UN Human Rights Council to vote on Palestinian initiative calling on international companies to avoid direct or indirect transactions with businesses linked to the West Bank.
By Barak Ravid and Jack Khoury, HAARETZ
Israel and the United States are making intense diplomatic efforts to block a resolution slated to be voted on Thursday by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that would obligate the organization to draw up a list of all Israeli and international firms operating directly or indirectly in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, senior Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
The resolution was a Palestinian initiative being advanced with the help of Egypt, Pakistan and other Arab and Muslim countries.
The resolution includes a condemnation of the settlements, stating that they are illegal under international law, and calls on the world’s countries to refrain from providing any assistance of any kind to the settlements and to warn companies and businesses against entering into business transactions in the settlements so as not to risk being involved in human rights violations. The resolution also calls on international companies to avoid direct or indirect transactions with the settlements.
But what’s even more worrisome to Jerusalem is Article 17 of the resolution, in which the UNHRC asks the UN high commissioner for human rights “to produce a database of all business enterprises [both Israeli and international – B.R.] involved in the activities in the settlements,” that would be updated once a year.
The activities detailed in the resolution are not just settlement construction but even the supply of construction materials or equipment, the supply of monitoring equipment for the separation barrier, the supply of equipment used in home demolitions, supplying security services or equipment to the settlements or supplying financial or banking services that aid the settlements, including loans and home mortgages.
Israel over the past several weeks has been trying to scuttle the entire resolution or at the very least get Article 17 removed. Israeli ambassadors in various capitals around the world were instructed to convey to the highest echelons that Israel was asking them to oppose the resolution. A senior Israeli official noted that the United States has been helping Israel and has made its objections to the resolution known to the UNHRC’s member countries.
The senior official said that Jerusalem hopes that because there is a consensus among European Union members against the “blacklist” clause, and in light of the opposition by the United States, Panama, Paraguay, and possibly some African countries, that the Palestinians would prefer to remove the problematic section and make do with a more symbolic and declarative resolution that contains no practical measures.
A senior Palestinian official told Haaretz, however, that despite the pressure from the United States and the U.K. to remove Article 17, the Palestinians were determined not to give in.
“There’s an order from President Mahmoud Abbas and PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat to the Palestinian delegation to the UN institutions in Geneva to insist that the resolution be put to a vote as is,” the official said. “Based on our data, in its current version, even without the Europeans, the resolution will win a majority and pass.”
The senior Palestinian official said the Palestinians ascribe great importance to this resolution and the fact that it will produce a UN list of all companies that have direct or indirect connections to the Israeli settlement enterprise. They believe that such a list bearing the UN “stamp of approval” will influence many international companies to cut off their business dealings with the settlements or with Israeli companies that operate in the settlements.
lsatenstein Said:
not dying.. the mercenaries are being moved to other theater of operations as i predicted would occur when the diplomacy took over
lsatenstein Said:
no, just ISLAM.. i have always been safer in states with lax gun laws as the criminals always get the guns in those with strict gun control. You see, that is the difference between theory and reality.
lsatenstein Said:
no IS, muslims. The jihad was there before IS.. IS is one of many muslim incarnations. It is purely a device to recruit foreign mercenaries.
lsatenstein Said:
no cleanup… they simply leave and hand over their gains to the other sunnis who will morph into politics…. the foreign jihadis are moved elsewhere..libya, lebanon, etc.
lsatenstein Said:
In Israel the lunatic muslim finds a knife or a car.. no gun necessary to murder.
Lets look at the dying IS. It is dying. In the states, with their lax gun laws, you get a guy going Religious crazy, fed by the internet, facebook and so forth. Sorry, but access to guns and IS put him over the edge.
But there are another 10,000 gun deaths per year in the USA, and there are not 10,000 IS idiots there too.
In Brussels and France, IS got a stronghold. These youth, these brain washed youth have twisted brains, where wrong is right and vice-versa. Are they 10,000 strong in Brussels?
And what about IS? Their group are coalescing to the fighting areas. Just ripe for a big cleanup.
In the USA, within every two years, you will have a crazy person take a weapon and perform mass murder. The IS is going to be wiped out, of that I am sure.
@ lsatenstein:
lsatenstein Said:
bernard ross Said:
apparently you are clueless even when facts are placed before your face.
lsatenstein Said:
get your facts straight, just obama and hillary, many here support Trump.
lsatenstein Said:
your ignorance is an embarrassment to humanity… except for the honor killers whom you believe must have justifiable grievance.
I expect that the muslim terrorists in san bernadino, paris and brussels must also have justifiable grievances.
So all you pundits are attacking Obama, and Hillory, and Trump, and here we have the USA proceeding to block a resolution harmful to Israel.
If Obama were to read the earlier posting of today, where he was slandered, do you think, as President, and person really responsible for US foreign policy, he would continue to defend Israel. You guys are an embarrassment to every Jew world-wide.
other whan whine and point at others we must ask what is BB’s plan B? His last BS plan with euro labeling was to abandon it as soon as it left the news within a couple of weeks.
there are many ways that Israel could mitigate damage and harm the defamers… they dould dock the pal taxes the amount of losses and create a fund for west bank businesses. They could hold up all the nations who participated and reduce their imports to the pals, they could ban the euros from the west bank…
come on folks, lets face it, BB will give a token noise and it will die down…. Looks like BB wants the settlers out of the west bank as he never has a plan beyond words for dealing with any of these attacks on Israel.. same as with Iran. There are avenues but I doubt that BB will go down any. There are lots of things to do but BB does not want to harm the pals due to his understandings with the GCC. Interestingly the same arab states who BB has understandings with support the bill…. perhaps its a storm in a teacup with little effect….. perhaps the idea is to give them fluff without substance while they wait. Perhaps BB is in agreement and sees it as helping to get the settlers to leave and the rest of Israel to demand leaving.
Israel should ban all arab building in C and allow massive Jewish building in C….. since they are proceeding in breach of Oslo then there is no need for Israel to observe Oslo or seek peace while they are hostile. what BB does will once more show what he is.
Israel should launch a commando raid on the UNHRC, separate out those people from countries they don’t want to piss off, then shoot the others – you know, reps from Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Algeria, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Venezuela, etc.