UN adds 68 companies to blacklist for alleged complicity in rights violations in Israeli settlements

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GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations has added nearly 70 more companies to a blacklist of firms from 11 countries that it says are complicit in violating Palestinian human rights through their business ties to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The new list spotlights companies that do business that's deemed supportive of the settlements, which are considered by many to be illegal under international law. It includes an array of companies like vendors of construction materials and earth-movers, as well as providers of security, travel and financial services.

The list, formally known as a “database of companies,” now contains 158 companies — the vast majority Israeli. The others are from the United States, Canada, China, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Newcomers to the list include German building-materials company Heidelberg Materials, Portuguese rail systems provider Steconfer, and Spanish transportation engineering firm Ineco. Among those still on the list are travel-sector companies U.S.-based Expedia Group, Booking Holdings Inc. and Airbnb, Inc.

While 68 new companies were added Friday, seven were taken off. A total of 215 business enterprises were assessed in this round, but hundreds more could get a look in the future.

“Businesses working in contexts of conflict have a due diligence responsibility to ensure their activities do not contribute to human rights abuses,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson of the U.N. human rights office. “We call on businesses to take appropriate action to address the adverse human rights impacts of their activities.”

She said countries also have a responsibility to make sure that companies operating in such areas aren't contributing to rights abuses.

The companies in the updated list are active mainly in sectors like construction, real estate, mining and quarrying. The U.N. human rights office, which compiled the list, has advised the companies of their listing and given them a right of reply.

Among the seven companies taken off the list were transportation company Alstom of France, and travel service providers eDreams of Spain and Opodo of Britain.

The U.N.’s main human rights body passed a resolution nearly a decade ago to create the list, and Israel has sharply criticized it since. The revision could further isolate Israel at a time when some of its European allies have recognized an independent Palestinian state over Israel's conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Months in the making, the revised list comes as Israel has made veiled threats to annex parts or all of the West Bank and has approved plans to build thousands of new settlement homes there.

The government approved a controversial settlement project last month that would effectively split the West Bank in two, a step that would all but bury hopes for establishing a Palestinian state in the territory. Gaza is not covered by the list, because Israel no longer has settlements there.

The international community says dividing the territory as part of a two-state solution would leave Israel as a country with a solid Jewish majority and allow the Palestinians to realize their dreams of self determination.

The alternative, many say, is an apartheid-like country divided roughly evenly between Israelis and Palestinians in which Jews would rule over the Palestinians.

This is the first revision to the list since 2023, when 97 companies were listed — down from 112 in the original list published in 2020. Among those 15 taken off last time were U.S.-based food and cereal giant General Mills.

The blacklist was born of a vote by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, which has no legal authority or ability to force companies to act: Its main goal is to name and shame businesses with ties to the settlements. It is not clear what impact inclusion on the blacklist has had on the companies’ bottom lines.

The council decided that 10 business activities in the settlements could merit inclusion of a company in the list, such as dumping pollution in Palestinian areas; supplying bulldozing equipment, surveillance gear, and even helping people book travel or lodging in the settlements.

The U.N. has budgeted enough funding for a single full-time staffer to handle the painstaking, sensitive work of gathering and assessing claims and communicating with companies in question. Claims about hundreds of other companies are awaiting assessment.

With broad international backing, the Palestinians claim the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza for a future independent state.

Israel, which captured all three areas in the 1967 Mideast war, has annexed east Jerusalem — a step that is not internationally recognized — and today claims the entire city as its united and eternal capital. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem, home to the city’s most important holy sites, as their capital. These competing claims are at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel has said it has no intention of dismantling any of its West Bank settlements.

Over 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, in addition to more than 200,000 in east Jerusalem. The postwar future of Gaza, which has suffered massive destruction, remains unclear, though Netanyahu has ruled out an independent Palestinian state.

Israel and the U.S. regularly accuse the Human Rights Council of anti-Israel bias, and the Trump administration withdrew the United States in 2018 — faulting the U.N. for accepting autocratic governments that the administration said have repeatedly violated human rights.