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'This Must Stop': 15 Companies Profiting Off Israeli Occupation and Genocide in Gaza
"It is unacceptable that states and companies are aware that their revenues come from death, destruction, and immense suffering of Palestinians, yet they have decided to look away," said the head of Amnesty International.
Sep 19, 2025
Amnesty International on Thursday published a briefing that pressures governments, public institutions, and companies to stop contributing to Israel's unlawful military occupation of Palestinian territories, system of apartheid against Palestinians, and genocide in the Gaza Strip.
"This must stop. Human dignity is not a commodity," Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard said in a statement. "While Palestinian mothers in Gaza are left to watch their children waste away from starvation under Israel's genocide, arms companies and others continue to reap substantial profits."
The human rights group's new report "identifies actions that states must take to fulfill their obligations, from banning and barring companies contributing or directly linked to Israel’s crimes, to effective legislation and regulation, and including divesting and ceasing purchases or contracts," she noted. "It also lists actions companies should take, such as suspending sales or contracts and making divestments."
The briefing—titled Pull the Plug on the Political Economy Enabling Israel's Crimes—lists 15 firms for which Amnesty "has gathered credible evidence" of contributing to Israel's illegal actions, based on "primary research, companies' published human rights policies, corporate press releases, transcripts of investor calls, quarterly earnings statements, company promotional material and/or media sources, including statements made by company representatives to the media."
"We cannot allow the immense, unfathomable suffering of the Palestinian people to be ignored for a minute longer."
Amnesty "has documented the abuses by several of these companies for years," the report explains. The group wrote to all of them, "asking questions about their activities" in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT), and "expressing concerns of the human rights violations described in this briefing before making them public."
"Eleven out of the 15 companies were contacted at different times from 2017 to 2024 about their activities described in this briefing and asked to provide a response," the briefing details. "In 2025, 13 out of 15 companies were contacted by Amnesty International and five companies sent replies, which are reflected in this briefing and previously published research that is cited; two replies are annexed in their entirety."
Amnesty spotlighted the US multinationals Boeing, which manufactures bombs and guidance kits "being used in unlawful air strikes in the occupied Gaza Strip," and Lockheed Martin, which "supplies and services F-16s and the growing fleet of F-35 combat aircraft—the backbone of the Israeli Air Force." It also targeted Israel Aerospace Industries, Elbit Systems, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, "the three largest Israeli arms companies."
However, it's not only the supply of military goods and services that "must be stopped," Amnesty underscored, also advocating for cutting off Israel's supply of surveillance and cloud infrastructure. The report specifically flags biometric tools from the Chinese company Hikvision, facial recognition software from the Israeli firm Corsight, and artificial intelligence products and services from the US-based Palantir Technologies.
The group further argued that "all trade and investment contributing to Israel's unlawful occupation, system of apartheid, or genocide must be banned." It took aim at Mekorot, an Israeli government water company operating in the OPT, as well as the South Korean HD Hyundai, which "produces heavy machinery that has been widely used in demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures, homes, and businesses."
The report also notes that the Spanish firm Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles "provides transportation materials and services to Israel for the Jerusalem Light Rail project, which connects illegal Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem with each other, as well as with West Jerusalem."
Additionally, Amnesty pointed to its 2019 report "that exposed how the operations of online tourism companies such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, and TripAdvisor contributed to the maintenance, development, and expansion of Israeli settlements in the OPT, namely the West Bank including East Jerusalem, in violation of international law." The group says that it "called on these companies to responsibly disengage from doing business in Israeli settlements, but they continue to do so."
The report emphasizes that "the list is illustrative, nonexhaustive, and preliminary. Nevertheless, the range of industries and sizes of companies included in this document highlights the scale and scope of the role of economic actors that enable and sustain Israel's unlawful occupation and its crimes under international law, including apartheid and genocide."
Callamard—whose group began describing Israel's destruction of Gaza as a genocide last December, after over a year of war—called on "people around the world to take peaceful actions" pushing countries and companies to stop "sustaining a government that has engineered famine and mass killing of civilians and denied Palestinians fundamental rights for decades."
"It is unacceptable that states and companies are aware that their revenues come from death, destruction, and immense suffering of Palestinians, yet they have decided to look away, maintain their business models regardless of the human cost, and indulge in their wealth," she said. "We cannot allow the immense, unfathomable suffering of the Palestinian people to be ignored for a minute longer."
Amnesty is far from alone in highlighting how, as Callamard put it, "every economic sector, the vast majority of states, and many private entities have knowingly contributed to or benefited from Israel's genocide in Gaza, and its brutal occupation and apartheid." The briefing was published just days after over 80 other civil society groups launched the "Stop Trade With Settlements" campaign, which demands that countries ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT.
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475 Immigrants Arrested in Raid of Hyundai EV Plant in Georgia
A spokesperson for South Korea's foreign ministry said that "the economic activities of our companies investing in the US and the rights and interests of our nationals must not be unfairly violated."
Sep 05, 2025
The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday expressed "concern and regret" after US agents arrested 475 immigrants at a Hyundai electric vehicle plant in Ellabell, Georgia and turned them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE was among several agencies involved in "the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations," Steven Schrank, the special agent in charge for HSI Atlanta, said during a Friday morning press conference.
The immigrants worked for a variety of companies and were arrested "as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices," Schrank explained. The probe continues, but no criminal charges are being filed at this time.
While Schrank only confirmed that a large number of those arrested on Thursday are South Koreans, a diplomatic source told the news agency Yonhap that the figure is over 300.
Yonhap also reported on a press briefing in which a spokesperson for South Korea's foreign ministry, Lee Jae-woong, said that "the economic activities of our companies investing in the US and the rights and interests of our nationals must not be unfairly violated."
"We conveyed our concern and regret through the US Embassy in Seoul today," Lee added.
According to The Associated Press:
Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea's biggest automaker, began manufacturing EVs a year ago at the $7.6 billion plant, which employs about 1,200 people, and has partnered with LG Energy Solution to build an adjacent battery plant, slated to open next year.
In a statement to The Associated Press, LG said it was "closely monitoring the situation and gathering all relevant details." It said it couldn't immediately confirm how many of its employees or Hyundai workers had been detained.
"Our top priority is always ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees and partners. We will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities," the company said.
Hyundai's South Korean office didn't respond to AP's requests for comment. Forbes highlighted that the raid comes shortly after the company "announced it would invest $26 billion in the US over the next three years," which is expected to create 25,000 jobs.
During the Friday press conference, Schrank appeared to try to distinguish these arrests from President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda, saying that "this was not an immigration operation where agents went into the premises, rounded up folks, and put them on buses—this has been a multimonth criminal investigation."
However, Tori Branum, a firearms instructor and Republican candidate for Georgia's 12th Congressional District who is publicly taking credit for the raid, made the connection clear.
"For months, folks have whispered about what's going on behind those gates," Branum wrote on Facebook. "I reported this site to ICE a few months ago and was on the phone with an agent."
"This is what I voted for—to get rid of a lot of illegals," she told Rolling Stone after the arrests. "And what I voted for is happening."
In addition to raids of other workplaces such as farms in California, Trump's mass deporation agenda has featured an effort to illegally deport hundreds of children to Guatemala over Labor Day weekend, masked agents in plain clothes ripping people off US streets, arresting firefighters while they were on the job, revoking Temporary Protected Status for various foreign nationals, and locking up immigrants in horrific conditions in facilities including "Alligator Alcatraz."
American Immigration Council legal director Michelle Lapointe, who is based in the Atlanta area, said in a Friday statement that "these raids don't make anyone safer. They terrorize workers, destabilize communities, and push families into chaos."
"This historic raid may make dramatic headlines, but it does nothing to fix the problems in our broken immigration system: a lack of legal pathways and a misguided focus on punishing workers and families who pose no threat to our communities," she added. "Raiding work sites isn't reform, it's political theater at the expense of families, communities, and our economy."
This article was updated with comment from the American Immigration Council.
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As GOP Erodes Child Labor Laws, Alabama Roofer Fined Just $117K for Teen's Worksite Death
"It's unconscionable that roofing companies hire 15-year-olds," said one labor expert—but in state after state and even at the federal level, lawmakers are rolling back restrictions on teen workers.
Feb 07, 2024
Workers' rights advocates on Wednesday decried a meager fine for an Alabama contractor that illegally employed a 15-year-old boy who died on the job, a move that came amid a push by Republicans at the federal and state level to roll back child labor protections.
The U.S. Department of Labor fined Pelham, Alabama-based Apex Roofing & Restoration $117,175 in civil penalties for violation of child labor laws resulting in the July 1, 2019 death of a 15-year-old Guatemalan worker during his first day on the job in Cullman, 50 miles north of Birmingham.
The teen—who could not be identified because he was a minor—fell through insulation and plunged 35-50 feet to his death on a concrete floor inside the building on which he was working,
according to a Cullman Tribune report at the time.
The Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division found that the company's employment of the teen violated a provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act that prohibits workers under the age of 18 from doing dangerous jobs including roofing or construction.
"Apex Roofing risked the life of a child by employing him to work on a roof in violation of federal child labor laws, leaving relatives and friends to grieve an unnecessary and preventable tragedy," Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman said in a statement.
The Labor Department action came shortly after the Alabama Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank, published its annual agenda. The document advocates rolling back limits on 14- and 15-year-olds in the workplace.
An Apex Roofing spokesperson told Common Dreams:
We at Apex Roofing & Restoration are truly heartbroken by the senseless death of a minor at a job site in 2019. The tragic incident occurred when a subcontractor's worker brought his sibling to a worksite without Apex's knowledge or permission.
Apex has a long-standing policy prohibiting any form of child labor. In addition, since that accident, Apex has implemented a number of measures to further strengthen job site security and safety. Our hearts are with this family and any family who suffers a loss.
Common Dreams reported last year that congressional Democrats implored the Labor Department to act following a Reuters investigation that found dozens of chidren as young as 12 years old—most of them Central American migrants—working in Alabama and Georgia factories supplying the Korean auto giant Hyundai.
Across the country, Republican state lawmakers have been advancing legislation to remove restrictions on child labor, despite several high-profile workplace deaths of minors.
At the federal level, Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) last year introduced a bill that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work in the logging industry.
Major corporations including McDonald's, Costco, Starbucks, Amazon-owned Whole Foods, and PepsiCo have said they're taking steps to tackle child labor in their supply chains, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Whole Foods said in a statement that it has "been actively evolving our focus on the risk of migrant child labor domestically."
According to Labor Department data, the number of minors employed in violation of child labor laws soared by 283% from 2015 to 2022. Over that same period, the number of minors employed in violation of hazardous occupation orders rose 94%.
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