Israel and US Threaten to Cut Funding to UN if Business ‘Blacklist’ Published

(JNS.org) Israel’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan Wednesday threatened to cut all Israeli funding if the United Nations if the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) publishes a “blacklist” of international companies with business ties to communities in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem.

“This is the time to make it clear to the U.N. that if a blacklist is published of companies operating in Judea and Samaria, Israel will completely cease its financing to the U.N. and significantly reduce the entry of its representatives to Israel,” Erdan tweeted in Hebrew.

“Any body that participates in promoting a boycott against Israeli citizens must understand that there is a price,” he wrote.

Erdan’s tweets came soon after U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley stated Wednesday, “If you (the UNHRC) publish the list against settlements we will harm your funding.”

Last week, Haley had called the list “shameful,” and Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon described it as “an expression of modern anti-Semitism.”

The UNHRC voted to approve the database of businesses last year, defying objections from the U.S. and Israel. 

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein submitted a draft of the blacklist to the countries where the businesses are based earlier this month. He is expected to receive a response from those nations by Sept. 1, and the UNHRC will publish the database by the end of this year.

American firms on the list reportedly include Caterpillar, TripAdvisor, Priceline and Airbnb.