New York, NY . . . Stephen M. Greenberg, Chairman and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations expressed alarm over reports that United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, is writing to firms regarding the “blacklist” of companies doing business in or with Israeli businesses in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The grossly discriminatory “blacklist” was compiled through an undisclosed process overseen by the High Commissioner and his staff, pursuant to a blatantly anti-Israel resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council in March 2016.
When the resolution passed, the Conference of Presidents leaders called it “a further stain on the legitimacy of the Human Rights Council and stands as yet another insult to the millions of victims of human rights violations around the world whose desperate plight the Council has neither the inclination nor the time to address because of its lopsided focus on Israel.”
Mr. Greenberg and Mr. Hoenlein said, “It is damaging enough that the High Commissioner felt he was required to ‘produce’ this database of enterprises doing business in the settlements. There is no acceptable justification for the High Commissioner to go beyond what is called for in this biased measure. Any further action exacerbates the damage already caused by the resolution.
By informing businesses that they are on the ‘blacklist’, compiled in an opaque process, he will be complicit in furthering the unacceptable aims of the resolution and promoting the economic warfare waged against Israel by the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
We call on responsible member states in the Human Rights Council to follow the example set by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, by forcefully speaking out against any action by the High Commissioner.”
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