FRANCESCA Albanese, the United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has been sanctioned by the US government after she published a report on June 30th naming over 60 international companies which, she said, were involved in ‘the transformation of Israel’s economy of occupation to an economy of genocide’.
Both the US and the Israeli state have for years attacked Albanese for her outspoken opposition to Israeli occupation, and the complicity of western governments in war crimes being committed daily in Gaza and throughout the occupied territories.
Last month, despite the Trump administration withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year, the US government led an unsuccessful campaign to have her removed from her post.
Having failed in the attempt to have Albanese sacked, the Trump administration is resorting to sanctioning her, a move that could involve banning her from entering America and freezing any assets she may have in the country.
Announcing the sanctioning of Albanese on Wednesday Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, accused her of waging a ‘campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel’.
In a statement on X, Rubio said the sanctions were a result of ‘her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt International Criminal Court actions against the US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives’.
Clearly, Rubio and the Trump administration were outraged by Albanese’s report, which revealed how corporate profiteering and monetary gains has both legitimised and enabled Zionist genocide.
The extensive report goes into details of the complex interweaving of companies and banks with providing both the equipment, arms and finance necessary to keep the Israeli state functioning, and giving it the physical means to carry out the slaughter of nearly 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
Construction companies are no doubt positively salivating at the prospect of the money to be made if Trump and Netanyahu achieve their dream of turning Gaza into a seaside resort of expensive hotels built on the ruins of Palestinian cities.
The corporations included in the report range from weapons manufacturers, technology companies (including Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Palantir), through to heavy machinery companies like Caterpillar, Volvo and Hyundai who supply the machinery used to destroy Palestinian homes and entire cities in Gaza.
The report highlights that a global network of banks and financial institutions have invested billions of dollars in Israeli government bonds – money used to fund genocide and ethnic cleansing.
As the report says: ‘When life and death become subject to the decisions of investors, crimes turn into market indicators, and humanity becomes a victim of profitability.’
A report that mercilessly exposes to the world that these corporations, financial investors and banks are making a fortune in profits out of the mass campaign of genocide is, according to Rubio, an attack on the US economy.
For the working class and youth it is a sharp reminder that the capitalist ruling class, the bosses and bankers treat the masses of the world and the working class at home as just a means to make profits, regardless of international humanitarian laws.
Appeals for pressure to be put on the government of the US, Britain and Europe to exert ‘influence’ on the Israeli state to curb its genocidal pogrom in Gaza are not just useless but a diversion from the real historic task facing workers and youth.
That task is to put an end to capitalism and a ruling class that treats humanity as garbage fit only to be exploited for profit and who view genocide as a business opportunity.
The burning issue today, is for the working class to force their trade unions to mobilise the strength of the working class in mass general strikes to bring down their capitalist governments replacing them with workers governments.
Workers governments will expropriate the bosses and bankers, building a socialist society based on the needs of all, not the profits of the tiny number of capitalists. This requires building up the WRP and Young Socialists along with sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International in every country to provide the leadership necessary for the victory of the World Socialist Revolution.
