“Governments have allowed fuel supplies to Israel even after it became clear that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, a finding now supported by a UN panel,” says Bronwyn Tucker of Oil Change International. He said In a statement. “States have a moral and legal obligation to end these fuel flows immediately. The same fossil fuel system that drives the climate crisis also drives war, occupation, and genocide.”
The countries that supplied the most crude oil were Azerbaijan via Türkiye and Kazakhstan via Russia, accounting for about 70% of shipments. Russia supplied the most refined oil at about 1.5 million metric tons, followed by Greece with more than 0.5 million metric tons and the United States with more than 0.4 million metric tons. However, the United States was the only country to supply Israel with JP-8, a specialized military aviation fuel.
“The same system that is burning the planet also fuels Israel’s genocide machine and supports its colonial system of illegal occupation and apartheid.”
The report found that the United States “sent nine shipments totaling 360,000 tons of JP-8, as well as two shipments of diesel, all from Valero’s Bill Greehy refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.”
“Genocide takes media complicity, government complicity, weapons, and financing, but it also needs oil to keep it going, and we need to stop that oil from flowing there.” He said Leandro Lanfredi, director of the National Union of Oil Workers of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, during a press conference unveiling the report at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).
The report said that the countries that sent oil to Israel acted in violation of their obligations under international law, with some continuing shipments even after the International Court of Justice. He said That Israel’s actions are illegal in July 2024 and a United Nations committee determined That Israel committed genocide in Gaza in September 2025.
“The obligation of States to comply with the interim order of the International Court of Justice flows directly from Article 1 of the Genocide Convention, which requires States to undertake [actions] “To prevent and punish genocide,” Irene Pietropaoli, a senior fellow in business and human rights at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, said in an email to Oil Change. “The ICJ’s decision which found ‘a real and imminent risk of irreparable prejudice to rights that the Court found to be reasonable’ means that states are now aware of the risk of genocide being committed in Gaza. States must take into account that the military or other assistance they provide to Israeli military operations in Gaza may expose them to the risk of complicity in genocide under the Genocide Convention.”
Muhammad Asrouf, Executive Director of the Palestinian Climate Strategy Institute, said: “Behind the barrel It confirms what Palestinians and climate justice movements have long said: fossil fuel supply chains are weapons of war. Governments and companies that continue to trade oil, diesel, and jet fuel with Israel – even through intermediaries – are enabling genocide. “Countries must impose a total energy ban and close the legal loopholes that make collusion profitable.”
At the panel announcing the report, speakers criticized the hypocrisy of countries trying to present themselves as climate leaders while sending money to Israel and companies like Maersk that attend COPs while facilitating those shipments. For example, Brazil, which hosts the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), has not shipped oil directly to Israel since March 2024. However, it is doing so. sends The crude oil is transported to a refinery in Sardinia and then exported to Israel.
We do not want any drop of oil to reach Israel.”
Osrov said during the press conference: “Behind every barrel of oil there is a trail of blood, and behind every shipment there is the logistics of genocide. We must realize how it all began, and we need to acknowledge the complicity of companies, institutions and governments that continue to work, especially in areas such as the Conference of the Parties.”
Meanwhile, advocates have pointed out that fossil fuel companies themselves are profiting from climate breakdown and genocide.
“The fossil fuel industry lies at the heart of the current global crisis, driving climate collapse, militarization and genocide,” Ana Sanchez, General Coordinator of the Global Energy Ban for Palestine, said in a statement. “The same system that is burning the planet also fuels Israel’s genocidal machine and supports its colonial system of illegal occupation and apartheid.”
Sanchez continued: “From oil fields to shipping routes, fossil capitalism turns profit into power over life itself. At the UN Climate Change Conference, we remind the world that energy justice is inseparable from liberalization: ending these fuel flows is not just a moral imperative but an essential act of decolonization. People everywhere are rising up to build a new world order that puts life above the privilege of business as usual.”
In particular, participants gave the example of workers in Italy who went on general strikes in solidarity with Gaza.
Influenced in part by the Italian strikes, Lanfredi said his union recently voted to oppose any oil arriving in Israel from Brazil.
“We need a growing labor movement around the world… to ban energy in support of the Palestinian people. We do not want a single drop of oil to reach Israel,” he said.
Osrov encouraged people living in all complicit countries to “realize that they have the capacity to resist at the piers, at each channel of power, and the channels of oil, gas and energy in general.”
“The call is clear: we call on countries to act on their legal and moral obligation to stop supplying fossil fuels to Israel, stop contributing to this genocide, and join their people,” concluded Shadi Khalil of Oil Change International.
Source link
