US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the blacklist published this week by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, naming 112 companies with offices and/or factories operating in Jewish communities in post-1967 territories, saying the move works against efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.
“It is outrageous that the UN Human Rights Commissioner would release the database of companies operating in Israeli-controlled territories,” he said in a statement. “Its publication confirms the unrelenting anti-Israel bias so prevalent at the UN.
“The United States has long opposed the creation or release of this database, which was mandated by the discredited UN Human Rights Council in 2016,” Pompeo said, according to Reuters. “Its publication only confirms the unrelenting anti-Israel bias so prevalent at the United Nations . . . Attempts to isolate Israel run counter to all of our efforts to build conditions conducive to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that lead to a comprehensive and enduring peace.”
Pompeo added the US government “has not and will never provide any information to support the compilation of these lists. We call on United Nation member states to join us in rejecting this effort.
“Attempts to isolate Israel damage momentum toward Israeli-Palestinian negotiations,” Pompeo said.
A spokesperson for Bachelet denied that the list was a “blacklist” and said it was not intended to qualify any of the companies’ business activities as illegal, according to a report published by Nasdaq.com .