Genocidal Capitalism and Global Working Class
Sudip Dutta
AS this article goes to print, 42 ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla, attempting to break Israel's siege of Gaza, have been illegally intercepted in international waters. Among the kidnapped passengers was Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was subjected to severe abuse by Israeli forces: “They made her crawl and kiss the Israeli flag… They did exactly what the Nazis once did.”
But this article is not primarily about the barbarity of the rogue Zionist state of Israel, which is carrying out the most brutal genocide of this century—perhaps of the entire post World War II period—that has already claimed officially more than 67,000 Palestinian lives (the actual figures are much higher).
An Economy of Genocide:
The United Nations Human Rights Council Report ‘From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide’ reveals that over 1,000 corporations across arms, technology, construction, agriculture, trade, finance, and academia directly or indirectly benefit from genocide and apartheid in Palestine.
At the heart of this system is Israel’s military-industrial complex. Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) dominate the sector, profiting massively from escalating defence budgets. IAI, ranked among the world’s top 50 arms producers, supplies components for F-35 fighter jets alongside Lockheed Martin and Leonardo S.p.A (Italy). Jets such as the F-35 and F-16 have dropped roughly 85,000 tons of bombs on Gaza and the West Bank, killing or injuring over 179,000 Palestinians by mid-2025. Other companies, including Rheinmetall AG, A.P. Møller–Maersk, and FANUC, provide explosives, logistics, and robotic machinery; all sell weapons internationally as “battle-proven killing machines in Gaza.” (One can recall the roles of IG Farben, Siemens, Krupp, and Volkswagen in Hitler’s war economy, or Dow Chemical, Monsanto, and Diamond Shamrock in producing the US’s Agent Orange used in Vietnam.)
The occupied territories also serve as laboratories for surveillance capitalism. NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware targets activists, journalists, and dissidents. IBM, HP, and Microsoft manage biometric and prison IT systems while supplying AI and cloud services to military and police forces. Google and Amazon operate Project Nimbus, a US$1.2 billion AI-cloud contract for Israel’s Defence Ministry, while Palantir Technologies provides predictive warfare software, openly acknowledging its genocidal applications. Surveillance and control are monetised, creating an ecosystem where Palestinian oppression attracts global technological-security markets and state buyers seeking tools to suppress dissent.
Global finance and academia explicitly enable this machinery. Banks such as BNP Paribas and Barclays endorse Israeli war bonds, while asset managers like BlackRock, Vanguard, and Allianz invest billions in arms manufacturers. Universities including MIT, Ben-Gurion University, and the Technical University of Munich collaborate with the Israeli military through EU Horizon funding, developing AI, drone, and surveillance technologies tested on Palestinians. These institutions, under the guise of innovation, normalise and reproduce the infrastructure of genocide, linking research with the business of death and occupation.
“Civilian technologies” have also been weaponised. Caterpillar, HD Hyundai, Doosan, Volvo, and Heidelberg Materials provide heavy machinery used to demolish Gaza’s and the West Bank’s structures. Since October 2023, nearly 70% of Gaza’s housing and infrastructure has been destroyed, with Caterpillar’s D9 bulldozers remotely modified for targeted demolition. Heidelberg mines occupied land; CAF expands settler railways; Keller Williams markets and sells stolen homes; and energy corporations like Chevron, BP, Drummond, and Glencore fuel Israel’s tanks, drones, and occupation industries.
Agribusiness and food-export corporations profit from control over Palestinian land and water. Israeli agritech companies cultivate confiscated soil for export, while Palestinian farmers face irrigation bans and dependence on Israeli suppliers. Agribusinesses like Netafim, providing services to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, also receive subsidies from Indian states. Tourism and real-estate firms exploit depopulated villages, with Booking.com and Airbnb taking commissions from occupied properties. Export networks channel agricultural goods, wines, minerals, and textiles from colonies into global markets, masking colonisation behind commerce.
How the Indian State and Corporations Fit In:
Many major Indian corporations—both private conglomerates and PSUs—directly benefit from the ongoing genocidal war through joint military-industrial, surveillance, and energy operations with Israel.
At the forefront is the Adani Group, which, through Adani Defence Systems & Technologies Ltd, entered joint ventures with Elbit Systems and Israel Weapon Industries. It acquired Haifa Port for $1.18 billion, and is planning to acquire 3 ports in Greece. These are going to be the focal points of the ambitious India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) with Israel and Jordan as strategic partners. Modi government, as junior partner of US imperialism, has blatantly violated India’s officially adopted position since independence in favour of a sovereign, independent, viable and united State of Palestine. It even initially abstained in the voting on the UN resolution calling for ceasefire and initiating “humanitarian truce” in Gaza.
Reliance Defence, Larsen & Toubro, and NIBE Ltd work with Israeli firms like Rafael Advanced Defence Systems and Elbit, producing missile, tank-protection, and rocket-launcher systems marketed as “battle-tested” in Gaza. BEL, an Indian PSU, has signed multibillion-dollar contracts with IAI for Barak and LRSAM missile systems, while HAL collaborates with IAI on refuelling and drone projects. TCS participates in cloud and AI projects supporting Israeli digital governance, while Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and Reliance Jio partner with Israeli cybersecurity and AI startups linked to military-grade monitoring. Agribusiness giants such as Jain Irrigation and Triveni Engineering operate in Israeli-controlled Palestinian agricultural zones. Financial and pharmaceutical firms—including the State Bank of India, Sun Pharma, and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories—invest in Israeli banks, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies whose profits are tied to the occupation economy.
This vast network of corporations, financial institutions, and academic entities reveals that occupation, surveillance, and destruction are not isolated acts of war. These enterprises reinforce one another, making Palestine a testing ground for militarised capitalism that extends far beyond its borders.
Trump’s Gaza Plan and Corporate Interests:
Donald Trump’s so-called “Gaza Plan” is less a peace proposal than a blueprint for corporate capture of Gaza’s reconstruction. The proposed “Board of Peace,” chaired by Trump and including figures like Tony Blair, functions as an unelected trusteeship controlling aid, reconstruction contracts, and investment flows—effectively placing Gaza in the hands of foreign businesses and imperialists, stripping Palestinians of sovereignty over their land and rebuilding process.
The plan’s “economic development initiatives” and “special economic zones” are open deals for multinational corporations, real-estate developers, and financial investors to profit from Gaza’s privatisation and deregulated reconstruction. Major construction, consulting, and energy firms—such as Bechtel, Halliburton, BlackRock, and Chevron—stand to gain from infrastructure, logistics, and “smart city” projects. Consulting giants like Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, and Deloitte are invited to shape Gaza’s tourism future.
Simultaneously, the plan’s emphasis on “security, demilitarisation, and monitoring” creates lucrative opportunities for companies such as Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Palantir, embedding AI policing and biometric control systems in the so-called “New Gaza.” Clauses promoting “voluntary relocation” ensure that reconstruction becomes a profitable real-estate venture. Trump’s plan represents recolonisation under the guise of rebuilding, transferring power from Palestinians to transnational corporations, Western donors, and Israeli security interests.
Resistance Is Global Now – “Block Everything” Is the Slogan:
In response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, workers across the world are asserting coordinated strength against corporations and governments benefiting from genocide in Palestine. Dockworkers, metalworkers, and other trade unions are disrupting economic structures, demonstrating the crucial role of strategic labour in international trade.
Dockworkers led the charge, with Italian workers in Genoa initiating a historic strike that halted operations at one of Europe’s busiest ports to stop arms transport to Israel. Workers from multiple European ports coordinated a general strike for Gaza, reflecting transnational solidarity. The slogan “Block Everything” is spreading like fire across Europe.
Metalworkers in Madrid joined, with the CGT Metalworkers’ Union announcing an indefinite strike from October 6. Italy’s nationwide general strike on October 3, 2025, organised by the USB and CGIL, involved over two million participants across more than 100 cities. In Greece, the October 1, 2025 strike against anti-labour laws incorporated solidarity with Palestine, with thousands chanting “Free Palestine” and linking anti-capitalist struggle with the struggle for Palestinian freedom.
In the United Kingdom, unions are preparing for massive action on October 9, demanding divestment from companies complicit in Israeli occupation. In the United States, the Labor for Palestine National Network has called on unions to adopt BDS-aligned policies (BDS—Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions—being a global campaign initiated in 2005 by Palestinian civil society). Around 250,000 people participated in Amsterdam’s “Red Line” protest on October 5, demanding an end to Dutch arms exports to Israel.
The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions organised a general strike across Jerusalem, protesting mass unemployment, wage theft, and the destruction of livelihoods under occupation. In countries like India and Pakistan, workers are also coming to the streets against this genocide. Across continents, workers now recognise that solidarity with Palestine is inseparable from their struggles against exploitation and imperialism.
Palestine and the New Era of Global Resistance:
These actions represent more than mere solidarity. Globalisation has fragmented and dispersed the processes of production, appropriation, and distribution of surplus worldwide. The global solidarity strikes for Palestine have disrupted Israeli armament supply chains and elevated working-class struggle to a new level. Coordinated actions against corporations profiting from genocide can emerge as a modern, strategic form of workers’ resistance across the value chain.
Workers of the Global South, including India, must integrate their struggles with those of the North. Indian workers must identify strategic points in production chains, coordinate with international counterparts, learn from global struggles, and strike at all points of genocidal capital.
War economy has long been capitalism’s reliable instrument for escaping crises. Exposing these corporations and the broader capitalist order mired in systemic crisis, the anti-genocidal movement can unite wider sections of people against the entire imperialist system. The struggle to free Palestine can lead towards a new era of global working-class resistance, transforming solidarity into coordinated strike action across the world, demonstrating the unifying power of labour against imperialism and corporate oppression.
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