A number of countries and companies sending oil to Israel, which it is using to advance its mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing in Gaza may be legally complicit in genocide, new analysis finds.
Countries like the U.S. and companies like Chevron and BP have been providing Israel with crude oil and other fuels amid the genocide, according to new findings by Oil Change International.
Of the 65 oil and fuel shipments to Israel since October that the group analyzed, over half occurred after the January finding by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel may plausibly be committing genocide.
Azerbaijan is the leading supplier of crude oil to Israel, while countries like Kazakhstan, Gabon and Brazil have also sent crude oil and other petroleum products; Brazil’s shipments are particularly notable, as Brazilian President Lula da Silva has publicly condemned the genocide. Other suppliers include Nigeria, Republic of the Congo and Italy. Oil companies are also heavily involved, providing 66 percent of oil shipments to Israel.
Like in every other military and diplomatic aspect of the genocide, the U.S. plays a major role. The U.S. fuels the genocide in its role as a “key” supplier of jet fuel specifically formulated for military use to Israel, the report details, and has been the largest supplier of refined petroleum products to Israel since October. These shipments come from the Valero refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.
In fact, the U.S. is the only country sending Israel military grade jet fuel, Oil Change International told Truthout.
The research sheds light on the immense role oil plays in violence, death and disease across the world — whether through its use by militaries or its function in driving the climate crisis. Previous reports have found that Israel’s military incursion is spewing hundreds of thousands of tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere that would otherwise have not been present if Israel hadn’t embarked on its genocide.
“Oil is the lifeblood of conflict, flowing through the veins of greedy companies and governments, eager to make a buck while the people suffer,” Lorne Stockman, research director of Oil Change International, told Truthout. “The true cost of oil extends far beyond its market price. It’s paid in human lives, environmental destruction, and geopolitical instability. It is a cost borne by innocent civilians, by ecosystems ravaged by conflict, and by a world teetering on the brink of climate catastrophe.”
International legal experts, including UN experts, have warned suppliers to Israel that they risk complicity in genocide and war crimes by sending weapons and military supplies to Israel — not just because of its campaign of extermination in Gaza, but also its settlements in the occupied West Bank and policies of apartheid. Consequently, providing the fuel to power military equipment, like jets, tanks and bulldozers, could have legal implications.
“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,” said Irene Pietropaoli, an expert in corporate human rights who wrote a legal opinion on the responsibility of countries and companies to act to stop Israel’s genocide in June.
The analysis suggests that boycotting Israel and ending business relations may not just be a moral obligation, but also a legal one.
“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,” said Mohammed Usrof, co-founder of Climate Alliance for Palestine in a statement. “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.”
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