New report by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) exposes the Role of Energy Trade in Enabling Genocide and Colonial expansion against Palestinians, and occupied Syrian Golan.
The research sheds light on how foreign trade and investment in the Israeli energy sector contribute to grave international crimes, including genocide in Gaza, unlawful occupation, and the maintenance of illegal colonial presence. The report confirms the urgent need to answer our collective call for a global Energy Embargo on Israel, stopping exports, imports and transits of energy to and from Israel.
This report is released against mounting International acknowledgment of Israeli crimes against humanity, including the crime of Apartheid and the crime of Genocide against the Palestinian people. It also comes as Israel is committing relentless massacres and continued genocidal acts in Gaza, while expanding its colonial presence in the occupied Syrian Golan.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli war criminals, and in December 2024, Amnesty International concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down two critical rulings in 2024, one in relation to the possibility that a crime of genocide was being committed against the Palestinian people and the other reaffirming the illegality of Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Both rulings emphasized that third states must avoid economic and trade dealings that entrench this illegal situation and prevent Genocide.
A genocide does not stand on its own. The report reveals that Israel’s military operations heavily rely on imported crude oil and refined fuels, including jet fuel, gasoline, and diesel. In the past year alone, deliveries from the U.S., Greece, Italy, and Brazil have supported these operations. The exported energy is also assisting in the sustenance of the unlawful settlement industry. Israel’s electricity grid—powered by natural gas (70%), coal (17.5%), and renewable energy (10%)—supplies both civilian infrastructure and illegal settlements. Trade in coal from countries such as Russia and South Africa and foreign investments in gas extraction and renewable energy projects directly support this infrastructure, violating international obligations.
The report calls on all companies involved in the energy supply chain to conduct enhanced due diligence to ensure their operations do not contribute to international crimes, insisting that companies involved in supplying fuels or investing in Israel’s energy projects risk being liable for complicity in international crimes. States must end the export and transit of military jet fuel, crude oil, and other fuels to Israel unless non-military use can be ensured. Likewise, States must stop coal exports to Israel where its use supports illegal settlements, considered a war crime.
Lastly, Governments must regulate and prevent investments in energy projects that entrench Israel’s unlawful military occupation and colonial expansion in Palestine.
The findings of this report confirm what we know. States continuing energy trade with Israel are fuelling genocide and Palestinian disposession. It is not only a moral, but a legal obligation to use all means available, particularly for those states with strong economic ties, to divest and suspend their energy exports and imports. The international community remains complicit