Top economists back Francesca Albanese’s UN report on genocide economy
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Top economic thought leaders warn that corporations and universities are not only complicit in "Israel’s" genocide but structurally dependent on its continuation, backing Francesca Albanese's recent UN report.
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The secretary of European Realistic Disobedience Front (MeRA25), Yanis Varoufakis waits for the start of debate at the premises of public broadcaster ERT in Athens, Greece on May 10, 2023 (AP)
A group of top economists, including Yanis Varoufakis, Thomas Piketty, and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, has issued a powerful open letter in defense of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, endorsing her findings on the economic enablers of what she terms the “economy of genocide” in Gaza.
TOP ECONOMISTS IN PRAISE OF SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FRANCESCA ALBANESE’S REPORT TO THE UNITED NATIONS: ‘FROM ECONOMY OF OCCUPATION TO ECONOMY OF GENOCIDE’
— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) July 7, 2025
Yanis Varoufakis, Thomas Piketty, Nassim Taleb, Jayati Gosh, Michael Hudson, Giuseppe Mastruzzo, Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Robert H.…
Posted on X by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, the letter arrives amid intensified US-led pressure to remove Albanese from her position. The thought leaders condemn what they describe as a coordinated effort to silence her and to obscure the financial and institutional networks profiting from “Israel’s” war on Palestinians.
“History teaches us that economic interests have been key drivers and enablers of colonial enterprises and often of the genocides they perpetrated,” the letter states. “Israel’s colonisation of the occupied Palestinian territories is no exception.”
World economists rally behind UN Gaza report
Signatories to the letter include some of the most prominent figures in global economic thought. Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, French economist Thomas Piketty (Capital in the Twenty-First Century), and Lebanese-American statistician and essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan) are joined by scholars from SOAS University of London, UMass Amherst, and the London School of Economics.
Since October 7, many of these economists have become vocal critics of “Israel’s” war on Gaza. Varoufakis has described the assault as a “Western-enabled genocide” underpinned by “iron-clad apartheid,” criticizing the role of the EU and US in enabling the violence. Piketty has urged the use of economic tools, sanctions, trade suspensions, and a two-state confederation supported by Europe, to hold “Israel” accountable. Taleb, through his fragility theory, characterizes “Israel” as “a fragile state” overly dependent on military force and foreign backing, leaving it susceptible to collapse under external pressure.
Someone warned me in 2023 that, owing to my posts on Palestine, my book career was over, (but I could fix it w/loud repentance). Predictably, I told him to fuck off.
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) July 4, 2025
Well, this Sunday,The Black Swan, after 18 years, is back on NYT Bestseller List.
Never compromise.
From Occupation to Genocide: The Profiteers
The letter reinforces key findings from Albanese’s UN report, From the Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide, arguing that genocide is not merely tolerated, it is incentivized and monetized.
It highlights corporations such as Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, BNP Paribas, Barclays, Allianz, Chevron, and BP as firms directly profiting from the aggression. Other implicated companies include Palantir, Caterpillar, and Maersk.
Astonishingly, the letter notes a rise in “Israeli” equity markets by 161% during a period marked by declining demand, production, and consumer confidence, evidence of market confidence in the genocide economy.
A very recent #UN report by Special Rapporteur #FrancescaAlbanese exposes the global corporate web behind "Israel’s" genocide in #Gaza. From arms and tech to tourism and finance, corporations are not just complicit, they’re profiting.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) July 3, 2025
This carousel breaks it down sector by… pic.twitter.com/Kyvc0Zocod
Corporations and universities implicated in war economy
The letter accuses global technology firms of transforming the Palestinian territories into real-time laboratories for surveillance, targeting, and artificial intelligence systems. Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), and Palantir are cited for testing facial recognition, targeting algorithms, and autonomous execution systems, often without the ethical constraints that would exist elsewhere.
“Face recognition software, target selection algorithms, and automated execution systems are being tested in real time,” the letter reads, “with fewer ethical constraints than in the case of experiments on laboratory rats.”
Academia’s financial ties to “Israel”
The most damning section of the letter is reserved for academic institutions. It argues that elite Western universities are not only complicit, they are economically entangled in the machinery of occupation.
“Top US and European universities are financially dependent on remaining wedded to Israel’s Apartheid and permanent occupation/conflict political economy,” the economists assert.
Institutions such as MIT, the Technical University of Munich, and the University of Edinburgh are named for their research collaborations with the Israeli Ministry of Defense and financial ties to weapons manufacturers. MIT’s defense labs, in particular, have partnered on drone swarm projects, key tools in the current Gaza offensive.
Ending the infrastructure of genocide
Albanese’s report identifies five sectors, military, technology, construction, finance, and academia, as pillars of a global infrastructure sustaining the genocide. Major financial entities like BlackRock are called out for holding substantial shares in companies central to “Israel’s” military and surveillance apparatus, including Palantir, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet.
The economists argue this entanglement is not an aberration but rather a central feature of the war economy.
“Multinational and national corporations are playing in maintaining the Apartheid regime and enabling the subsequent genocide,” the letter warns.
The signatories call for full corporate divestment, international accountability, and the dismantling of the economic scaffolding that enables continued occupation and mass violence.
Political backlash and the struggle for truth
As political attacks on Francesca Albanese intensify, from the US, “Israel,” and several EU member states, the letter frames these efforts as part of a broader campaign of genocide denial aimed at shielding state and corporate perpetrators.
“In a few years, almost everyone will claim they opposed this genocide,” the letter concludes. “But it is now that people of good conscience need to take a stand.”
