Watermelon Index launched to expose UK firms’ ‘role in Gaza war’

Progressive International – a global alliance of activists, leaders, and organisations advocating for social justice – has unveiled the Watermelon Index, a live database exposing over 400 UK companies allegedly linked to Israel’s war on Gaza and the occupation of Palestinian territories.

Described as a “tool for worker-led resistance against the occupation and genocide in Palestine”, the index provides detailed evidence of corporate complicity across sectors such as military support, settlement production, population control, economic exploitation, and cultural entanglements.

The initiative envisions workers as key agents within these corporations who hold unique powers to disrupt supply chains, halt production, and challenge complicity with Israel’s war on Gaza from within, in a crucial act of solidarity with Palestinians on a global scale.

“Israel’s war machine is enabled by the financial, military, diplomatic, and cultural support it gets from companies around the world,” Watermelon Index organiser, Kimia Talebi, told The New Arab.

“Workers in these companies hold the power to throw sand in the wheels of the war machine and many thousands of them are [doing so], like the Indian dock workers at 11 ports refusing to handle weaponry that could be used to kill Palestinians.”

The index also seeks to empower consumers by offering transparency and actionable insights into corporate involvement in Israel’s actions against Palestinians, such as highlighting Airbnb’s alleged direct and indirect support for Israel via five categories: the military, settlement production, population control, economic exploitation, and cultural involvement.

It provides detailed evidence for each category, such as Airbnb’s listings of accommodations in illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Notably, Airbnb’s website advertises properties in 39 settlements in the occupied West Bank alone.

Based on the findings of the index, Progressive International says that it is particularly focused on companies – from corporate giants to smaller firms – across technology, energy, logistics, shipping, finance, and insurance.

Many have heeded calls from Palestinian trade unions to workers and labour groups around the world to stand up to their employers’ complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians, resulting in dockworkers in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Namibia, and India refusing to handle military cargo likely to be used in the war on Gaza.

Pressure from Japanese unions and protestors forced the corporate giant Itochu to end cooperation with Israel’s largest private military company, Elbit Systems.

The Watermelon Index is seeking to support existing worker-led campaigns and foster new ones, according to Progressive International, which is comprised of over 100 political parties, trade unions, social movements, and activist groups.

“Please use the Index to find existing campaigns against corporate complicity or contact us to get support in setting up new ones,” says Talebi.

“The time to act has never been more urgent — and the need for workers to reclaim their power has never been clearer.”