Activities

• SOMO’s research claims to “expose[] the corporate impunity that characterises the business-as-usual approach of many multinationals operating in occupied Palestine. Through activities like tourism and the unlawful exploitation of Palestinian natural resources such as stone, gas, and agricultural products, these corporations actively support Israel’s illegal settlement economy.”
• SOMO operates a “civil society helpdesk” to aid “local and international organisations to hold corporate actors accountable for their role in international crimes perpetrated in Palestine.” 
• In February 2024, SOMO was a signatory on a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, claiming that “‘Zionist’ cannot be separated from the political ideology of ‘Zionism,’ and both terms are explicitly unique and different from Jewish and/or Israeli identities… it entirely ignores the digitally fueled oppression of Palestinians at a time when multiple courts and human rights experts around the world have affirmed the plausibility that a genocide is happening in Gaza.” 
• In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack, SOMO published a statement claiming, “The grave abuses we are watching unfold did not start after 7 October. For decades, the Palestinian people have been subjected to systemic abuse, apartheid and war crimes under cover of a blanket of impunity granted by third states.”
• In August 2022, SOMO signed a joint statement condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. The statement called for the international community to “Openly increase financial, political and where necessary logistical support to Palestinian organisations and civil society, guided by the needs of these organisations.” 
• In February 2020, SOMO published a report titled “The Unlawful Exploitation of Palestinian Stone.” The report alleges that Palestinians “have been subjected to ongoing Israeli occupation and colonisation policies depriving them of their basic rights. Among others, this has been manifested in the unlawful exploitation of natural resources in the OPT, resulting in a wide array of human rights violations and intensifying the de-development and capture of the Palestinian economy by the Occupying Power and business enterprises.”
• In February 2020, SOMO published a joint report with Al-Haq titled “Palestinians have been denied their right to selfViolations set in stone.” The report alleges that  “HeidelbergCement’s extraction of Palestinian natural resources, namely stone, has taken place in a context of deliberate institutional policies aimed towards the confiscation and exploitation of Palestinian land and resources by Israel, the Occupying Power.”

BDS Activity

• In July 2018, SOMO researchers Lydia de Leeuw and Pauline Overeem were refused entry into Israel because they “advance[] boycotts and consistently take[] part in activities against the state.” 
• In May 2024, SOMO published a legal briefing “Exploring the legal consequences for states and corporations involved in supplying jet fuel to the Israeli military.” According to SOMO, “States should act to stop the transfer of such supplies to Israel, and an embargo on jet fuel and crude oil is an important means of achieving this.”
• In April 2024, SOMO published a brief “examin[ing] the legal consequences of this order for companies and third states, with regard to businesses domiciled in their territory and to their own trade and economic relations.” The brief called on third states to “Impose an arms embargo on Israel,” “Impose a fuel embargo on Israel,” “Partially or wholly suspend existing trade or economic association agreements, as well as government-sponsored trade missions with Israel where lawful,” and “Cease procurement from or investment of public funds in Israeli or other firms implicated in Israel’s current military operations in Gaza, plausibly constituting genocide.” 
• In March 2024, SOMO was a signatory on a letter to the European Union officials calling to “suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement without delay, in light of the human rights violations committed by the State of Israel…Human rights abuses by the Israel government did not start in 2023.” 
• In October 2022, SOMO researcher Lydia de Leeuw and Rights Forum researcher Gerard Jonkman published an article drawing false equivalencies between Russia/Ukraine and Israel. According to the article, “When Russia invaded Ukraine it was clear and obvious: we must not participate in the occupation and annexation…Sanctions were imposed relatively quickly and consistently. Why then is it so difficult to do the same with regard to the Israeli occupation, which has now lasted 55 years? Why do we have double standards? The government should, in line with its international law obligations, take concrete (including administrative and possibly criminal) measures against companies trading with settlements.”
• In May 2022, SOMO published a report that, for five years, it had been “Identifying mislabelled food from illegal Israeli settlements in European supermarkets through isotopic testing.”
• In 2019-2021, SOMO lobbied intensively in support of the discriminatory UN database of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line, aimed at bolstering BDS campaigns against Israel. SOMO has signed multiple letters to the UN calling for the database to be implemented without further delay.
  • In December 2023, SOMO published a report stating that the “United Nations has published a database listing businesses operating in illegal Israeli settlements in violation of international law. Regrettably, the countries where these businesses are based, including the United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, and France, have yet to enact effective measures to hold their corporations accountable.” 
• In June 2021, SOMO and the Rights Forum hosted a webinar focused “on understanding business activities related to illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as a major human rights problem, and presenting ways to end the complicity of Dutch/European economic and political actors with the settlement economy.” 
• In March 2021, SOMO and the Global Legal Action Network published a report titled “Tainted tourism” that “profile[d] nine industry leaders in the package tourism sector who contribute to and benefit from the maintenance of Israel’s illicit settlements economy in the occupied Palestinian territory.” The report called “on these tour operators to remove settlement sites from their itineraries…. on the home States of tour operators to bring an end to business transactions with these settlement sites.”
• In June 2018, SOMO “queried…supermarkets on their compliance to the European labelling rules as well as on the origin of the products they sell.”

Lawfare 

• In June 2024, SOMO and Al Haq Europe commissioned an legal opinion to “examine the legal consequences of the ICJ’s order for Third States and corporations.” The opinion recommends implementing an “Arms embargo… Sanctions …. [and] Criminal and administrative proceedings” against Israel.
• In November 2023, SOMO, alongside European Legal Support Center (ELSC), Al-Haq, and the Rights Forum filed a criminal complaint with the Dutch Public Prosecutor accusing Booking.com of “laundering funds obtained from the commission of war crimes” and being “instrumental in facilitating the criminal Israeli settlement enterprise.” In May 2024, Booking.com rejected the allegations and affirmed, “we will permit listings anywhere in the world unless legally prohibited by the domestic laws…Currently, there are no applicable laws that prohibit listing properties in Israeli Settlements in the West Bank.”
• In October 2023, SOMO was a signatory on a letter to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to “Issue Arrest Warrants, Investigate Israeli Crimes and Intervene to Deter Incitement to Commit Genocide in Gaza.”

Staff

• Lydia de Leeuw
  • In July 2018, SOMO Strategic Litigation Lead Lydia de Leeuw was refused entry into Israel because she“advances boycotts and consistently takes part in activities against the state.” 
  • In April 2024, Leeuw tweeted, “This is what an occupation army does. It destroys, it kills, wounds and abducts. An occupying power is not going to end its occupation voluntarily. We all have a duty to bring it to an end. @KarimKhanQC, justice delayed is justice denied.”
  • In December 2023, Leeuw tweeted, “This is not a war against #Hamas.This is a war against the Palestinians. So that #Israel can continue what it has been doing since 1948; ethnic cleansing for the purpose of a Jewish-only ethnostate.” 
  • In December 2023, Leeuw tweeted, “Can we add the United States to the #BDS list?”
  • On October 15, 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack, Leeuw tweeted, “The ONLY relevant question now is: Can we, the international community, prevent #Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in #Gaza?”
  • In May 2017, Leeuw tweeted, “Funding settlements + apartheid is the problem, not religion. Confusing Judaism with Zionism (political ideology) is dangerous + flawed.”
  • In December 2011, Leeuw tweeted, “How to maintain colonization, occupation and apartheid for decades? Brainwash your citizens: replace soap with skunk water #Israel #Palesine (sic).”
• • In February 2024, Hopenhaym was a signatory on a statement welcoming “the suspension of arms transfers to Israel by Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the Japanese company Itochu Corporation” and “urged other States to immediately halt arms transfers to Israel, including export licenses and military aid.”
  • In January 2024, Hopenhaym was a signatory on a statement titled, “ICJ ruling offers hope for protection of civilians enduring apocalyptic conditions.” According to the statement, “ The court order is urgently needed to protect the very existence of the Palestinian people from potentially genocidal actions.”
  • In November 2023, Hopenhaym was a signatory on a statement titled, “UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people.” The statement claimed “Grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians in the aftermath of 7 October, particularly in Gaza, point to a genocide in the making… This occurs amidst Israel’s tightening of its 16-year unlawful blockade of Gaza… intentional starvation amounts to a war crime… Such egregious violations cannot be justified in the name of self-defense after attacks by Hamas on 7 October.”
  • In September 2021, Hopenhaym wrote the forward for Don’t Buy into Occupation’s report titled,“Exposing the financial flows into illegal Israeli settlements.” Hopenhaym wrote, “one of the big gaps we have observed in the case of the Occupied Palestinian Territories: the lack of enough engagement from companies and investors with local groups advocating for corporate accountability and of communities affected by those business operations.”Fernanda Hopenhaym: Member of the Supervisory Board