OMM Redaksiyası
Palestine on Tuesday urged companies around the world to review their relationships with businesses included in an updated United Nations database of firms involved in activities linked to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
According to the UN human rights office, the updated database lists 214 companies from 11 countries, including 61 businesses added in the latest review.
Speaking to the UN Human Rights Council, Palestine’s permanent representative in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, said many of the listed firms were Israeli companies connected to businesses in countries worldwide.
“Any enterprises cooperating with these Israeli enterprises need to review those relationships,” Khraishi said.
UN database updated
The Palestinian envoy welcomed companies’ decisions to withdraw from settlement-related activities, including cases in which firms abandoned previously signed contracts. He also called on the UN human rights office to update the database every year.
Five companies previously included in the database were removed in the latest update after the office found reasonable grounds to believe that their involvement in the specified activities had ended.
Israel was not present when the update was presented to the council and did not use its right of reply as the country concerned.
Spain calls for end to occupation
Spain’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva accused Israel of “systematically violating those fundamental rights of the civilian population” and said Palestinians had been subjected to “intolerable dehumanization”.
He cited military campaigns, attacks by settler gangs, the destruction of homes and vital infrastructure, and the loss of livelihoods amid what he described as a total lack of legal security.
The Spanish envoy called on Israel to comply with UN Security Council resolutions, cooperate with UN human rights mechanisms and meet its responsibilities as the occupying power.
“We reiterate our call to the government of Israel to withdraw from all occupied Arab territories, including from the Golan Heights, and to withdraw their military forces from all of Lebanese territory,” he said.
He added that Israel must immediately reverse measures aimed at the de facto annexation of occupied territories, saying the two-state solution was “the only means for achieving a just, lasting peace”.
