Economists Defend UN Expert Following US Calls for Her Removal

The signatories, including Yanis Varoufakis, Thomas Piketty, and Jayati Ghosh, described the US government’s pressure on UN Secretary-General António Guterres as a clear attempt to suppress scrutiny of the political economy of the occupation. In their letter, the economists argued that Albanese’s findings on the corporate underpinnings of the conflict are essential to understanding the reality on the ground and must be debated without intimidation.

The Trump administration had labeled the UN report an unacceptable campaign of economic warfare, prompting the economists to intervene. They characterized the official US response as a familiar tactic of genocide denial designed to shield colonial power structures and corporate interests from accountability. Albanese’s report specifically identifies major firms such as Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Chevron, and Palantir, documenting how complex corporate networks facilitate the current operations in the occupied territories. She maintains that the private sector can no longer justify business as usual in a landscape defined by systematic dispossession and violence.