We’ve noticed something strange: every time we call out CISL for a toxic partnership, they edit their website and socials, expunging their ties from the record. This is worrying. It shows that they are much more interested in preserving their reputation (and income flows) than they are in doing the right thing.

To help out, we’re going to do a series of short blog posts outlining CISL’s ties to specific types of harm, starting here with CISL’s ties to arming Israel.

Direct links with arms companies

The headline is that CISL partners with arms companies. Their main point of collaboration is through the Aviation Impact Accelerator, a project led by CISL and the Whittle Laboratory . According to CISL’s website, the project’s technical collaborators include “Rolls-Royce, Boeing, BP, Heathrow and Siemens Energy”¹. The Aviation Impact Accelerator’s own website confirms these ties, listing Boeing, Rolls-Royce and the Royal Air Force as “Contributors and Funders”²

We’ll return to BP, Siemens and the Royal Air Force another time; for now, let’s consider Rolls-Royce and Boeing. In June 2024, UN experts called for arms companies including Rolls-Royce and Boeing to cease the transfer and sale of arms to Israel, claiming that “these companies, by sending weapons, parts, components and ammunition to Israeli forces, risk being complicit in serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian laws”³. Earlier in 2024, the Cambridge University branch of the Universities and College’s Union passed its own motion calling for an end to Cambridge’s partnerships with the two companies, among others⁴.

Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce is a name most associated with luxury cars, but don’t be fooled! The cars have been manufactured by BMW since 1998, leaving Rolls-Royce to focus on what they do best: the manufacture of arms. Rolls-Royce’s subsidiary MTU developed engines for the Israeli nacy ships and for the Merkava 4 and 5 battle tanks, which were used in Israeli attacks on the Shifa and Indonesian hospitals in Gaza, among many others⁵. Rolls-Royce also supply the F-35 fighter programme, providing parts for jets used in attacks on Gaza⁶

Specifically, the F-35’s “LiftSystem” parts are manufactured by Rolls-Royce in the UK, at their Bristol site⁷. It is this same site that CISL uses as a “case study” in a 2023 report, outlining the “extensive sustainability improvements” made at the site⁸. We have to be clear: there is no green genocide. No institute claiming to work for good should be celebrating an increase in efficiency of death machine manufacture.

Boeing

Boeing is even more entangled with the Israeli state, having supplied it with aircraft since 1948⁹. Their arms supplies to Israel include Apache helicopters and F-15 fighter jets. At the beginning of the genocide, Boeing expedited the supply of bombs and JDAM kits (which transform unguided missiles into guided ones). JDAM kits have since been used in Israeli attacks on Habbarieh, Lebanon as well as Deir al-Balah and the Jabalia refugee camp in Palestine¹⁰.

In August 2025, Boeing agreed to sell two more tankers to Israel. An Israeli official said this would “strengthen the military’s long-range strategic capabilities, enabling it to operate farther afield with greater force and with increased scope”¹¹. To put it plainly, Boeing’s tech is helping Israel commit the genocide more efficiently; efficiently, coincidentally, is precisely the agenda of CISL’s Aviation Impact Accelerator.

These companies are plainly facilitating the genocide, and CISL is complicit in this process. For more info receipts, check back here or head to our eternal work-in-progress, the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ecocide.

Footnotes

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20250822141301/https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/convening/aviation-impact-accelerator-aia ↩︎
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20250518011346/https://aiazero.org/the-partners/ ↩︎
3. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/06/states-and-companies-must-end-arms-transfers-israel-immediately-or-risk ↩︎
4. https://web.archive.org/web/20250516085100/https://www.ucu.cam.ac.uk/campaigning-for-boycott-and-divestment-in-solidarity-with-palestine-an-update/ ↩︎
5. https://web.archive.org/web/20250726141925/https://afsc.org/gaza-genocide-companies ↩︎
6. https://web.archive.org/web/20250423011453/https://palestinecampaign.org/psc-company/rolls-royce/ ↩︎
7. https://web.archive.org/web/20250822142113/https://www.declassifieduk.org/the-uk-companies-arming-and-the-people-resisting-the-occupation-of-palestine/ ↩︎
8. https://web.archive.org/web/20240809041712/https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/files/innovate_uk_full_technical_report_11_05_2023.pdf ↩︎
9. https://web.archive.org/web/20240611101150/https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/7372/ ↩︎
10. https://web.archive.org/web/20240611101150/https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/7372/ ↩︎
11. https://web.archive.org/web/20250822143143/https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/israel-place-500-million-us-funded-order-boeing-aerial-refuelling-tankers-2025-08-20/ ↩︎