NHS staff blockade the entrance to NHS England’s headquarters in central London demanding the cancellation of its contract with Palantir, which supplies advanced technology to Israel’s military, April 3, 2024
PALANTIR has been awarded a contract to analyse the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) internal intelligence data, sparking concerns over possible leaks.
The FCA confirmed on Sunday that the US tech company will aim to help tackle financial crime and identify risks to consumers and markets.
A spokesman added: “We ran an open, competitive procurement process and have strict controls in place to ensure data is protected.”
But Cardiff University’s Professor Michael Levi, an internationally recognised expert in money laundering, told the Guardian that it was “a relevant question as to whether Palantir’s owners might tip off their friends about methodologies.”
He asked: “What are the protocols agreed between the FCA and Palantir about the onward use of things that they have learned in that process?”
…
Amnesty International UK’s business and human rights director Peter Frankental said: “Companies linked to human rights abuses should not be given access to sensitive UK public data full stop. First it was our health data, now it’s financial intelligence.
“The UK government is taking an unacceptable risk by allowing Palantir Technologies to embed itself in systems handling the public’s most sensitive information and profit from it at the expense of our privacy, integrity and values. We are calling for a full review into whether it is appropriate to grant this level of access to a company so closely associated with some of the most serious human rights concerns of our time.”
CAMPAIGNERS challenged Glasgow’s annual Pride event over the weekend over its sponsorship ties to Israel’s violence against Palestinians.
Hundreds of No Pride in Genocide (NPIG) activists gathered in Kelvingrove Park on Saturday, where the annual Pride march began, forming a “radical bloc” to demand that the event reject companies directly profiting from Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Among the event’s sponsors is US financing giant JP Morgan, which holds $22 million (£16.4m) in shares in Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems, as well as $600m (£447m) in Israeli sovereign war bonds.
Last year, NIPG mobilised a similar bloc within the 2024 Pride march, with their numbers making up nearly half the total procession.
Despite pressure over the past year, the group say that Glasgow’s Pride organisers have refused to engage directly with them.
NPIG accuse organisers of enabling “pinkwashing” — a term used to describe promoting LGBTQ+ inclusivity to deflect from broader human rights abuses.
Activists protest against insurance companies underwriting the arms trade, migrant detention facilities and climate destruction, March 25, 2025
INSURANCE firms complicit in climate disaster, human rights abuses and Israel’s genocide in Gaza were stormed by protesters as marches were held across the country today.
Two were arrested for climbing one of the Corinthian columns in front of the Royal Exchange in the City of London, dropping a banner bearing the legend “Boycott.”
Other protesters “crashed” insurers’ offices and occupied foyers as marches took place in city centres as part of the Boycott Bloody Insurance (BBI) campaign.
Activists targeted the offices of Aviva, AIG, Allianz and Axa for investing more £1.3 billion in companies supplying military equipment used by Israel since October 7 2023.
Protests took place in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Lancaster, Guildford, Blackburn and Preston.
Groups involved in the protests include Coal Action Network, Palestine Youth Movement (PYM), Parents 4 Palestine, Energy Embargo for Palestine, Tipping Point UK, Youth Front for Palestine and Axe Drax.
Andrew Taylor of BBI said: “Insurers underwrite weapons, detention centres and fossil fuels, causing environmental destruction, human rights abuses and genocide.
“We are calling on organisations across the UK to boycott deadly insurance companies.
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWREOrcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Health workers and activists ramp up their campaign to oppose surveillance company Palantir’s role in managing NHS data
Health workers and activists in Britain are intensifying their campaign against US-based surveillance and data company Palantir, as Keir Starmer’s government accelerates its push to involve the notorious firm in managing National Health Service (NHS) data.
Palantir first gained a foothold in the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic, securing contracts outside standard procurement processes and enjoying popularity among high-ranking health officials. The company, infamous for its involvement in operations such as the US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and migrant persecution under the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), soon expanded its role in Britain. By last year, it had won a £330 million (USD 417 million) contract to implement the Federated Data Platform (FDP), intended to modernize medical data management across England.
Not all NHS institutions are currently able to share data because of differing systems. Both Conservative and Labour governments have identified this as the main reason for bottlenecks in the health system and claimed that resolving the problem would lead to improvements to care. However, organizations like Medact, Just Treatment, and Corporate Watch warn that entrusting this task to Palantir could deepen issues rather than solve them.
Similarly, many health experts have highlighted how the FDP would effectively lock the NHS into dependency on Palantir. The company’s systems are designed in a way to make data extraction difficult and integration with industry-standard analytics costly and complicated, so users are compelled to keep using them. “Palantir’s system pushes people to its own proprietary systems; and switching costs [for the NHS] will be very high,” Doctors’ Association and Foxglove warned in a 2023 report.
The current government is pushing forward with this form of private sector expansion in the NHS despite warnings from trusts and experts that the results will fall far short of expectations. In fact, some NHS organizations being forced to adopt the FDP under Labour’s administration have said that the new platform could result in a loss of functionality compared to the systems they currently rely on.
While there is general agreement among analysts that data sharing and usage within the NHS could be significantly improved, they argue that these improvements can and should be achieved through local and regional initiatives. In contrast to the top-down model ushered in by the FDP, these initiatives would build on existing systems and expertise, avoiding handing over control to a private company with a track record of human rights abuses.
Concerns that the FDP could make the NHS entirely dependent on Palantir are sharpened by fears over how patient data might be used. As one of the world’s largest public healthcare systems, the NHS holds an unique health dataset. While such data has immense potential to strengthen public services, entrusting it to corporate partners poses great risks. For instance, it could be exploited for purposes such as tracking and criminalizing migrants—a practice that has been systematically pursued under Britain’s hostile environment policies.
Palantir takes pride in finding new applications for data, specifically to reinforce Western dominance. Given that the full scope of the FDP remains unclear, there is significant concern that NHS data could also be exploited to boost Palantir’s surveillance tools. These tools are already being deployed in Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Palantir’s leadership has been outspoken in its support for Israel, openly aligning with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government even as it proceeded to kill tens of thousands of Palestinians. The company is actively testing—or rather, showcasing—its artificial intelligence (AI) models through Israel’s attacks in Palestine and Lebanon. This indicates a clear intent to monetize these tools further by marketing them to other states preparing to go on killing sprees.
Handing over NHS medical data to Palantir would deepen the Starmer administration’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes, health justice organizations warn. Such a move risks staining the NHS’s reputation, turning its dataset into a tool for oppression internationally while undermining public trust in the healthcare system at home.
Many had hoped that a change in government in July would mean an end to the FDP. However, “instead of hitting reset, Labour hit accelerate,” Just Treatment remarked during a No Palantir in the NHS meeting in November. This response reflects Labour’s priorities when it comes to the public healthcare provider. “If the government were setting out to implement reforms in the way that our data is held to improve health outcomes and improve the NHS, they would be going about it in a way that maximizes public trust, maximizes public and health service and health worker support for those initiatives,” the organization remarked during the meeting.
Instead, the government appears more interested in using national health data for economic gain. This approach aligns closely with recommendations from neoliberal policy advisors, such as those at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, who have recently called for the use of NHS data as a means to boost Britain’s economic standing.
Although the implementation of the FDP is progressing, activists argue that it is not too late to stop it—especially if local groups escalate their efforts. They emphasize that by increasing pressure, health workers and activists could not only push for the cancellation of Palantir’s FDP contract but also demand the termination of all agreements with companies complicit in Israel’s occupation. While Palantir is currently a key focus, the organizations highlighted that this campaign is just the beginning, serving as a starting point for broader action.
People bury the bodies of Palestinians taken by the Israeli military during operations in Gaza and returned this week, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, September 26, 2024
CAMPAIGNERS across Britain are stepping up pressure on councils to end ties with weapons companies that are complicit in “Israel’s apartheid” through their pensions schemes.
Lewisham residents and activists will hold a rally outside Lewisham Town Hall on Wednesday October 2, as councillors hold their regular meeting.
The rally will demand that the council disclose and divest the pension scheme it manages away from arms manufacturers.
The action follows the passing of a resolution this month by the council’s pensions investment committee to explore divesting Lewisham’s pension funds from companies involved in arms trade, facilitating human rights abuses and operating in illegally occupied Palestinian territories.
Cllr Liam Shrivastava, who seconded the resolution, warned 13.4 per cent of the council’s pension fund is managed by BlackRock, which holds significant investments in Israel and arms companies including Lockheed Martin, RTX Northrop Grumman, Boeing and General Dynamics.
NHS staff blockade the entrance to NHS England’s headquarters in central London demanding the cancellation of its contract with Palantir, which supplies advanced technology to Israel’s military, April 3, 2024
Glasgow Pride
