IBM

IBM is an American multinational technology corporation with multiple Israeli subsidiaries that operates critical apartheid infrastructure in Israel. The company appears in the 2025 UN Human Rights Council report listing companies complicit in Israel's genocide due to its operation of the Population and Immigration Authority database that enables discriminatory control over Palestinians. The BDS Movement has called for ending UN partnerships with genocide-enabling tech companies like IBM.

Lack of Morals and Active Complicity

IBM CEO shamelessly shared to the staff of the company that they have no principles and they simply do whatever the body in power thinks is write, including Israel:

We try to operate with the principles that are encouraged by the governments of the countries we are in. We are a U.S. headquarter company. So, what does the U.S. federal government want to do on international relations? That helps guide a lot of what we do. We operate in many countries. We operate in Israel, but we also operate in Saudi Arabia. What do those countries want us to do? And what is it they consider to be correct behavior?

This attitude is telling to IBM's history of enabling the holocaust and aiding Nazi's during WWII. According to Edwin Black who wrote the book IBM and the Holocaust, IBM machines helped "calculate exactly how many Jews should be emptied out of the ghettos each day".

Apartheid Infrastructure

Population Control Database

In 2017, IBM was selected to design and operate the "Eitan System" for the Israeli Population, Immigration and Borders Authority's database, replacing the Aviv System previously operated by Hewlett Packard (HP & HP-E) and DXC Technologies. The 2018 contract was worth approximately NIS 840 million and includes maintenance expected to run until 2035, with NIS 383 million remaining as of December 2023.

Since 2019, IBM Israel has operated the Eitan System and managed all system data, which includes information on Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and Syrians in the occupied Golan. This registry enables Israeli authorities to control Palestinian permits for working and for crossing the Green Line for medical care, family visits, and international travel. The Population and Immigration Authority’s database contains detailed biometric data used to enforce policies that restrict Palestinians’ freedom of movement, voting rights, and access to essential services based on their identity. Prior to IBM, HPE maintained the database using Itanium servers, and HPE’s Israeli subsidiary continues to supply servers for the system.

Biometric Infrastructure and E-Visa Project

Between 2020-2023, IBM secured multiple contracts including maintenance for biometric passport systems. Palestinians are forced to provide biometric data to these systems to obtain permits for work, family reunification, religious practices, or travel, while those in the "Seam Zone" between the Green Line and the Separation Wall must carry biometric cards simply to prove residency and gain access.

In December 2020, IBM and Elbit Systems received an NIS 18 million contract for the E-VISA project (Marom), an online visa application platform for "pre-passenger arrival data" collection system. This partnership with Elbit, a weapons manufacturer directly involved in Gaza genocide, further solidifies IBM's complicity in apartheid and war crimes.

Operations in Illegal Settlements

IBM cooperates with Ariel University located in the illegal settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. In 2019, the company hosted a mentoring event for the university at its compound and participated in another event for students. Ariel University is part of settlement infrastructure normalizing Israel's illegal settlements enterprise in occupied Palestinian territory.

The Ariel Cyber center shows their logo on their website next to other complicit companies, including Microsoft and Cisco.

Red Hat Israel and Military Cloud Operations

IBM's fully-owned subsidiary Red Hat Israel provides edge computing and software-based storage data centers to multiple Israeli military units. Company employees work in close partnership with military units and are integrated into daily operations of various technological units. Red Hat's Research & Development body collaborates on projects with development bodies in military units. A Red Hat executive shamelessly shared to Israeli media:

we see ourselves as partners of the IDF.

The Red Hat OpenShift platform is currently used by most Israeli Occupation military units as a vital part of daily operations. OpenShift enables development and automated deployment of applications and AI models. Red Hat works in collaboration with the Mamram Unit which provides cloud services to all military units and general staff.

In 2018, the Mamram unit launched its own operational cloud based on Red Hat infrastructure as part of a military cloud platform. Red Hat has joint projects with Israeli military Computer Service and Cyber War divisions in fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Red Hat benefits likely in millions of USD from direct IOF operations and its warcrimes.

Direct Military Contracts

IBM has operated in Israel since 1972, establishing relationships with Israeli military and intelligence agencies. In 1969, the Israeli military installed its first IBM computer. Throughout the early 2000s, dozens of IBM Israel employees were outsourced to the Israeli military's Computer and IT unit.

The company has trained personnel from Unit 8200, Israel's signals intelligence unit involved in developing AI-powered targeting systems used in Gaza and the 2024 pager attacks that killed Lebanese civilians. This training pipeline creates direct connections between IBM and Israeli military capabilities.

In 2011, IBM was contracted by the Israeli Ministry of War for hundreds of millions of USD to supply storage and central servers. In 2017, IBM received more than $20 million for operation and maintenance of Israeli military computing centers. In 2020, IBM was contracted to be the main IT provider for three new military regional logistics centers for 25 years. The contract, shared with Israeli IT company Malam Team, is valued at $1 billion for both companies.

Nimbus Project Cloud Services

As part of the Nimbus Project tender for public cloud services, Red Hat was selected as one of the companies authorized to provide services for the Israeli government cloud. The company offers its Red Hat OpenShift hybrid cloud application platform to Israeli ministries. This includes cloud computing services to the Israeli Ministry of War and state-owned companies Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced War Systems, which supply weapon systems to the Israeli military.

Military Integration

IBM collaborates with the Israeli military and Ministry of Education on projects encouraging high school students to study computer science to "preserve and improve Israel's technological excellence" and "defense abilities." Engineers from IBM lecture at schools alongside military officers who give preparatory lectures for military service.

Red Hat Israel participates in the "Nitzanim" program, a three-year training program designed to train teens for integration into military units. In 2023 and 2022, company personnel held technology summer camps with Israeli military officers. In December 2023, Red Hat hosted 100 students from the Israeli military's Computer and Cyber War School for a three-day hackathon on "Operation Swords of Iron" - the name Israel gave to military operations launched against Gaza in October 2023.

IBM is part of joint ventures with the Israeli military qualifying discharged Unit 8200 combatants to work in the Israeli cyber industry. In March 2024, IBM Israel hosted a conference for 100 participants from the Israeli military, hi-tech industry, and other organizations in cooperation with the military ICT and Cyber War Directorate.

Surveillance and Settlement Infrastructure

IBM operates the Population and Immigration Authority database system that interfaces with the Israeli military unit administering occupied Palestinian territories, Israeli prison services, and police forces. The system processes biometric data including fingerprints, retinal scans, and facial recognition to monitor and restrict Palestinian movement through checkpoints and permit approvals. This database infrastructure enables Israel to maintain separate administrative systems for settlers and Palestinians in the same territory.

In 2018, IBM launched a cyber research center in Be'er Sheva in the Naqab, located next to Israeli military telecommunication facilities. The location is part of military-led plans to integrate discharged soldiers from cyber units into tech companies while strengthening settlement expansion in areas where Palestinian Bedouin communities face forced displacement.

Sources:

• +972 Magazine ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
• Aljazeera UN report lists companies complicit in Israel’s ‘genocide’: Who are they?
• Aljazeera What is Project Nimbus, and why are Google workers protesting Israel deal?
• The Ariel Cyber Innovation Center The Ariel Cyber Innovation Center
• BDS Movement No Tech for Oppression, Apartheid or Genocide
• Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East IBM
• Harvard Law School Human Rights Program & International Human Rights Clinic IN RE SOUTH AFRICAN APARTHEID LITIGATION; This Document Relates to: LUNGISILE NTSEBEZA, et al., Plaintiffs, - against DAIMLER AG, et al., Defendants. KHULUMANI, et al., Plaintiffs, - against - BARCLAYS NATIONAL BANK LTD., et al., Defendants.
• The Guardian Google’s anti-worker actions evoke IBM’s racist past
• The Guardian IBM 'dealt directly with Holocaust organisers'
• The Intercept IBM Used NYPD Surveillance Footage to Develop Technology That Lets Police Search by Skin Color
• The Intercept IBM CEO: We Listen to What Israel and Saudi Arabia Consider “Correct Behavior”
• United Nations Human Rights Council From economy of occupation to economy of genocide Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese
• Who Profits IBM
• Who Profits IBM: A Major Facilitator of Israel's Surveillance and Security Apparatus
• Meital Mr. Haim, Red Hat: "We consider ourselves partners of the IDF". (Hebrew) People and Computers.