The United Nations human rights office has added 61 companies to its database of businesses operating in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, bringing the total to 214 firms from 11 countries found to be involved in activities that violate Palestinian human rights.
The update, released on Friday, is the latest expansion of a list first published in 2020 following a Human Rights Council vote. Among the newly named companies are Israeli pesticides maker ADAMA, part of the Chinese-owned Syngenta Group, Israeli real estate investment company Alony Hetz, and Spain’s Salvat Logistica. The vast majority of listed companies are Israeli, with others based in France, Germany, China, the United States, and elsewhere. Five companies were removed from the previous list of 158 after being assessed as no longer meeting the criteria.
The database covers companies active across sectors including energy, food, hospitality, transport, and agriculture, assessed based on confidential submissions to the UN human rights office. A further 60 or so companies were reviewed but not included because they did not meet the threshold. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the report served as a reminder to companies that they have human rights responsibilities and are expected to conduct due diligence to ensure they are not involved in violations.
The list has no legal enforcement power and its main function is to name and expose businesses whose operations support an enterprise the international community considers illegal. Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva called it a “distorted mechanism” and a “political tool” used to run a “smear campaign” against companies it said had committed no wrongdoing. Israeli officials have consistently rejected the database since its inception.
The expansion comes as the settlement enterprise faces growing international economic pressure. Earlier this month, Britain, France, and Canada announced bans on trade with illegal Israeli settlements, joining a growing list of countries taking concrete measures against the settlement economy the UN has been documenting since 2020. Norway is advancing legislation to criminalize settlement trade with up to three years in prison. The UN database and the European trade bans are two prongs of the same pressure, one naming the companies, the other cutting off their markets.
“Reprinted from…”https://countercurrents.org/2026/09/un-adds-61-israeli-companies-to-settlement-blacklist-bringing-total-to-214/