Geneva (AP) – The United Nations adds nearly 70 more companies Company blacklist From 11 countries that say they are conspiring to violate Palestinian human rights through business ties with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The new list shines a spotlight on businesses doing business that are considered to support Villagemany people are considered illegal under international law. It includes a variety of companies, including construction materials and Earth Movement vendors, security, travel and financial services providers.
“Companies working in the context of conflict are responsible for due diligence to ensure that their activities do not contribute to human rights abuses,” said Rabina Shamdasani, spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office. “We are calling on businesses to take appropriate action to address the adverse human rights impact of their activities.”
The list currently includes 158 companies. It’s the majority of Israel. Others are from the United States, Canada, China, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
Israel said it “resolutely rejects” the publication. “The database is intended to serve as a blacklist of companies that have not committed fraud,” the Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva said in a statement. “We are urging our friends not to succumb to this ugly attempt to blacklist Israeli businesses.”
The United Nations office said it advised businesses on their listings and gave them the right to reply.
The blacklist came from a vote by the UN Human Rights Council. Its main goal is to be embarrassing to name a business that has a relationship with the settlement. It is not clear how the impact it encompasses the blacklist and how it affected the company’s revenue.
Some companies have been added to the list, some have been removed
Newcomers on the list include Heidelberg Materials, Portuguese railway systems provider Steconfer, and Spanish transportation engineering company INECO. Some of the people still on the list include travel sector companies US-based Expedia Group, Booking Holdings Inc., Airbnb, Inc. There is.
In an email to the Associated Press, Heidelberg documents said it and its subsidiary Hanson Israel (also added) were not aggressive in occupied Palestinian territory, and as a result, they thought their inclusion was “unjusted.”
Steconfer protested that it had a “neutral and non-political role” as a business and asked UN Rights Office to reconsider. The work on the Jerusalem Railway Transport Project is “technical, indirect, strictly limited to improving public transport for all residents and strictly limited without discrimination,” the statement added.
INECO said it provides technical expertise to transport engineering projects that serve civilians “within internationally recognized territory” that have been active since 2005.
Following Israel’s “escalation of violence” in Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, INECO said it has begun reviewing its strategy within the country and began the process of liberation. The result was a “clear decision” to not pursue new contracts with Israeli authorities or businesses, while respecting existing contractual obligations, the statement said.
68 new companies were added on Friday, but seven new companies were removed. A total of 215 companies were valued in this round, but there could be hundreds more in the future.
Among the seven companies off the list were French transport company Alstom, travel services provider Edreams in Spain and Opodo in the UK.
Israel’s increasing isolation
The Rights Council has almost passed a resolution 10 years ago Create a list Israel has since criticised it sharply.. The revision could further segregate Israel when some of the European allies recognized an independent Palestinian state over the act of war with Hamas in Gaza.
A revised list for several months was born as Israel approved plans to threaten parts or all of the West Bank and build thousands of new settlement homes there.
The government approved an effective and controversial settlement project last month Divide the West Bank into twoeverything except burial, a step that desires a Palestinian state of territory.
The international community says that if they divide their territory as part of the two states’ solution, Israel will leave Israel as a Jewish majority country, allowing Palestinians to realize their dream of self-determination.
The alternative is a country like apartheid, which many say is divided almost equally between Israelis and Palestinians, where Jews rule the Palestinians.
Collection and evaluation of claims
This is the first revision of the list since 2023, with 97 companies listed. Original list published in 2020. Among those who took off last time was the US-based food and grain giant general.
The Council determined that 10 business activities in the settlements deserve to include the company on the list, including dumping pollution in the Palestinian region, supplying bulldosing equipment, supplying surveillance equipment, and assisting people in booking trips and accommodation in the settlements.
The United Nations has budgeted enough funds for a single full-time staff to handle the laborious and sensitive work of gathering and assessing the companies in question and communication. Hundreds of other companies’ claims await their evaluation.
With wide range of international support, Palestinians have advocated the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza for future independent states.
Israel has said it is not intending to demolish settlements in the West Bank.
More than 500,000 Israelis live on the West Bank, in addition to more than 200,000 people in East Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out an independent Palestinian state, but the future of post-war Gaza is still unknown, suffering from massive destruction.
Israel and the United States have regularly denounced the Human Rights Council’s anti-Israel bias, and the Trump administration has pulled out the United States.
___
Joseph Federman of Jerusalem. Suman Naishadam of Madrid and Helena Alves of Lisbon, Portugal contributed to this report.
