Francesca Albanese

Francesca Albanese is an international lawyer, human rights and Middle East specialist, and, since May 2022, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. On July 3, Albanese presented her latest report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, outlining Israel’s economic metamorphosis from an “economy of occupation” into an “economy of genocide,” where “one people [is] enriched and another erased.”

Describing the global corporate machinery that is facilitating Israel’s genocidal project of “displacement and replacement,” Albanese literally follows the money, calling out a web of complicit corporate “enablers” that comprises not just obvious culprits such as arms manufacturers but also entities from a wide range of other commercial and industrial sectors. (As a common denominator, most have BlackRock and Vanguard as their main investors.)

According to Albanese, companies with blood on their hands include:

• Defense and defense tech contractors: Lockheed Martin, Italy’s Leonardo and DRS RADA Technologies, and Palantir (notably, Palantir expanded its support to the Israeli military in October 2023)
• Heavy machinery and robotics firms: Caterpillar (U.S.), FANUC Corporation (Japan), Hyundai (South Korea), and Volvo (Sweden)
• Banks: The UK’s Barclays and France’s BNP Paribas
• Tech giants: Alphabet, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft
• Energy and mining companies: BP, Chevron, Drummond, and Switzerland’s Glencore
• Food: Israeli food conglomerate Tnuva (majority-owned by China’s Bright Dairy & Food)
• Agriculture: Israeli “precision irrigation” firm Netafim (80%-owned by Mexico’s Orbia Advance Corporation)
• Travel companies: Airbnb and Booking.com
• Universities from around the world (partnering with Israeli universities)

Many of these entities claim to be “neutral” parties, but as Albanese notes, “neutrality” and “impartiality” cannot serve as cover terms for ignorance or indifference:

“[T]here is nothing neutral, nothing innocent in engaging with a state which commits and is accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. So this is the red line that companies have continued to cross with knowledge, intent, and purpose.”

Albanese takes UN member-states—from Arab states to Western states—to task for salivating over Gaza’s reconstruction (Jared Kushner’s remarks about Gaza’s “valuable waterfront property” and Donald Trump’s AI-generated Gaza vision come to mind). But as she also sternly reminds us, “If Palestine was a crime scene, it would have the fingerprints of all of us”—for we all do business with and invest in the entities facilitating Palestinian genocide and erasure. For that reason, Albanese urges adoption of sanctions, divestment, and boycotts, but also, importantly, says that enablers must be held accountable—not just to end Palestinians’ nightmare but to preserve “what remains of our [collective] humanity.”

As an experienced legal scholar, Albanese’s process is to objectively investigate facts through the lens of international law, while “recognizing and addressing—instead of denying or ignoring—underlying power imbalance[s] or historical injustices.” Because the facts she has uncovered as Special Rapporteur are inconvenient to the U.S. as well as Israel, the Trump administration is now engaged in clownish efforts to tarnish Albanese’s reputation. On July 9, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the imposition of sanctions—forbidding all U.S. persons and companies from doing business with her. Crying “antisemitism,” Rubio also suggested that Albanese is “unfit for service as a Special Rapporteur,” a talking point repeated by the U.S. Ambassador to the UN. Most of the world appears to see through these efforts. In April 2025, Albanese was confirmed for another three-year term as Special Rapporteur, and two European politicians have nominated her for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Albanese summarizes her recent report in an excellent 14-minute clip on Double Down News posted on July 17.