UN adds 61 companies to database of firms linked to Israeli settlements

The UN human rights office added 61 companies to its database of businesses involved in specified activities linked to Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, bringing the total to 214. The 25 September update matters to the businesses named because it records the UN’s assessment of their involvement in adverse effects on Palestinian rights, although the database cannot compel them to act.

The office also removed five companies from the previous list of 158. The 214 businesses now listed are based in 11 countries. Most are Israeli, according to Associated Press reporting. Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva rejects the database and says the companies have committed no wrongdoing.

How the update was assembled

The UN human rights office says it received submissions concerning 596 businesses after a public call for input in 2024. Last year it reviewed 215, including companies already listed. For this update, it examined 126 of the remaining 381; 61 were added. The office says it is still reviewing businesses whose assessments could not be completed in time.

The database was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council and first published in 2020, with subsequent updates in 2023 and 2025. This round focused on businesses in agriculture, transport, storage, waste management, energy, food and hospitality, according to the office. Inclusion concerns specified activities connected to settlements; it is not a general assessment of every aspect of a company’s operations.

What the UN says listing means

In this update, the office classified listed businesses by how their activities relate to adverse effects on the right to self-determination. It assessed 200 companies as contributing to those effects and 14 as directly linked to them. None was placed in its highest category, causation. The office says resource limits kept this assessment from addressing effects on other rights.

Those categories describe different relationships between a business’s activity and an adverse impact. Under the UN office’s explanation, contribution means a company’s activities combine with another actor’s in a way that affects the enjoyment of a right. Direct linkage means its operations, products or services are connected to adverse impacts. Causation would mean its activities alone are sufficient to affect the enjoyment of a right.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said the report reminded companies that they have human rights responsibilities and are expected to conduct due diligence. The office says businesses involved in the listed activities should take appropriate action to address adverse impacts. The database itself does not order a company to stop an activity or impose a financial penalty: the Human Rights Council has no power to force companies to act through it, according to the Associated Press.

Companies and responses

Al Jazeera identifies Israeli real estate investment holding company Alony Hetz and Spain’s Salvat Logistica among the new additions. It reports that travel agencies Expedia and Trip Advisor, home rental company Airbnb, and telecommunications firm Motorola were already listed. Naming a business in the database records the UN’s assessment under its stated criteria; the available reporting does not establish that every listed company committed wrongdoing.

Al Jazeera says the UN office received responses from 14 companies following its latest assessment. Its account says the report does not make clear how many of the 126 businesses reviewed were contacted. The UN office says five previously listed companies were removed because it found they were no longer involved in the specified activities. The available UN statement does not identify those five.

Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva called the database a political tool and said it amounted to a smear campaign against businesses that had done nothing wrong, the Associated Press reported. Its objection is a substantive response to the UN’s findings, not a change to the office’s published totals or classification of the listed companies.

Practical effects remain unclear

The Associated Press says it is unclear how inclusion has affected companies financially. The present reporting also does not establish a company-by-company operational effect. Readers therefore cannot infer a loss of revenue, a legal sanction or a required change in business practice from inclusion alone.

The next step identified by the UN office is continued review of businesses it could not assess before this update. That process could clarify the status of additional companies, but the office has not given a completion date in its published statement. For the 61 newly listed businesses, the immediate development is their inclusion in a public UN assessment, with the office calling on companies to examine and address the human rights effects of their activities.