Palestinians to Ask for Closure of Companies in Zionist Settlements

Date: 14 February 2020 - 23:11

News ID: ۷۶۱۰۶

RAMALLAH (Dispatches) – Palestinians will address letters next week to various countries asking them to close their companies that are working in Zionist settlements in the West Bank, a senior Palestinian official has announced.
Saeb Erekat, secretary general of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee said the letters will be directly addressed to Britain, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, and Thailand asking them to shut down their companies.
"Companies in the United States will be directly addressed to close down because ties with the American administration have been severed,” Erekat told reporters in Ramallah.
He added that the Palestinian side "will prosecute these companies in the international courts and request financial compensation for using the Palestinian resources and working in settlements.”
On Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights (UNHCHR) published a report, which unveiled the names of international companies and factories that work in the Zionist settlements in the West Bank.
"Publishing the report and unveiling the companies is a victory for the Palestinian rights and for the international law,” said Erekat.
The Zionist regime suspended its ties with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in an angry reaction to her office’s publication of the long-anticipated list of over 100 firms active in settlements built on occupied Palestinian land.
Zionist foreign minister Israel Katz’s office said that he had ordered "exceptional and harsh measure” in response to Bachelet’s office "serving the BDS campaign,” referring to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement —an international campaign promoting various forms of boycott against the Tel Aviv regime until it meets its obligations under international law.
It also noted that the Zionist foreign minister intends to protect the companies operating in the occupied territories.
Of the entities listed, 94 are domiciled in the occupied lands and 18 in the U.S., France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Thailand and the UK.
The database took almost four years to complete, after being mandated in a resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2016.
The resolution urged the OHCHR to produce a "database for all businesses engaged in specific activities related to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the UN list as the work of a "biased and uninfluential body.”
"Instead of dealing with human rights, this body is trying to blacken Israel’s name. We reject any such attempt in the strongest terms and with disgust,” he said in a statement. "Whoever boycotts us will be boycotted.”