UNITED STATES MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS

OFFICE OF PRESS AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 13, 2020

Statement by Ambassador Kelly Craft on the Release of a Database of Companies Doing Business in Israeli-controlled Territories

Earlier this week the Security Council met to discuss President Trump’s Vision for Peace, and used that opportunity to speak as one in reinforcing the importance of dialogue and the role of the international community in supporting good-faith engagement between the Palestinians and Israelis. It is thus appalling to me that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet decided yesterday to release a database of international companies doing business in Israeli-controlled territories. This database was created by the discredited UN Human Rights Council with the intent to fuel economic retaliation against listed companies.

The publication of this database is shameful, and only serves to further divide the very people we are trying to bring together. We expect more from the leadership of the UN to foster reconciliation and communication, while not being a source of division. In releasing this database, the High Commissioner falls prey, by intent or accident, to the very impulses that have impeded the path to peace for seventy years. UN leadership, including the Secretary-General, must make their views and voices heard so there can be no mistaking the UN’s intentions as they pertain to peace in the Middle East.

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