Major international firms on UN blacklist for operating in Israeli settlements
Some Israeli firms listed mull lawsuit against UN rights body claiming move to be a political maneuver
A number of major international firms, including tech giants Motorola and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), may find themselves on a UN Human Rights Council blacklist of companies doing business in disputed Israeli territories including the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights to be published by the end of the year.
The Yedioth Ahronoth daily published the names of 25 companies on Thursday said to be included on the list, among them, Motorola, HPE, RE/MAX real estate, Ahava cosmetics, Israel Aerospace Industries, and Israeli telecommunications companies HOT, Cellcom, and Partner.
The report also listed Israeli franchises Cafe Cafe, Angel’s Bakery, the Paz gasoline company, Nesher beer, and the Rami Levy and Shufersal supermarket chains as appearing on the list.
In September, Haaretz reported that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein sent letters to 150 global and Israeli firms warning that they would be blacklisted by the world human rights body if they did not cease doing business in Jewish settlements.
The measure has prompted an outcry in Israel, which claims that the Council is stacked against the Jewish state.
According to the Yedioth report, some of the Israeli companies named on the list are considering filing a lawsuit against Hussein and the UN Human Rights Council, protesting that other companies operating in disputed areas are not subject to similar scrutiny and claiming the effort to be a political maneuver.
US President Donald Trump's administration is working thwart the move, a report by the Washington Post said in August, and has threatened to withdraw from the UN forum if it is published.
Israel's Channel 2 previously reported that the list includes some of the biggest companies in Israel, such as Teva, Bank Hapoalim, Coca-Cola Israel, and the Egged bus service, as well as major US firms such as TripAdvisor and Airbnb.
The UN Human Rights Council accepted the proposal put forth by the Palestinian Authority and Arab states to compile such a list in 2016, with the forum's High Commissioner saying that he intends to publish the list by the end of the year.
The Human Rights Council was established in 2006, replacing the Human Rights Commission which had faced frequent criticism, also for its acceptance of members with records of human rights abuse.
Several countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran hold chairs on the 47-member council and are known to be frequent offenders of human rights, however, Israel has been condemned more times than any other country.
International pressure has been previously been placed on companies working in the West Bank, with Israeli company SodaStream announcing in late 2014 it was closing its plant in the West Bank following a boycott campaign that included targeting Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson after she advertised its product.
The plant closed in October 2015, with more than 500 Palestinians made redundant, the company said.
(Staff with agencies)