The UN human rights office has \nissued a long-awaited report on companies linked to Jewish settlements \nin the Israeli-occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report names 112 business entities<\/a> the office says it has reasonable grounds to conclude have been involved in activities related to settlements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They include Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group and Motorola Solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Palestinians said the report was a “victory for international law”, but Israel called it “shameful”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About\n 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel’s \noccupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. The settlements \nare widely considered illegal under international law, though Israel has\n always disputed this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Palestinians have long called for the \nremoval of the settlements, arguing that their presence on land they \nclaim for a future independent Palestinian state makes it almost \nimpossible to make such a state a reality.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Media captionWhy Trump’s Middle East plan is so divisive\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last month, US President Donald Trump unveiled a peace plan that may pave the way for Israel annexing the settlements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\n an address to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Palestinian Authority\n President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his rejection of Mr Trump’s plan, \ndescribing the proposed Palestinian state as looking “like a Swiss \ncheese”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “the best plan that exists for the Middle East… and for the State of Israel and for the Palestinians, too”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\n 2016, the UN Human Rights Council mandated the Office of the High \nCommissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to produce a database of companies\n involved in specific activities relating to settlements. The activities\n included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following what it said was a thorough review and assessment of \nall information available, the OHCHR presented a report on Wednesday \nidentifying 112 business entities that it said, there were reasonable \ngrounds to conclude, had been involved in one or more of those \nactivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the entities listed, 94 are domiciled in Israel and\n 18 in six other states – the United States, France, the Netherlands, \nLuxembourg, Thailand and the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The report makes clear that the reference to these \nbusiness entities is not, and does not purport to be, a judicial or \nquasi-judicial process,” the OHCHR said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “While the settlements as\n such are regarded as illegal under international law, this report does \nnot provide a legal characterisation of the activities in question, or \nof business enterprises’ involvement in them,” it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any further steps will be a matter for Human Rights Council member states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I\n am conscious this issue has been, and will continue to be, highly \ncontentious,” said Michelle Bachelet, the High Commissioner for Human \nRights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\n Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Minister, Riyad al-Maliki, said: “The \npublication of the list of companies and parties operating in \nsettlements is a victory for international law.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also called on the Human Rights Council member states to “issue recommendations and instructions to these companies to end their work immediately with the settlements”. Palestinians have protested against President Donald Trump’s peace plan <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Netanyahu suggested his country would retaliate, saying on Twitter: “Whoever boycotts us will be boycotted.<\/a> We strongly reject this contemptible effort.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\n main body representing Jewish settlers, the Yesha Council, said the \nlist had “clear anti-Semitic features” and insisted the companies were \n“working to strengthen the economy in the area and are contributing to \npeace more than the UN has done in all its years of operation”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Human\n Rights Watch said the list “should put all companies on notice: to do \nbusiness with illegal settlements is to aid in the commission of war \ncrimes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were no immediate comments from the companies named on the list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UN human rights office has issued a long-awaited report on companies linked to Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The report names 112 business entities the office says it has reasonable grounds to conclude have been involved in activities related to settlements. They include Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group and Motorola Solutions. The Palestinians said the report was a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4023,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022\/revisions\/4023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What does the report say?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What has been the reaction?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n