Countries with the worst human-rights records, such as Cuba and Venezuela, pushed the list due to their anti-Israel views, not because of an attachment to international law.
By JPOST EDITORIALThe empty seat of Israel is pictured during a session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, 2019(photo credit: DENIS BALIBOUSE/REUTERS)
The UN has reached a new low. The UN Human Rights Council, usually in the news because it includes countries with the worst records of human rights abuse in the world, has now targeted companies that do business in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The so-called blacklist includes 112 companies with the aim of letting the world know who it is that works in Israel’s alleged “occupied territories.”The publication of the list has been in the works since 2016. Countries with the worst human-rights records, such as Cuba and Venezuela, pushed the list due to their anti-Israel views, not because of an attachment to international law. The Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation also supported the list, neither of which are known for having members with stellar human-rights records.Unsurprisingly, the UN does not have a global standard for how it labels companies that operate in different disputed areas, such as Crimea, Kashmir, Afrin, Northern Cyprus or Western Sahara. As usual, the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has merely replicated the antisemitism of previous eras, targeting Israel the way global antisemites target Jews. There is no reason Israel’s role in the West Bank is especially unique. Corporations that do business in the West Bank are no more involved in human-rights abuses than those accused of fueling such abuses from the Gulf to Asia.As Lahav Harkov wrote in Thursday’s Post, there is no explanation for why some companies active in the West Bank, in the categories the UN mentions, are on the list of 112 while others are not. The UN supposedly seeks to target companies involved in surveillance, demolition, pollution and hindering the Palestinian economy. The list includes Motorola, Airbnb, General Mills and TripAdvisor, among others. This is confusing, since TripAdvisor enables users to review places in Palestinian areas. Why punish a company that assists people in finding tourism opportunities in Palestinian areas merely because the same company might highlight restaurants that are also owned by Israeli citizens?Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will contest the decision with all of its strength and will boycott those who try to boycott it. President Reuven Rivlin said the companies deserve support, and former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also slammed the list.The Palestinians want to use the report to go after companies. This puts a target on these companies and their legal departments, which will now have to examine potential ramifications. Depending on how the companies respond, this could have economic ramifications for Israel and the Palestinians. Companies may seek to pursue disclosure on the methodology used to place them on the list, contesting their inclusion.Israel must work with its partners in the international community to oppose both this list and the biased Human Rights Council. The council is routinely a home for the worst abusers of human rights, a kind of “old boys’ club” used to shield countries from criticism and distract the world by singling out Israel.As such, the council is the embodiment of antisemitism, holding a regular agenda item against Israel at each of its three annual sessions. The item calls Israel to “immediately end its occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” without any mention of Palestinian terrorism, and expresses concern at “the suffering of Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan,” without holding Syrian President Bashar Assad accountable for massacring his own citizens.In 2018, the US left the UNHRC due to its anti-Israel slant, with then-US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley calling it a “cesspool of political bias.” Israel, which was not a member, cut ties with the body immediately after, but continued contacts with the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the professional arm of the UNHRC. Now, Jerusalem has completely cut ties with the office’s commissioner Michelle Bachelet as well.We welcome that move, as it targets the UN’s double standards when it comes to Israel.
For years, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigners have sought to target companies and celebrities who do business in Israel, but they have mostly failed to harm Israel’s economy or foreign trade. Let’s hope that the international companies named on this new blacklist also realize that it has no teeth and decide to give it the zero attention it deserves.
