Official urges UN to end links with businesses complicit in Israeli settlements

The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein has urged the organisation to cut ties with Israeli and international businesses that are complicit in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territory and occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

According to a report by Ynetnews, Al-Hussein called on the UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson to prepare to publish a list of complicit corporations, following the adoption of a resolution by the UN High Commission in March, mandating the compilation of such a list.

“It is reasonable to assume that the UN has ties with businesses which are expected to be included on the list, and therefore the UN must stop these illegitimate links,” Al-Hussein wrote, urging the issue to be highlighted as soon as possible and be brought to the attention of the UN Procurement Division.