Report Warns Global Businesses Over Complicity in Israel’s Apartheid System
According to the AFSC's report, Israel’s apartheid regime has been implemented and reinforced by successive governments across all branches of authority.
Thousands of protesters take part in a pro-Palestine rally in Lisbon, Portugal on October 19, 2025. Pro Palestine protesters are taking the streets all around the world to denounce the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Photo by Anadolu Images.
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new human rights report, published by the Action Center for Corporate Accountability at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), has warned international corporations and investors that their activities in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories could expose them to serious legal and reputational risks due to what it describes as Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime and ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza.
The publication, titled The Business of Apartheid What Companies and Investors Should Know, part of a growing body of documentation by rights organizations and legal experts, argues that Israel’s governance system — from its early Zionist institutions to present-day state authorities — has entrenched “Jewish supremacy” and imposed “second-class citizenship” on Palestinians. It urges companies to assess whether their operations are contributing to systemic human rights violations and international crimes, including apartheid and genocide.
“Businesses must exercise an abundance of caution when entering into operations or activities under Israel’s jurisdiction,” the report states. “They should examine current operations and supply chains to ensure that they are in no way causing, contributing, or directly linked to these crimes.”
A state-built system of domination
According to the report, Israel’s apartheid regime has been implemented and reinforced by successive governments across all branches of authority. It argues that policies of territorial fragmentation, population control, and resource allocation have been designed to maintain Jewish dominance over Palestinians throughout historic Palestine.
The authors trace these structures back to before Israel’s establishment in 1948, asserting that early Zionist institutions “laid the foundations for a state that upholds Jewish supremacy.” They contend that since 1967, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza — and its long-term closure of the coastal enclave — form a central part of this system.
The report goes further, accusing Israel of pursuing “a genocidal campaign to destroy Palestinians in Gaza” through military operations and forced displacement. It describes the assault as an extension of a decades-long policy aimed at consolidating territorial control.
International law and corporate red lines
The authors reference a series of international legal findings, including the International Court of Justice’s opinion on the illegality of Israel’s occupation and settlement enterprise. They cite the 2018 report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which found that businesses operating in or supporting Israeli settlements could not do so in compliance with international law or the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).
“The Court’s observation that Israel has integrated settlements and annexed East Jerusalem into its own territory implicates both government authorities and the Israeli economy,” the report says. “Businesses and investors must consider whether they can truly separate themselves from this unlawful presence.”
This, it argues, places the burden on corporations to ensure their activities do not sustain a system deemed unlawful under international law.
Corporate complicity and risk
The report outlines three “lenses” for businesses to evaluate their potential complicity in Israeli apartheid.
The first examines “inhuman acts” — such as extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and mass surveillance — that companies may indirectly support through partnerships with Israeli security agencies or technology providers.
The second focuses on land administration and infrastructure projects that enable “fragmentation, territorial takeover, and dispossession” in the occupied territories.
The third identifies high-risk sectors — including arms, technology, infrastructure, media, extractives, and finance — that are more likely to be entangled in rights violations.
“These three lenses are overlapping and interlinked,” the report notes. “Businesses and investors should consider how their operations may not only enable individual abuses but also sustain Israel’s broader apartheid regime.”
The authors warn that complicity in such activities could lead to financial, commercial, and legal consequences under international criminal and civil frameworks.
From caution to disengagement
The report calls on businesses operating in high-risk areas to divest, disengage, and provide restitution to affected Palestinian communities. It also urges states to impose accountability measures, including sanctions and prosecutions of companies and executives complicit in international crimes.
Following the adoption of the UNGPs in 2011, multinational corporations have faced increased scrutiny for their role in conflicts. The report argues that this global trend has heightened awareness of corporate responsibility — but not enough to prevent abuses.
“Business abuses and violations continue to occur in conflict zones, where international crimes are often present,” it says. “Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the businesses tied to it are one flagrant example.”
The document emphasizes that Israel’s apartheid regime “predates and is intertwined” with current military operations, making it essential for global companies and investors to view their activities through the broader framework of systemic discrimination and domination.
Ultimately, the report presents a call to action for both the private and public sectors. It argues that corporate disengagement from Israel’s occupation and apartheid system is not only a moral or political imperative but also a legal one.
“Given the gravity of the impacts posed by Israeli apartheid, the unlawful occupation, and genocide,” it concludes, “businesses and investors must take concrete steps to ensure they are not complicit — directly or indirectly — in maintaining these international crimes.”
(Source: AFSC)
