UN: 214 companies involved in activities linked to Zionist settlements

The UN office said the findings were included in an update to a database established in 2020 under a mandate from the UN Human Rights Council. The database lists companies involved in specified settlement-related activities across 10 categories.

The latest update covers companies operating in sectors including agriculture, transportation, storage, waste management, energy, food, and hospitality. Sixty-one companies were added to the database, while five were removed after a review concluded that they were no longer involved in the activities covered by the mandate.

The UN Human Rights Office said it is continuing to review other companies whose assessments were not completed before the report was issued, following a public call for submissions launched in 2024.

Of the information concerning 596 companies, the office reviewed data on 215 companies over the past year and completed reviews of another 126 companies this year, with the assessment focusing on the impact of corporate activities on the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

The office classified companies’ involvement in adverse human rights impacts into three categories: causing, when a company’s activities are sufficient on their own to negatively affect the enjoyment of a human right; contributing, when a company’s activities combine with those of another party to contribute to an adverse impact; and directly linked, when a company’s operations, products, or services are directly connected to adverse human rights impacts.

The assessment found that 200 of the 214 listed companies contributed to adverse impacts on the right to self-determination, while 14 were directly linked to such impacts. The UN office did not identify any of the listed companies as directly causing the adverse impacts.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the report serves as a reminder to businesses of their human rights responsibilities, stressing the importance of conducting due diligence to avoid involvement in human rights violations or abuses.

The database is dominated by Israeli companies, alongside international companies from 10 other countries. These include eight companies from the United States, three from Spain, two each from the United Kingdom, France, and China, and one each from South Africa, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, and Mexico.

The update to the UN database comes amid continued international scrutiny of economic activities linked to Zionist settlements established in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Al-Quds. The United Nations maintains that Israeli settlements violate international law and has called for measures to avoid contributing to their entrenchment or expansion.