Our research and sources
This site documents corporate complicity in human rights violations, apartheid, occupation, war crimes, environmental destruction, and labor abuse. The entries are compiled from public sources, and the value of each entry depends on the value of the sources behind it. This page sets out the research we rely on and why we treat it as credible.
Most of the organizations below are community-led, worker-led, or independent of the corporations and governments they investigate. They publish their methodology, cite primary documents, and accept the legal and political risk that comes with naming companies. We prioritize primary documents (UN reports, court and regulatory filings, corporate disclosures) and the research organizations that compile and verify them. Where a claim rests on a single outlet, we try to attribute it to that outlet.
United Nations OHCHR database
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights maintains a OHCHR list of companies benefiting from occupation and involved in activities connected to Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The database was mandated by Human Rights Council Resolution 31/36 in 2016, first published in February 2020, and updated in 2023 and again in 2025 (A/HRC/60/19). It applies a defined methodology: OHCHR assesses companies against a fixed list of settlement-related activities, notifies each company, and gives it the opportunity to respond before a determination is made. As an official UN documentation of corporate involvement, it carries evidentiary weight which is why we treat inclusion in the database as a primary source.
We also draw on the 2025 report by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, "From economy of occupation to economy of genocide" (A/HRC/59/23), which examined roughly 1,000 corporate entities across sectors including arms manufacturing, surveillance, heavy machinery, finance, and agribusiness.
We combined both the database mandated by Human Rights Council Resolution and the A/HRC/59/23 report and complimentary to each other and provide them within the same list.
BDS Movement
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is a Palestinian-led campaign coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the broadest coalition in Palestinian civil society. Rather than a blanket boycott of all companies connected to the apartheid state, the BDS Priority List names a small number of companies selected for their direct role in IOF support, settlement infrastructure, or economic normalization. We use the priority list because it reflects a strategic consensus and because its targets are chosen on stated, consistent criteria.
Who Profits Research Center
Who Profits Research Center list of companies involved in occupation in Palestine and Syria is an independent research center based in Haifa that documents corporate involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territory. It maintains a database of more than 400 companies across three areas: the settlement industry, exploitation of occupied natural resources, and control of the Palestinian population. Its methodology relies on public records, government and corporate documents, and field investigation. Who Profits research fed into the UN's 2020 settlement database, which is part of why we treat it as a documented research source.
AFSC Investigate
Investigate is a research project of the American Friends Service Committee. Its database profiles companies involved in occupation, apartheid, surveillance, mass incarceration, and border and detention industries, drawing on SEC filings, legal documents, academic research, corporate reports, and other independent research. AFSC distinguishes between its broad research database and a narrower divestment shortlist with stricter criteria, and it states plainly that the shortlist is built for institutional investors rather than as a consumer boycott list.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a global human rights organization that published its landmark report "Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians" in February 2022, documenting how the apartheid state imposes a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people. The report examines fragmentation, dispossession, and denial of rights across Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and Palestinian refugees. We cite its findings on corporate involvement in the maintenance and expansion of the apartheid system.
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch published "A Threshold Crossed" in April 2021, a 213-page report concluding that Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. The report traces how the apartheid state grants different rights based on ethnicity and documents specific corporate roles in settlement expansion, land confiscation, and population control. HRW made its determination after years of documentation and legal analysis, joining Amnesty International and the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem in identifying the apartheid reality. We draw on its findings for the documented chain of evidence connecting corporate conduct to specific human rights violations.
Boycott Bloody Insurance
Boycott Bloody Insurance is a grassroots campaign that researches insurance companies underwriting and investing in companies tied to the IOF, fossil fuels, weapons, and migrant detention. Its reports, including "Insuring Genocide" and a 2026 insurer grading covering 37 companies active in the UK, trace specific premiums and investments and name insurers such as Allianz, AXA, Aviva, AIG, and Zurich. The campaign is endorsed by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and others. We use its findings for the insurance and underwriting layer of corporate complicity.
No Tech for Apartheid
No Tech for Apartheid is a worker-led campaign of Google and Amazon employees organizing against Project Nimbus, the companies' cloud and AI contract with the Israeli apartheid government and IOF. Its information comes from workers inside the companies and from leaked internal documents, it provides detail on the technology sector's role. We treat its claims as the campaign's own and pair them with corroborating investigative reporting where possible.
The Intercept
The Intercept is an investigative outlet whose reporting on Project Nimbus, surveillance technology, and the conduct of the IOF has documented corporate relationships through leaked documents and internal records.
Drop Site News
Drop Site News is a reader-supported, non-aligned investigative outlet founded in 2024 by journalists Ryan Grim, Jeremy Scahill, and Nausicaa Renner, all formerly of The Intercept. It refuses corporate advertising and is funded by its readers, which is part of why we consider its reporting independent of the industries it covers.
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre is an independent nonprofit that maintains a public database tracking the human rights records of thousands of companies worldwide. It does not accept donations directly from companies, funding itself through foundations, governments, and individual donors.
Reporter Brasil
Reporter Brasil is a Brazilian nonprofit founded in 2001 by journalists, social scientists, and educators. It investigates human rights violations in supply chains, tracing products made with slave labor, child labor, and illegal deforestation back to the companies and brands that sell them. Its "follow the money" research has tracked thousands of farms, charcoal plants, and production sites, and contributed to Brazil's official "dirty list" of employers found using slave labor. We use it for labor and supply-chain abuse, particularly in agribusiness, where its field investigation is a primary record.
How we treat these sources
We do not treat any single source as infallible. Government databases, research centers, worker campaigns, and investigative outlets each have a different vantage point and a different standard of proof, and we weight them accordingly. Inclusion in the UN database or a court filing is documented fact. A campaign's research is the campaign's research, attributed as such. Where sources disagree or a claim cannot be verified, we say so or leave the claim out.
Sources:
- OHCHR Business and human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory database
- BDS Movement Guide to BDS Boycott
- Who Profits Research Center Database of companies
- AFSC Investigate About this Tool
- Amnesty International Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians
- Human Rights Watch A Threshold Crossed
- Boycott Bloody Insurance About the Campaign
- No Tech for Apartheid Campaign site
- The Intercept Investigations
- Drop Site News About
- Business & Human Rights Resource Centre About us
- Reporter Brasil About / Quem somos