Pompeo Slams UN List of West Bank-Tied Companies

Victor Westerkamp
By Victor Westerkamp
February 15, 2020Middle East
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Pompeo Slams UN List of West Bank-Tied Companies
Bulldozers begin constructing a new neighborhood in the Jewish settlement of Ariel, in the West Bank on Sept. 27, 2010. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed a U.N.-released list of 112 companies with ties to Israeli settlements on the Jordan West Bank, calling it “unrelenting anti-Israel bias.”

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) mandated the list in 2016 of companies that do business with settlements on the Isreali-occupied territories on the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

“The United States has long opposed the creation or release of this database,” Pompeo said in a statement. “Its publication only confirms the unrelenting anti-Israel bias so prevalent at the United Nations … Attempts to isolate Israel run counter to all of our efforts to build conditions conducive to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that lead to a comprehensive and enduring peace.”

Mike Pompeo speaks
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the Heritage Foundation’s annual President’s Club Meeting in Washington on October 22, 2019. (Patrick Semansky/A.P. Photo)

The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights per Michelle Bachelet attested that the list should not be understood as an attempt to blacklist individual companies.

“While the settlements as such are regarded as illegal under international law, this report does not provide a legal characterization of the activities in question, or of business enterprises’ involvement in them,” Bachelet said.

Meanwhile, Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), both members of the Finance Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee, sponsored a bipartisan initiative for the reenactment of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act and are adamantly opposed to such a list.

They fear that it will harm American-Israeli interests and will lead to boycotting American companies doing business in Israel and the West Bank. A total of 18 companies were listed as based outside Israel, and six of them in the United States.

“The Human Rights Council should use its energy to encourage both Israel and the Palestinians to return to good faith negotiations,” said Cardin in a statement. “The United States cannot stand by while American businesses are being pressured by a foreign entity because of their work in Israel, one of our key allies.”

Bruno Stagno, Deputy Executive Director for Advocacy at Human Rights Watch, said, “The long-awaited release of the UN settlement business database should put all companies on notice: to do business with illegal settlements is to aid in the commission of war crimes,” Haaretz reported.

US Will No Longer View Israeli Settlements as Illegal

Last year in November, in what can be seen as a significant boost to U.S.–Israel relations, Pompeo announced that the United States would no longer view Israeli settlements as illegal under international law.

“The Trump administration is reversing the Obama administration’s approach towards Israeli settlements,” he said on November 18 at the White House. “The U.S. public statements on settlement activities in the West Bank have been inconsistent over decades.”

“After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this administration agrees with President Reagan,” Pompeo said, referring to former President Ronald Reagan’s position that Israeli West Bank settlements weren’t inherently illegal.

Pompeo said the decision to reverse the legal opinion hasn’t harmed the prospects of a two-state solution.

“We recognized the reality on the ground. We provided a space for Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate. We have increased the likelihood” of a solution, he said. “We have provided the very space for Israel and the Palestinians to come together. What we did here was conduct a legal analysis,” Pompeo said.

Epoch Times reporter Jack Phillips contributed to this report

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