Today, 20 June 2024, the “Don’t Buy Into Occupation” (DBIO) coalition launched an exceptional progress report titled “The companies arming Israel and their financiers”. The report, mainly prepared by PAX, focuses on the relationships between European financial institutions and companies supplying Israel with weapons. These weapons are used to impose the occupation and associated violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Gaza and the West Bank. The DBIO report pointed out that the 1948 Genocide Convention requires signatory states to employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent genocide, including extraterritorially. This obligation is activated as soon as the state learns or should be aware of the existence of a serious risk of genocide being committed. The ICJ ruling of 26 January clearly confirms earlier warnings of this risk made by UN experts and human rights organizations, and therefore activates the obligation of third states to take action to prevent genocide in Gaza. As stated by the UN experts, this should include the halting of arms exports under the present circumstances.
The DBIO report recommended the necessity of urgently halting arms companies’ supplies to Israel, and stop financial institutions’ funding for companies that continue to supply weapons to Israel. The report called on European Union member states to intervene urgently with European financial institutions and arms supply companies. in implementation of the UN Human Rights Council’s request in April 2024, to stop the sale, transport and transfer of arms, ammunition and other military equipment to Israel, and to refrain, in accordance with international standards and rules, from exporting, selling or transferring goods and technologies related to surveillance and less-lethal weapons, upon any suspicion that such goods, technologies or weapons will be used for human rights violations. The report further called on member states to implement the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and the European Union’s common position on export licenses for military goods to prevent the use of weapons in violations of international humanitarian law. The DBIO report called for engagement with arms manufacturers to encourage commitment to implementing corporate human rights standards on responsible business practice.
Arms companies have a responsibility to respect human rights, international humanitarian law and international criminal law, in accordance with the UN Guidelines on Responsible Business and the OECD Guidelines. These companies must prioritize due diligence to avoid causing or contributing to negative human rights impacts, and address these impacts when they occur. The companies must further prevent and mitigate negative impacts on human rights that are directly related to their operations, products or services. This has not been done by most arms supply companies over the long years of Israeli occupation. In particular, the principle of “human rights due diligence” must be strengthened in conflict-affected areas, to consider and address the heightened human rights risks in these contexts in particular. Accordingly, the fact that governments grant export permits for the transfer of weapons does not relieve an arms company of its responsibility to conduct human rights due diligence. Companies and their employees can be held criminally liable for contributing to violations of international humanitarian law, crimes against humanity and for the crime of complicity in genocide. The responsibility to conduct human rights due diligence further applies to financial institutions contributing to human rights violations through their funding. Since 7 October 2023 the already existing risks inherent to transferring arms to Israel have become increasingly more severe. Action is needed more urgently now than ever. Companies should stop supplying arms to Israel. Financial institutions should put urgent pressure on these companies to stop doing so and otherwise divest, as there are now very clear indications that the weapons sold and transferred by these companies are likely to be used to commit or facilitate violations of international humanitarian law, potentially including genocide. If they fail to do so, these financial institutions may be seen as facilitating the violations to which these companies are contributing.
After researching the 25 largest arms producing companies in the world, the DBIO identified companies based on two basic criteria: Companies supplying weapons to Israel between January 2019 and December 2023, and Companies involved in the supply of new weapons only, excluding deliveries of used weapons and maintenance operations for weapons supplied before 2019. Six companies have met this criteria, including Boeing, General Dynamics, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, RTX (formerly Raytheon), and Rolls-Royce. Numerous other companies supply Israel with weapons and other military equipment, as the Israeli army further uses weapons provided by other (smaller) companies.
These six companies receive huge funding and investments from 20 European investment financial authorities in addition to 20 other European (banking) institutions that provide loans and underwriting services to these companies. The coalition does not claim that all European financial flows to these companies (more than 60 billion Euros from January 2021 to August 2023) were directed towards producing weapons destined for Israel. However, investments in the company in general support the activities of the entire company. The investment links the investor to all the activities of the company, and therefore to all the negative effects of these activities.
The DBIO coalition report noted that arms companies are not the only entity at risk of involvement in violations of international humanitarian law and potential acts of genocide in Gaza. All companies that operate or have business relationships in Israel must conduct human rights due diligence to avoid causing or contributing to serious human rights violations or violations of international humanitarian law. The report further included a list of companies benefiting from the Israeli attacks on Gaza, including companies that are not usually seen as part of the weapons industry, including companies supplying the Israeli army with heavy equipment, such as bulldozers and fuel providers, and facial recognition technology companies, in addition to managing social media platforms. The report also included the responses received from some European banks and financial institutions in the report, which clarify their position on investing in the aforementioned arms companies, and their position on supporting any deals related to the recent supply of weapons to Israel.
Read the full DBIO 2024 report here.
About DBIO Coalition
Don’t Buy into Occupation (DBIO) is a coalition of 25 Palestinian, regional and European organizations based in Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom (UK), and Palestine. The Coalition was formed in January 2021 to investigate and reveal the financial relationships between European Financial Institutions (FIs) and business enterprises involved in the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise in the OPT, through the publication of an annually updated report.
This is the coalition’s fourth report, after the last report was issued in December 2023.
- Background information
The Israeli attacks on Gaza constitute a grave violation of international humanitarian law, according to numerous human rights organizations, international courts, and United Nations bodies and reports. The Israeli attacks prompted the Dutch Court of Appeal to oblige the Dutch government on 12 February 2024 to stop arms exports to Israel, based on “ample evidence that Israel violated the humanitarian law of war in a significant number of cases.” On 26 January 2024, in response to a case brought by South Africa against Israel, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that there is a plausible risk of irreparable harm to the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide and ordered Israel to take all measures in its power to prevent genocide.
More than 100 human rights organizations launched a call for a ban on the sale of weapons to Israel. UN experts described the Israeli attacks as genocide in progress, and stated “The international community has an obligation to prevent atrocity crimes, including genocide, and should immediately consider all diplomatic, political and economic measures to that end.” On 23 February 2024, UN experts issued a joint statement, warning that “the transfer of arms or ammunition to Israel, for use in Gaza, would likely violate international humanitarian law and must stop immediately.” On 5 April 2024, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a resolution urging arms embargo on Israel, “to halt the sale, transport and transfer of arms, ammunition and other military equipment to Israel… to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and human rights violations.”
According to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the ratified states must use all means reasonably available to them to prevent genocide in another state. According to UN experts, this prevention should include halting arms exports under the current circumstances in Gaza. Third party countries must be further notified that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza following requests for arrest warrants issued by the ICC Prosecutor against key Israeli officials on 28 May 2024.
Article 6.3 of the International Arms Trade Treaty stipulates, “A State Party shall not authorize any transfer of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) or of items covered under Article 3 or Article 4, if it has knowledge at the time of authorization that the arms or items would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which it is a Party.” EU Member States are committed to the EU Common Position on Arms Exports, which requires EU Member States to “refuse to grant an export license in the event of a clear risk that military technology or equipment intended for export will be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law”, and the ICJ order would meet the minimum knowledge of the existence of a “clear danger.”
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