Human Rights Watch release report calling on businesses to cease activity in Israeli settlements
On 21 January, MPs and representatives from several NGOs met in a parliamentary committee room to discuss policies towards Israel’s illegal settlements in light of a recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report titled: ‘Occupation Inc. How Settlement Businesses Contribute to Israel’s Violation of Palestinian Rights’.
The 162-page report documents how the Israeli settlements, inherently illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, violate the rights of Palestinians, and details ways in which both Israeli and international businesses, from banks, real estate franchises to waste management companies, have facilitated the growth and operations of Israel’s 237 settlements. As such, Human Rights Watch have called for businesses to stop operating in, financing, servicing, or trading with Israeli settlements in order to comply with their human rights responsibilities.
Report
A spokesperson from Human Rights Watch (HRW) outlined the recent report, detailing the problematic human rights impact of settlements, which include the transferring of Israeli citizens into the occupied territory and displacement of Palestinian citizens, violating the laws of occupationexpressed in the Fourth Geneva Convention, as well as Israel’s confiscation of land, water, and other natural resources for the benefit of settlements, violating the Hague Regulations of 1907. In addition, Israel’s settlement project violates various other international human rights laws.
The report describes the many ways in which businesses are engaged in settlement activity,including those constructing and maintaining settlements and those based in settlements. Citing various case studies, such as a textile manufacturer in a settlement industrial zone that supplies linens to a major American retailer and an Israeli-administrated quarry in a settlement industrial zone owned by a European corporation, it shows that engagement with the settlements facilitates Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law. Ultimately it argues that there is no way to trade with or finance settlements without contributing to human rights abuses, and therefore recommends that states and businesses cease engagement with them.
Discussion
The recent battle between government and local authorities relates to this issue, with the government seeking to pass through Parliament an unprecedented curb on the ability of councils to divest from trade and investments they regard as unethical, including Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
There was concern expressed that the government was conflating other boycott and divestment campaigns, such as a more generalised boycott of Israel, with the strictly legal position to divest from companies operating in Israel’s West Bank settlements. Warnings were made about the further implications if this ban was passed through, which would also involve companies in industries such as the arms trade, fossil fuels and tobacco.
HRW expressed their surprise at the government’s attempts, particularly given recent EU advancements on this issue with the setting of guidelines on labelling Israeli settlement goods and reinforcing this position on 18 January.
There was widespread welcome for the recent EU steps addressing the consumer but questions were raised about how businesses could be further incorporated. HRW argued that consumers must have the necessary information to make informed decisions, and also reiterated calls for businesses to comply with their own human rights responsibilities by ceasing settlement-related activities.
In regards to whether there is a legal requirement to prevent illegal settlement goods from being imported rather than simply labelling them, HRW does not oppose states boycotting but does not adopt a position on it themselves, focusing on the legal framework which in turn should determine government and business behaviour.
The question of exports was raised as well, which are often harder to trace than imported products. Several MPs mentioned that they have been involved in ensuring trade accountability and transparency in the past, and that is it not an entirely new concept or unfeasible.
Asked about the situation in the United States, in light of recent comments by the US ambassador to Israel criticising Israel’s settlements, HRW said that the report was made with an American audience in mind, which is still some distance behind Europe in terms of implementing policies relating to Israeli settlements.
You can find the full report here: https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/01/19/occupation-inc/how-settlement-businesses-contribute-israels-violations-palestinian
