In 2018 Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s UN ambassador at the time, was right on the money when she described the UN Human Rights Council as a “cesspool of political bias” against Israel. Her exasperated assessment then is even more relevant now following the publication of the council’s “blacklist” of 112 international and local companies operating in the Israeli-occupied territories. It’s a shameful attempt to strike a blow against the Middle East’s only functioning democracy and upholder of the rule of law and religious freedom. The aim is clearly to mobilise the 47-member UN body, of which Australia is a member, to help the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement campaign seeking to isolate Israel. UN deputy executive director for advocacy Bruno Stagno Ugarte says it puts all the companies “on notice (that) to do business with illegal settlements is to aid in the commission of war crimes”.
Given the companies — from Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia to Motorola — employ hundreds of Palestinian workers, allowing them opportunities they otherwise would not have, it beggars credulity and common sense that the UN should see them as “aiding the commission of war crimes”. No wonder Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein described publication of the blacklist as “the ultimate sign of hypocrisy and bias by the UNHRC” and “a witch-hunt that reminds us of Nazi-era boycotts of the Jewish people”. There is no precedent for any UN body taking similar action over a disputed territory, and no basis in international law for it to do so.
Read the editorial in The Australian.