The UN high commissioner for human rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein of Jordan, is reportedly compiling an official blacklist of companies that do business in the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, thus putting a weapon in the hands of the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel (BDS). Benjamin Weinthal writes:
BDS . . . seeks to impose conditions on the Jewish state outside of negotiations between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli government. . . . By attempting to blacklist Israel and U.S. companies like Caterpillar, TripAdvisor, Priceline.com, and Airbnb, the UN high commissioner is discouraging bilateral peace talks.
The UN’s unilateral move prompted a sharp rebuke from the U.S. ambassador to the world body, Nikki Haley, who said: “Blacklisting companies without even looking at their employment practices or their contributions to local empowerment, but rather based entirely on their location in areas of conflict, is contrary to the laws of international trade and to any reasonable definition of human rights. It is an attempt to provide an international stamp of approval to the anti-Semitic BDS movement. It must be rejected.” . . .
What can the U.S. and Europe do? The U.S. along with many European countries sits on the 47-member Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The UN’s economic warfare targeting Israel and companies that trade with it should prompt a counterattack that includes the U.S. and morally-principled countries resigning from the UNHRC. . . .
[T]he UNHRC should not be in the business of using the tools of economic warfare to bring about precisely the result it claims it wishes to avoid: a [major] setback to the Israel-Palestinian peace process.
Read more on Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/08/30/un-embrace-anti-israel-bds-movement-endangers-very-peace-it-claims-to-support.html