GENEVA: Publication of a UN database of companies with business ties to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank has been delayed again, drawing the ire of activists who have campaigned for three years.
Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Tuesday that despite progress made since launching the study, further work was needed due to the"novelty of the mandate and its legal, methodological and factual complexity". Activists voiced outrage, noting that Bachelet's predecessor, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, had already delayed its publication in 2017 before stepping down in August 2018."Israeli authorities’ brazen expansion of illegal settlements underscores why the UN database of businesses facilitating these settlements needs to be published," Bruno Stagno Ugarte of Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
Palestinian rights groups and trade unions, in a letter dated Feb 28, had urged Bachelet to publish the database, saying that further delays would undermine her office and foster what they called an"existing culture of impunity for human rights abuses and internationally recognised crimes in the OPT ".
.....operating with two different measures again!.... let's not point the finger at the Jews.....they may turn off the U.S. money to the UN....hypocrites....all of them...