This report spotlights the role of business enterprises, including State-owned companies, in Israel’s apartheid regime, and provides guidance for businesses and investors when considering their operations and activities. It is also meant to be used as a tool for individuals and groups who want to advocate for business respect for human rights and an end to complicity in apartheid—whether it be via divestment campaigns, government advocacy, or other actions.
By focusing on apartheid, we do not exclude other frameworks that can be used to analyze Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Indeed, we consider Israel’s unlawful occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip (constituting the Occupied Palestinian Territory or OPT) to be part and parcel of Israel’s apartheid regime.
This report thus builds on decades of extensive work analyzing the role that business enterprises play in human rights violations as part of the Israeli occupation.
Similarly, the report considers Israel’s genocidal attacks on the Gaza Strip, which at the time of writing are still ongoing, to be part of Israel’s apartheid regime. Some of the examples in this report highlight cases of business involvement in the Gaza genocide. Regardless of any limited ceasefire agreements that may arise, or any new form of Palestinian self-governance, the work to end Israeli apartheid will continue.
This report proposes three lenses that businesses may use to consider how their operations and activities may cause, contribute, or be directly linked to Israeli apartheid.
- The first examines inhuman acts that businesses may be complicit in. This ranges from the denial of the right to life to arbitrary arrest and detention that is facilitated by mass surveillance. Importantly, these acts are often carried out by or otherwise inextricably tied to Israeli authorities, which businesses may have direct or indirect relationships with.
- Second, the report examines how businesses may enable and profit from Israel’s land administration policies aimed towards fragmentation, territorial takeover and dispossession—a key feature of its apartheid regime.
- The third lens considers how some business sectors are at a higher risk of involvement in human rights violations and international crimes, including apartheid. We highlight the media, infrastructure, arms, tech, extractive, and financial sectors.
These three lenses are overlapping and interlinked but not exhaustive. Given the breadth of policies and practices that serve to maintain Israeli apartheid, as well as the ongoing genocide and unlawful occupation, businesses and investors should consider the multiple ways in which they may cause, contribute to, or be directly linked not only to adverse human rights impacts but also to international crimes. This would include contributions to and profiting from the Israeli economy, which sustains the acts of the State. Businesses and investors should also consider the potential legal, financial, and other risks that may result from complicity in international crimes.
Given this context and the risks present, businesses and investors should, depending on the stage of their involvement, refrain from entering into or divest and/or disengage from certain operations or activities, provide effective remedies for those impacted, and be prepared to face accountability measures.