Palantir is a U.S. tech giant that openly supports Israel’s genocide on Gaza.

After the genocide commenced in 2023, Palantir eagerly aligned itself with the Israeli military, equipping its operations in Gaza with cutting-edge technologies that allow Israel to kill and maim Palestinians and decimate infrastructure, streamlining and systematising the killing of Palestinians with dystopian levels of clinical cruelty. 

Palantir’s genocide support has included providing AI tools that ingest and organise huge amounts of data to make decisions about military targets, leading to the death of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the decimation of Gaza, as well as bespoke “predictive systems,” which analyze civilian social media posts to identify Palestinians deemed a threat, leading to their arbitrary arrest for crimes like citing Quranic verses, calling for protests, or sharing images of murdered family members. They have also provided AI language tools, and mapping and geospatial data to allow Israel to streamline and expedite the genocide.

Palantir, and Australia’s financial investment in Palantir through the Future Fund, raise serious concerns about compliance with international obligations to prevent genocide and to avoid contributing to internationally wrongful acts – like Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

States have an obligation under the Genocide Convention to prevent genocide. This obligation arises from the moment that a State becomes aware of a serious risk that genocide will be committed. States must take all measures within their power to prevent genocide once such a risk exists.

In January 2024, the ICJ found that there was a real and imminent risk of genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza. Shortly after, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry and the International Association of Genocide Scholars subsequently characterised Israel’s conduct in Gaza as genocide. From this moment onwards, Australia was legally obligated to take every step in its power to avoid complicity with genocide – including ending investment into companies like Palantir, who are unequivocally supporting and enabling Israel’s genocide. 

Corporations similarly hold responsibilities under international human rights law and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) to respect internationally recognised human rights and to avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts. The UNGPs state that, in situations like the genocide in Gaza, businesses must respect international humanitarian law and exercise heightened human rights due diligence practices. The UNGPs also recognise that legal complicity may arise when a business knowingly provides practical assistance or encouragement towards a crime like genocide, as Palantir is doing in continuing to provide technology and support to Israel during the ongoing conflict in Gaza, despite extensive evidence and warnings concerning the risk of serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. 

Australia’s continued investment of public funds through the Future Fund is therefore a significant failing of our international legal obligations under the genocide. We are continuing to invest public money into a company that is knowingly aiding and abetting a genocide, where Palantir’s technology is clearly contributing to violations of international law.

You can read more about Australia’s obligations under the Genocide Convention here.

1. The Finance Minister and Treasurer must immediately issue an investment mandate to the Future Fund, demanding they cease investment into Palantir and any other corporation aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide.
   
2. The Future Fund must immediately improve its investment exclusion criteria to permanently exclude investment of public money into companies linked to or complicit with genocide, illegal occupation or other war crimes.