August, 20 2024, 11:36am EDT
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New Research Updates on Companies and Countries Supplying Oil Fueling Palestinian Genocide Amid ICJ Rulings
65 tankers of crude oil and refined petroleum products, including jet fuel, shipped to Israel since October
Updated findings from Data Desk, commissioned by Oil Change International, Behind the Barrel: New Insights into the Countries and Companies Behind Israel’s Fuel Supply, reveal continued and expanded oil supply fueling Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. Building on data released in March, countries and companies continue to fuel Israel’s war machine, despite the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) opinion from January, stating Israel is plausibly committing genocide and Palestinians in Gaza have plausible rights under the Genocide Convention and from July, stating the occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful. This updated analysis highlights the ongoing complicity of these countries and companies. As more and more Palestinians are killed in bombings and pressure intensifies on global leaders, including US presidential candidates, to end the genocide, these suppliers continue to enable the violence.
Key Findings:
- Corporate Involvement: Investor-owned and private oil companies are complicit through their operations and ownership stakes in projects supplying oil to Israel. These companies collectively supply 66% of oil to Israel, and six major international oil companies (including Chevron (8%), BP (8%) ExxonMobil (6%), Shell (5%), Eni (4%), and TotalEnergies (5%) are responsible for over half of that (35%). According to some legal scholars, these companies could be held liable for complicity in acts of genocide, given the ICJ ruling.
- US Military Aid: The US continues to be a key supplier of JP8 Jet Fuel to Israel, crucial for its military operations. The shipments are coming from the Valero refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas. This supply chain is particularly controversial in the context of the US election, where continued military aid for Israel is under scrutiny. In early August, the US-registered Overseas Santorini, one of the key tankers involved in supplying US jet fuel, docked in Israel’s Ashkelon port, facing increased protest from communities and activists en route.
- ICJ ruling: 65 shipments of crude oil and refined petroleum products have been delivered to Israel from October 21, 2023 to July 12, 2024. 35 of these (54%) departed their origin port after the January 26, 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Palestinians in Gaza have plausible rights under the Genocide convention.
- Azerbaijan: COP29 host Azerbaijan remains the leading supplier, providing 28% of the crude oil supply via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, majority owned and operated by BP. The Azeri oil is loaded onto tankers in the Turkish port of Ceyhan for export to Israel.
- European Connections: Italy, Albania and Greece have joined the list of supplying countries, sending shipments of crude and refined petroleum products. Cyprus and Greece are also implicated in providing transshipment services.
- Increased African Supplies: Gabon remains a major supplier of crude oil to Israel, with additional shipments now coming from Nigeria and Congo-Brazzaville.
- Brazil: Brazilian crude oil has made up 9% of the supply since the war started. Brazil also sent a tanker of fuel oil to Israel that arrived in April. As a significant oil supplier to Israel, Brazilian President Lula, who has been highly critical of Israel’s actions, has the opportunity to help bring about a ceasefire by pursuing an oil embargo.
Recent ICJ rulings have condemned the ongoing violence and called for an immediate halt to all military aid fueling the genocide. These companies and countries could be held complicit in this genocide under the Genocide Convention according to some legal experts.This legal backdrop underscores the urgent need for countries and companies to cease their involvement in oil supplies to Israel.
As the US gears up for the 2024 elections, the issue of Israeli military support and its implications on ethnic cleansing and the ongoing occupation are increasingly in the spotlight. The current US administration must decide whether to continue supporting actions that contribute to genocide or to heed the call for justice and peace
Palestinian groups and their allies have called for an energy and arms embargo and are demanding governments and companies cease all fuel and arms shipments to Israel until it ends the genocide and its regime of apartheid against the Palestinian people. Specifically, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement calls for a boycott of Chevron. Countries, as well as oil and gas companies, must be held to account for their role in perpetuating violence and human rights abuses. Colombia has set a strong precedent and issued an embargo on coal exports to Israel until the ICJ ruling is upheld. Colombian coal makes up over 50% of Israel’s coal imports.
Statements:
Lorne Stockman, Oil Change International Research Director:
“Despite the ICJ’s ruling condemning the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory, countries and companies continue to supply oil that fuels Israel’s military aggression. This ongoing complicity reveals a blatant disregard for international law and human rights, as they prioritize profit over justice and peace.”
Dr. Irene Pietropaoli, Senior Fellow in Business and Human Rights, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, is the author of Obligations of Third States and Corporations to Prevent and Punish Genocide in Gazaexpert legal opinion, said:
“Independently from home State regulation, companies that sell oil and fuel and other military supply to the government of Israel have their own responsibility to respect human rights and abide by international humanitarian law and international criminal law, as recognized in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ‘over and above compliance with national laws and regulations’. Corporations supplying jet fuel and oil to Israel may be providing material support to the military, aware of its foreseeable harmful effects, and therefore risk complicity in war crimes, genocide, and other crimes under international law.”
Abeer Butmeh, Coordinator at PENGON (Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network)
“The current genocide in Gaza, against Gazan people and Palestinian environment, targeting intensively all elements of life in Gaza, is fueled by some of the world’s most profitable fossil fuel companies. These countries and corporations must be held accountable for potential violations of international law. As they are putting themselves in a hook of the war crimes and genocide by supplying oil to Israeli armed forces that deliberately make Gaza not habitable any more.”
Mahmoud Nawajaa, General Coordinator, Palestinian BDS Movement
“It is unconscionable that in the midst of Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza governments that publicly condemn the genocide and support Palestinian rights as stipulated in international law continue business as usual with apartheid Israel, supplying it with energy and profiting from its crimes. The BDS movement calls for escalating grassroots and civil society pressure to make those hypocritical governments stop their complicity in Israel’s mass murder and starvation of Palestinians and, simultaneously, to hold accountable the companies complicit in these egregious crimes, such as Chevron, BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, Eni, and Total Energies.”
Mohammed Usrof, co-founder of Climate Alliance for Palestine, said:
“Since the last report, our suffering has deepend. I lost 21 members of my family in March, uncles and aunts and cousins. Families torn apart and memories and dreams shattered by the occupation’s genocidal actions. The findings in this report are both a painful reminder and a call to action to put an end to this misery. The complicity of international corporations and governments in fueling Israel’s war machine is not just a violation of human rights—it is a betrayal of our shared humanity. For decades, we have watched as Arab states have been divided, their unity fractured by the very forces that colonize our lands and oppress our people. It is time for a realignment, for Arab states to unite with Palestine’s liberation at the center of our collective struggle. This is not just about oil or borders; it is about justice, dignity, and the very essence of who we are as a people.”
David Tong, Industry Campaign Manager, Oil Change International, said:
“By deciding to keep supplying fuel to Israel despite the ICJ’s rulings that Israel’s occupation of Gaza is unlawful and that Israel’s actions may have violated the Genocide Convention, big oil companies are showing once again that they value profits above human rights and a safe climate. Every day that Chevron, BP, Exxon, Shell, Eni, and TotalEnergies provide fuel to Israel these companies expose themselves to potential legal action for their complicity in genocidal acts against civilians in Gaza.”
Mark Muenster, a Corpus Christi, TX, resident and organizer, said:
“As a member of the Corpus Christi community, I am upset and disgusted that our local refinery, Valero, is supplying jet fuel to Israel, directly contributing to the ongoing genocide recognized by the ICJ. Not only does Valero pollute our air and water, but it also depletes our resources, especially during our current drought conditions, pushing us towards stage 3 water restrictions. It is horrifying to think that our region’s resources are fueling such atrocities, and the US government’s complicity through continued military aid is unacceptable.”
Lydia de Leeuw, Strategic Litigation Lead, SOMO (The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations) said:
“Israel’s army relies almost exclusively on imported crude oil and fuel to keep its military operations going. This means that third states and corporations play a critical role in facilitating Israel’s illegal occupation and atrocity crimes against the Palestinian people. Corporate executives may face legal liability for their material support to war crimes and genocide. Imposing sanctions to stop the energy supply that fuels Israel’s atrocities is a legal imperative for third states, and a matter of life and death for the Palestinians.
Nicole Oliveira, Executive Director of the Arayara Institute, said:
“Brazil has a political global responsibility not only to reduce oil production to stop fueling the climate chaos, but also to avoid fueling conflicts. Our actions carry significant weight, and Brazil’s role in the global energy landscape can either exacerbate turmoil or be leveraged to advocate for peace and environmental sustainability.”
Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.
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Israeli Bombing Turns Gaza School Shelter Into 'Site for a Massacre'
"The moment we heard the explosion, we ran for our lives. My sister kept crying. We did not know what to do. I saw dead bodies torn to pieces."
Aug 20, 2024
Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians, including two children, in the bombing of a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City on Tuesday, according to Gaza's civil defense agency.
An Israeli plane dropped a bomb on the Mustafa Hafiz School, which housed hundreds or thousands of displaced people, without warning, leaving Palestinian rescue workers to sift through the rubble of the collapsed building, looking for bodies.
"The moment we heard the explosion, we ran for our lives," an unnamed young girl told Al Jazeera. "My sister kept crying. We did not know what to do. I saw dead bodies torn to pieces."
The dead included Hamzah Mortaja, who was preparing a story about displaced Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera. Hamzah Mortaja was the brother of Yasser Mortaja, a journalist who was killed by Israeli forces in 2018 while covering protests at the structure separating Israel and Gaza.
Urgent | Martyrdom of journalist Hamza Mortaja in the bombing of Mustafa Hafiz Garbi school, Gaza City, brother of journalist Yasser Mortaja, may God have mercy on him\n\nSincere condolences to the journalist colleague and friend Motasem Murtaji \ud83d\ude4f\ud83d\udc94\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8— (@)
Israel has repeatedly targeted schools since its onslaught in Gaza began in October. On August 10, a strike killed roughly 100 people at another school refuge in Gaza City, according to local authorities, though Israel said the number was inflated. Israeli forces have killed more than 40,170 Palestinians since October, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that the bombing of Mustafa Hafiz School had been a "precise strike on terrorists who were operating" inside the school—a justification also used in other such attacks. Hamas has consistently denied Israeli claims that it uses schools and hospitals for military purposes. Hamas and allied militant groups killed more than 1,100 Israelis on October 7 and took about 250 hostages, many of whom have died in captivity, including six whose bodies Israeli forces retrieved on Tuesday.
Mustafa Hafiz School, on the western side of Gaza City, served as a "last resort" for many hundreds of Palestinian families, Al Jazeera reported. Standing outside the destroyed school, an unnamed Palestinian woman toldQuds News Network, a Palestinian youth news agency, that her family had previously fled Israeli tanks and already found it impossible to sleep at night, even before Tuesday's bombing.
The attack on Mustafa Hafiz School came as part of a continued Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. On Sunday, an Israeli strike killed a 36-year-old teacher and all six of her children at their apartment in the town of Deir al-Balah. On Monday, Israeli forces struck the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, run by the United Nations, killing at least nine, and killed at least 35 in total across the enclave that day, Al Jazeera reported.
U.S. diplomats have been part of an international effort to arrange a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, but both sides have objected to aspects of proposed deals and this week expressed pessimism that a deal could be reached. Hamas has said that it agreed in principle to a deal proposed by the Biden administration in late May and approved by the U.N. Security Council in June, but that the U.S. is now proposing a deal full of new, inflexible Israeli conditions. A Hamas official said that the U.S. was "merely buying time for Israel to continue its genocide," Al Jazeera reported Tuesday.
The U.S. is Israel's main military supplier and diplomatic ally. Last week, the Biden administration approved another $20 billion in military aid for the country.
The support has included jet fuel, diesel, and other petroleum products that were the subject of a report released Tuesday by Oil Change International, an advocacy group. The report argues that the U.S. government and multinational companies could be complicit in genocide for their role in supplying Israel fuel for its war effort, given the International Court of Justice ruling in January that ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza.
The report says that the U.S. supplies key JP8 jet fuel to Israel. A U.S.-registered tanker that transports the fuel was recently the subject of scrutiny in Europe, where there was a push to prevent it from docking.
Six well-known multinationals—Chevron, BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, Eni, and TotalEnergies—provide Israel with about 35% of its oil, the report says.
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Rejecting 'Cynical Politics,' Ocasio-Cortez Centers Workers in Primetime DNC Speech
"To love this country is to fight for its people, all people, working people," said the congresswoman.
Aug 20, 2024
Taking the stage after United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain denounced Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as a "scab," U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made even clearer that the Democratic Party is unapologetically centering issues affecting working Americans ahead of the November elections.
The New York Democrat's speech—given just six years after she stunned the party establishment by ousting high-ranking corporate-friendly Rep. Joe Crowley—represented a shift away from a Democratic strategy that has leaned heavily on appealing to centrist voters and painting progressives like Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as radicals, suggested some observers.
"Democrats giving AOC a primetime speaking slot at Democratic National Convention means they are finally embracing progressives and acknowledging this is part and parcel of their base and future," said journalist Wajahat Ali, noting that Ocasio-Cortez was given just 90 seconds to speak at the 2020 convention.
Ocasio-Cortez began with the story of her unexpected rise from restaurant worker to federal lawmaker, sharing that when she won her 2018 election she was one of tens of millions of Americans who were uninsured, "taking omelette orders as a waitress in New York City" while her family struggled to pay bills.
"Like millions of Americans, we were just looking for an honest shake," said the congresswoman. "And we were tired of a cynical politics that seemed blind to the realities of working people."
Those "cynical politics" are still centered by Republican politicians, Ocasio-Cortez said, who frequently attack her "by saying that I should go back to bartending."
"But let me tell you, I'm happy to, any day of the week," she said. "There is nothing wrong with working for a living."
Ocasio-Cortez told the delegates assembled at the United Center in Chicago and viewers at home that the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, present American voters with "a rare and precious opportunity."
"In Kamala Harris, we have a chance to elect a president who is for the middle class because she is from the middle class," said the congresswoman. "She understands the urgency of rent checks and groceries and prescriptions. She is as committed to our reproductive and civil rights as she is to taking on corporate greed."
Watch Ocasio-Cortez's speech below:
Ocasio-Cortez's speech came days after Harris introduced a far-reaching economic agenda including an expanded child tax credit, a federal ban on price-gouging in the grocery and food industries, and medical debt relief. On Sunday, Harris rejected a reporter's question about how she would pay for the policies, saying policymakers should focus on the "return on investment" that would come from pulling children out of poverty and ensuring people can pay for essentials.
New York City Council member Chi Ossé said in response to Ocasio-Cortez's speech Monday night that it was "phenomenal to watch an un-bought politician who holds populist, working-class values hold center stage at the DNC" and noted that the lawmaker was greeted by "the entire room chanting" her commonly-used nickname, AOC.
Progressive strategist Waleed Shahid added that he had "never imagined" seeing two grassroots leaders who had challenged their own institutions—Ocasio-Cortez and Fain—being invited to introduce the Democratic presidential nominee.
Elevating outspoken progressive leaders was a smart strategic decision by party leaders, said Evan Sutton of Firekit Campaigns, a former communications director for the American Federation of Teachers.
Like Fain, Ocasio-Cortez took direct aim at Trump, slamming him as "a two-bit union buster [who] thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed, trampling on our way of life."
"We know that Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends," she said. "The truth is, Don, you cannot love this country if you only fight for the wealthy and big business."
"To love this country is to fight for its people, all people, working people, everyday Americans like bartenders, and factory workers, and fast food cashiers who punch a clock and are on their feet all day, doing some of the toughest jobs out there," Ocasio-Cortez added. "Imagine having leaders in the White House who understand them, leaders like Kamala and Tim."
The congresswoman's brief mention of Israel's U.S.-funded assault on Gaza—which a majority of Democratic voters view as genocide, according to a Data for Progress poll released in May—received applause as she said Harris is "working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza."
But some asked where the evidence of such work can be found, as Israel continues to bombard schools and other civilian infrastructure in the enclave, which U.N. experts warned last month has been pushed into famine by Israel's continued blocking of humanitarian aid.
"I understand the political value of AOC getting thunderous applause for cease-fire in Gaza—the fact that the party really wants it COULD pressure Harris—but, so we are clear, Harris is not working tirelessly for cease-fire," said author and podcast host Kate Willett. "That would involve cutting off weapons."
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'Let's Go!' Top Economist Applauds as Harris Signals Support for Billionaires Tax
Gabriel Zucman, a leading authority on tax evasion by the rich, welcomed news that Kamala Harris' presidential campaign is embracing proposals to tax the ultra-wealthy and large corporations.
Aug 20, 2024
An economist at the forefront of the growing global push for a billionaire wealth tax is welcoming news that U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is embracing calls for a minimum levy on the United States' richest individuals.
"Let's go!" Gabriel Zucman, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote Tuesday in response to Semaforreporting on the Harris team's endorsement of taxes on ultra-wealthy individuals and large corporations proposed in President Joe Biden's budget for Fiscal Year 2025.
Semafor highlighted a "little-noticed portion" of an analysis released late last week by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which wrote that Harris' campaign "specifically told us that they support all of the tax increases on the high earners and corporations that are in the Biden budget."
That budget blueprint includes a 25% minimum tax on billionaire wealth, much of which is unrealized capital gains that are not currently subject to taxation. A recent analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness estimated that U.S. billionaires and centi-millionaires collectively held at least $8.5 trillion in unrealized capital gains in 2022—a massive untapped source of federal revenue.
U.S. billionaires have seen their collective fortunes grow by more than $2 trillion since former President Donald Trump—the GOP's 2024 nominee—signed into law massive tax breaks for the rich and big corporations. Trump has campaigned on extending the deeply regressive and unpopular tax cuts and slashing rates for large companies even further.
Surging billionaire wealth at a time when roughly two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck has amplified calls for a minimum tax on the richest Americans. Zucman noted in a May New York Times piece that in 2018, U.S. billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans for the first time in the nation's history.
"The idea that billionaires should pay a minimum amount of income tax is not a radical idea," Zucman wrote in May. "What is radical is continuing to allow the wealthiest people in the world to pay a smaller percentage in income tax than nearly everybody else."
Polling has shown that a 25% tax on billionaire wealth is extremely popular with U.S. voters across the political spectrum. A survey in March of last year by Data for Progress found that 87% of Democrats, 68% of Independents and third-party voters, and 51% of Republicans back the idea.
A spokesperson for the Harris campaign confirmed to NBC News on Monday that in addition to backing the push for a minimum tax on billionaires, the vice president supports raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% as a way to help finance parts of her broader economic agenda, which includes an expanded child tax credit and substantial assistance for first-time homebuyers.
The campaign spokesperson called the move—which would still leave the corporate tax rate lower than it was when Trump first took office in 2017—a "fiscally responsible way to put money back in the pockets of working people and ensure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share."
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