New
UN report says 'businesses play a central role in furthering the
expansion of Israeli settlements'
The
United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday it has
identified 206 companies doing business linked to Israeli settlements
in the West Bank, where it said violations against Palestinians are
"pervasive and devastating".
"Businesses
play a central role in furthering the establishment, maintenance and
expansion of Israeli settlements," the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR) report said. "In doing so, they are
contributing to Israel's confiscation of land, facilitate the
transfer of its population into the Occupied Palestinian Territory
and are involved in the exploitation of Palestine's natural
resources," it said.
Israel
fears that companies on any UN "blacklist" may become
targets of boycotts or divestment aimed at stepping up pressure over
its settlements, which most countries and the world body view as
illegal.
"The
majority of these companies are domiciled in Israel or the
settlements (143), with the second largest group located in the
United States (22). The remainder are domiciled in 19 other
countries," the UN human rights office said in a statement.
The UN
report did not identify the companies and added that its database was
not yet complete.
Israel's
UN envoy Danny Danon, who lives in a settlement, strongly condemned
the report, noting it was released "on the day that the UN is
marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day".
"This
is a shameful act, which will serve as a stain on the UNHRC forever,"
he said. "We will continue to act with our allies and use all
the means at our disposal to stop the publication of this disgraceful
blacklist."
The
report said that the work in producing the UN database "does
not purport to constitute a judicial process of any kind".
Still, businesses operating in the Occupied Territories have a
corporate responsibility to carry out due diligence and consider
"whether it is possible to engage in such an environment in a
manner that respects human rights," it said.
Israel's
main ally, the United States, says the 47-member council is stacked
with opponents of Israel. US ambassador Nikki Haley told the council
last June that it was reviewing its participation given the forum's
"chronic anti-Israel bias".
The
report is to be debated at the OHCHR session on 26 February.
More
than 600,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank,
including East Jerusalem.
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