OVERVIEW
Palantir is a US-based tech giant that creates autonomous weapons systems and algorithmic processing and targeting in war. It has publicly supported Israel throughout the genocide, and has continued to supply technology to assist Israel in escalating and automating its genocide, human rights abuses and war crimes.
WHO IS PALANTIR?
Palantir was founded in the United States in 2003. Palantir develops AI software that allows for rapid processing of data to assist in decision-making, and one of its biggest clients has been the Israeli Occupation Forces, who have used Palantir software in their illegal occupation of Palestine since 2014.
Four months into the genocide in Gaza, Palantir and Israel deepened their alliance by entering an official “strategic partnership”, which resulted in Palantir supplying Israel’s military and intelligence agencies with technology to support Israel’s activities in Gaza, which countless experts and independent voices have now equated to genocide.
Beyond their support of Israel, Palantir have also been criticised over their connections with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as their surveillance technology supplied to supermarkets, the police, and healthcare departments globally.
PALANTIR AND ISRAEL
Palantir have provided unwavering support to Israel throughout the genocide:
- In 2015, Palantir provided the Israeli government with “predictive systems” to analyse civilian social media posts to identify Palestinians for arrest, with many facing long and arbitrary prison sentences for activities like citing the Quran, calling for protest, or sharing photographs of imprisoned or killed family members.
- In late 2023, Palantir ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times, stating that it “stood with Israel”
- Four months after the commencement of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Palantir held a board meeting in Tel Aviv in “solidarity” with Israel, and announced a new strategic partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Defence to supply AI tools and decision-making systems aimed at bolstering military operations in Gaza.
- In June 2024, Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp was one of five CEOs who advocated and lobbied US senators for continued U.S. arms sales to Israel in a private meeting.
- Expert reports and assessments have concluded that Palantir’s AI technologies have been deployed in Gaza, Lebanon (including the illegal Operation Grim Beeper pager attacks that killed and injured hundreds of civilians, widely condemned as a war crime) and operations linked to Iran.
The full extent of Palantir’ s technologies being used to undertake genocide in Gaza is not known, however, it is widely known that Palantir’s technologies are being used to automate and escalate
Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Palantir’s technologies automate war-time target decision-making via algorithms that can make deadly decisions in less than three minutes, using data taken from classified intelligence reports, intercepted communications, satellite imagery and other datasets.
INTERNATIONAL LAW
Palantir, and Australia’s financial investment in Palantir through the Future Fund, raise serious concerns about compliance with international obligations to prevent genocide and 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. 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 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. 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 Convention. 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.