far resulted in the deaths of close to 65,000 Palestinians, with more than
164,000 wounded. The vast majority of the population has been displaced,
and the destruction of infrastructure is unprecedented since World War II.
Thousands of people are still missing.

*(PC, Anadolu)*
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