U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement Thursday expressing his anger and anger at the u.N. Human Rights Office´s release wednesday of a list of 112 names of companies and businessents engaged in specific activities related to Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Pompeo said in his statement: "I am outraged that High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has published a database of companies operating in Israeli-controlled areas," referring to the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan.
"The United States has long opposed the creation or launch of this database, commissioned by the questionable UN Human Rights Council, in 2016," Pompeo explains, adding, "The publication of these statements confirms the existence of anti-Israel bias at the United Nations."
In his statement, Pompeo pledges that "the United States has never provided any information to the Office of the High Commissioner to support the compilation of these lists, and expresses its support for the U.S. companies referred to. We call on all UN member states to join us in rejecting this effort, which facilitates the campaign of discriminatory boycotts, withdrawals and sanctions (BDS) and delegitimization of Israel."
"Attempts to isolate Israel are contrary to all our efforts to build conditions for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that lead to a comprehensive and lasting peace," he concludes.
High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet issued her statement on Wednesday, at the request of the Human Rights Council in its March 2016 decision, which mandated the Office to issue a database of businesses with business activities identified by the resolution.
In an earlier report (A/HRC/37/39) submitted to the Human Rights Council in March 2018 by former Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra´ad Al Hussein, the Human Rights Office noted at the time that information that was publicly available or received from a number of sources on 307 business entities had been reviewed, and that after completing the research, the number of entities reviewed had reached 321, of which 206 were included.
The current report presents a number of conclusions based on contacts with those business entities included in the decision mandate, as well as a comprehensive review and evaluation of available information.
The report identified 112 commercial entities, and the Office of Human Rights believes it has reasonable grounds to conclude that they have one or several activities related to Israeli settlements as defined in Human Rights Council Resolution 31/36.
The Human Rights Office used a complex and rigorous methodology to determine the list of commercial entities and to apply its mandate of the Human Rights Council. The Office has consulted with the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights and has had extensive discussions with the states concerned, civil society, think tanks, academics and others, as well as extensive consultations with the companies concerned themselves.
