The Trump administration is urging the United Nations not to publish a blacklist of international firms that do business in Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land the Washington Post reported on Monday.
According to the Washington Post the U.N. Human Rights Council voted to approve the database of companies last year despite objections from the United States and Israel that described the list as a prelude to anti-Israel boycotts.
American companies on the list drawn up by the Geneva-based council include Caterpillar TripAdvisor Priceline.com Airbnb and others according to people familiar with it. It is not clear whether the list has been finalized.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein the U.N. high commissioner for human rights has told U.S. officials he plans to publish the list by the end of the year and has asked for comments by Sept. 1 from countries where affected firms are headquartered the same source added.
Zeid a Jordanian diplomat who was his country’s ambassador to the United States had agreed to one postponement this year partly in response to a U.S. request. He has indicated he plans to move ahead now arguing that the list is a resource for consumers and travelers.
In a statement Monday Israel’s U.N. ambassador Danny Danon called the council’s moves toward publication of the list “an expression of modern anti-Semitism.”
In June Zeid told the council that the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 violates international law and “has denied the Palestinians many of their most fundamental freedoms and has often been brutal.”
