Volvo, Airbnb, Booking.com, Palantir. What do these companies have in common? They, and many others, are all part of what UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, in a new groundbreaking report, calls the “economy of genocide.” It describes how major corporations have been profiting off of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its occupation in the West Bank.
Albanese has spent the past week facing major backlash from corporate America, the pro-Israel lobby, and even the Trump administration, which has called for Albanese’s removal and is also reportedly preparing to place sanctions on her.
In this episode of ‘Unshocked,’ Naomi Klein brings on Albanese to discuss her key findings, what Klein describes as “an economy that is booming off of annihilation.” As Klein explains, Israel is known as a startup nation. And the tech part of Israel's economy is central to why the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has boomed since the October 7th attacks. But there is a dark side that needs to be discussed.
“Israel has used the Palestinians to experiment technologies from military surveillance to the agribusiness industry,” Albanese says. “And these explain why in the past 20 months, why Israel transitioned from an economy of occupation to an economy of genocide.”
Klein and Albanese also bring up US tech company Palantir, which has openly embraced its partnership with Israel. Palantir CEO Alex Karp has responded to criticism of the company’s technology killing Palestinians by saying, “mostly terrorists, that’s true.”
“The fact that these people have the nerve to state that shows the level of impunity that they know [they] enjoy,” Albanese tells Klein.
Klein asks Albanese about the Trump administration’s call for the UN secretary-general to remove Albanese from her position as special rapporteur for human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, describing her as “threatening.”
“It's not me, it's international law that represents a threat,” says Albanese.
Unless noted, Zeteo reached out to the companies mentioned in the discussion and did not receive responses before publication. Zeteo was unable to reach HD Hyundai, but the company told the BBC it was "not involved in the matter in question nor any related sales.” Separately, Volvo told the BBC it believes Albanese’s report is based on "insufficient and partly incorrect information” and that "there is unfortunately a limit to how much control or influence we can have on how and where our products are used during their lifetime".
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Paid subscribers can watch the full episode to hear Albanese respond to attacks against her, along with her and Klein discussing the role of Israel’s tourism industry in enabling its genocide, Trump’s plan to takeover Gaza, and the media’s complicity in Israel’s genocide.
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