The Palestinian Authority last month sent letters to 50 countries, urging them to clamp down on companies doing business with Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
The Palestinian Authority last month sent letters to 50 countries, urging them to clamp down on companies doing business with Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
A senior Palestinian official told the Financial Times in a report published late Thursday that the Palestinian Foreign Ministry had requested that the governments addressed in the letters issue stringent guidelines to companies operating within their borders that conduct business with the settlements. The countries, it was stated, should instruct companies to either freeze their business dealings with the settlements or withdraw their investments altogether. Commercial activity in the settlements is illegal and constitutes a violation of international law, the letters said according to Haaretz.
Examples of the companies targeted in the new Palestinian campaign are French environmental conglomerate Veolia Environment, which operates projects in occupied East Jerusalem, and British-based global security giant G4S, which supplies equipment for Israeli roadblocks in the West Bank.
Dr. Muhammad Shtayyeh, a former Palestinian minister and a member of the negotiation team in the current peace talks with Israel, told the Times that the campaign was also aimed at achieving the suspension or termination of business dealings with Israeli companies and financial institutions, such as Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi, that both operate in the West Bank and have overseas branches.
It was the role of every country, Shtayyeh emphasized, to make it clear to the companies operating within its borders that investments in West Bank settlements were illegal.
The letters were sent to countries in Latin America and Europe, as well as to South Africa, Australia, Japan and South Korea. Shtayyeh noted that letters had also been dispatched to Arab investors in companies that have business dealings with West Bank settlements.
The Palestinian official stated that the PA has also asked the 50 countries to strongly advise settlers who hold their citizenship that they were breaking the law, by continuing to reside in a West Bank settlement.
