New report uncovers multinational corporations benefiting from Israel’s illegal settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.
The United Nations has published a comprehensive report identifying over 150 companies, including well-known names such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, and TripAdvisor, that are financially linked to Israel’s unlawful settlement operations in the occupied West Bank.
On Friday, the UN human rights office updated its database to include 158 businesses engaged in activities within settlements that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has declared illegal.
Although the majority of these companies are Israeli, the list also features global corporations headquartered in countries like the United States, Canada, China, France, and Germany.
The report stresses the ethical obligation of these enterprises to refrain from contributing to human rights violations.
It states, “When businesses recognize that their operations have caused or contributed to negative human rights impacts, they must take responsibility by providing or cooperating in appropriate remediation processes.”
This latest update added 68 new companies since the previous release in June 2023, while removing seven firms, including the UK-based online travel platform Opodo and Spain’s eDreams.
Most of the newly listed companies are involved in sectors such as construction, real estate development, mining, and quarrying-industries integral to Israel’s ongoing settlement expansion. Additionally, over 300 companies remain under investigation.
Volker Turk, the UN’s human rights chief, highlighted the importance of corporate accountability in areas affected by conflict.
“This report highlights the critical due diligence responsibilities of businesses operating in conflict zones to ensure their activities do not facilitate human rights abuses,” he remarked.
Israel’s Approach to Displacing Palestinian Communities
This report emerges amid intensified global focus on Israel’s occupation policies, the systemic apartheid in the West Bank, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza since October 2023.
In the West Bank, armed Jewish settlers, often supported by government policies, have been accused of terrorizing Palestinian populations-resulting in civilian deaths, forced evictions, and land seizures that human rights organizations characterize as ethnic cleansing.
Since Israel’s capture of the West Bank in the 1967 conflict, settlements have expanded continuously, fragmenting the territory with infrastructure such as roads, barriers, and checkpoints that restrict Palestinian movement and maintain military control.
A recent UN Commission of Inquiry has charged Israel with implementing a calculated plan to forcibly remove Palestinians, solidify exclusively Jewish settlements, and advance toward full annexation of the West Bank.
Advocacy groups emphasize that the UN database, established by the Human Rights Council in 2016, serves as a crucial instrument to hold companies accountable and encourage their withdrawal from settlement activities. They argue that international firms facilitating Israel’s occupation are complicit in breaches of international law.
While Israel and the United States have consistently criticized the UN for what they perceive as disproportionate scrutiny of Israeli policies in Palestinian territories, Palestinians view the updated list as a stark reminder of the extensive network sustaining a prolonged occupation.
