Israeli settlers to file class action suit against UN

Settlers on Thursday said they planned to file a local class action suit against the United Nations, based on Israel’s anti-boycott law.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Eli Cohen (left) and Yossi Dagan (middle) (photo credit: ROEE HADI)
Eli Cohen (left) and Yossi Dagan (middle)
(photo credit: ROEE HADI)
Settlers on Thursday said they planned to file a local class action suit against the United Nations, based on Israel’s anti-boycott law.
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan announced the plan at an emergency meeting he held in his offices, with Economic and Trade Minister Eli Cohen (Likud) and factory owners from the Barkan Industrial Park.
“Yesterday the organization that called itself the 'UN Human Rights Council' became a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions organization in every sense of the word,” Dagan said. “It. Is an antisemitic organization and a hypocritical organization. It talks about peace, but its real purpose is only to sabotage the State of Israel and harm coexistence,"  Dagan said. As such, he said, the anti-boycott laws can be used against it in local courts.
The suit would target UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The suit would demand compensation and would also name left-wing organizations. Dagan said he did not believe that diplomatic immunity extended to this kind of civil compensation suit.
He spoke in the aftermath of the publication Wednesday by Bachelet’s office of a blacklist of businesses operating in Jewish areas over the pre-1967 lines, the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The list was compiled at the request of the UNHRC. No such data base has been created that warns against the link between business activity and potential human rights abuses.