The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has issued the long-awaited and overdue update to the UN database of all business enterprises involved in the Israeli settlements [read: settler colonies] on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (oPt). The database report, originally produced in February 2020, was to be updated annually and presented to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
OHCHR update reviewed the 112 business enterprises listed in its February 2020 report. It re-assesses information available to OHCHR on the same business entities from 1 August 2019 through 31 December 2022. The present update does not purport to provide a complete list of business enterprises engaged in Israeli settlement activity in the oPt.
The scope of the original methodology also did not cover not-for-profit enterprises, which category comprises many parties, including registered charities and Israeli parastatal organizations operating extraterritorially to fund settler colonies and recruit settlers. Thus, many gaps remain in the UNHRC-ordered review of parties to the serious crime of population transfer, including the implantation of settlers and settlements.
The update essentially conveys the information provided by the previously listed enterprises, claiming that they are no longer involved in the activities prohibited by international humanitarian and criminal law. Such self-absolving claims include that of Energix Renewable Energies Ltd., the enterprise installing windfarms in the occupied Syrian Golan and the object of growing opposition of the indigenous Syrian inhabitants. The whitelist also includes Pelegas, Ltd., which actually operates out of an illegal Israeli settler colony, Modiin.
The update nonetheless concludes that it “serves to promote clarity and transparency with respect to the activities in question, and in turn to assist both Member States and business enterprises in complying with respective obligations and responsibilities applicable under international law.”
See also:
Why Syrian Golan Protests Israel`s Wind Turbines
New York Law Aims to Stop Funding of Israeli Colonies
US Nonprofits Drive Illegal Israeli Settlements UN: Palestinians’ Right to Their Natural Resources Biden OKs JNF Settler Colony GrowthHow Israeli Apartheid Affects the Syrian Golan
Why Syrian Golan Protests Israel`s Wind TurbinesNew York Law Aims to Stop Funding of Israeli Colonies
US Nonprofits Drive Illegal Israeli Settlements UN: Palestinians’ Right to Their Natural Resources Biden OKs JNF Settler Colony GrowthHow Israeli Apartheid Affects the Syrian Golan
