UN identifies 214 firms linked to Israeli settlements

The United Nations on Friday released a fresh update of its database of companies with activities in Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, listing 214 firms from 11 countries.

Since last year's update, the UN rights office added an additional 61 companies to the database and had removed five companies.

But major firms like Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola Solutions and TripAdvisor remained on the list.

The report, which was harshly criticised by Israel, served as a "reminder to companies that they have human rights responsibilities", UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

Turk, who has previously condemned Israel's settlement policy in the occupied West Bank as a war crime, stressed that firms were "expected to conduct due diligence to ensure that they do not become involved in human rights violations or abuses".

While most of the companies on the list were based in Israel, others were based in Canada, China, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Britain and the United States.

There were two Spanish companies removed from the database since last year, along with one each from Canada, Israel and Portugal.

- 'Smear campaign' -

The rights office said in its report that countries should "act with diligence" to make sure companies working in conflict zones are not contributing to abuses.

Israel said on Friday the list was "a distorted mechanism" that was "established solely to persecute the Jewish state".

The country's mission to the UN in Geneva said in a statement sent to AFP that it was used to "advance a smear campaign against business enterprises that committed no wrongdoing".

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the Palestinian territory, which are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians.

The database was first produced in 2020 after the UN rights office was asked to list companies found to be taking part in any of 10 activities.

They included construction, surveillance, demolitions and destruction of agricultural land in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Despite a requirement for the database to be updated annually, it has been revised just twice before, in 2023 and 2025.

In all, it has received submissions about 596 companies, of which it has so far reviewed 381.

For the first time this year the list included information on each company's level of involvement in adverse impacts on the right to self-determination.

They said 200 of the firms -- including Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola Solutions and TripAdvisor -- were in contributing to those adverse impacts.

The remaining 14 were in a lower category of being directly linked to adverse rights impacts.

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