New list targets 214 companies, including providers of food, transport, water and banking services
GENEVA, September 27, 2026 - UN Watch today condemned the UN Human Rights Office’s expansion of its Israel-only business blacklist, saying the report brands ordinary commercial activity as a human rights problem while giving boycott campaigners a list of companies to pressure.
The report released Friday adds 61 companies, bringing the list to 214 businesses in 11 countries. Five companies were removed. Newly listed firms include Israeli agricultural company ADAMA and real estate investment firm Alony Hetz.
“Read what the UN has actually put on this list,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “Banks, buses, water services, bakeries and food producers. These are the businesses that allow people to live ordinary lives. The UN is treating their services to Israelis as grounds for public denunciation.”
“The blacklist includes the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem within its geographic mandate. Absurdly, that means a family visiting the Western Wall, part of the holiest site in Judaism, could be impacted by sanctions on the transport that brings them into Jerusalem, the water supplied to nearby homes and businesses, and the banking services that keep those businesses operating.”
“This is not a list limited to companies alleged to have abused a Palestinian,” Neuer said. “A bus carrying passengers, a company supplying water or a bank providing loans can be listed because of where it operates.”
“Nothing in international law or practice justifies this blacklist. The UN has created no comparable company database for businesses operating in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara or Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus. Only Israel is singled out.”
“What human rights principle says that Jews living in their ancient homeland - including the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem whose holy sites have been the object of Jewish prayer for millennia - should be denied normal transport, banking or utilities?”
“If supplying transport and utilities in a disputed territory warrants a UN blacklist, where are the lists for every other territorial dispute?” Neuer asked. “The UN demands a standard for Israel that it has never imposed elsewhere. And a double standard means discrimination.”
The consequences are no longer theoretical. As noted by Reuters, companies on the list could face boycott or divestment campaigns. Earlier this month, Britain, France and Canada announced plans to prohibit imports from Israeli settlements and take targeted action against those facilitating or profiting from them. Those governments have not said they will use this database. But the UN has now provided a public roster for anyone seeking to broaden economic pressure.
“The immediate value of this document to BDS is obvious,” Neuer said. “Its purpose is to fuel global boycotts and sanctions. It supplies names, categories of alleged harm and the UN’s seal of approval. The pressure need not stop at a shop or factory beyond the Green Line: the list includes major companies whose businesses reach across Israel and around the world.”
The mechanism originated in a 2016 Human Rights Council resolution sponsored by the Arab and Islamic groups and governments including Venezuela, Sudan, Cuba and Libya.
UN Watch said the council’s decision to target Israel alone violates the principles of universality and impartiality on which it was founded.
“Volker Türk should explain why his office devotes resources to naming companies that supply Israelis with bread, water and buses while producing no equivalent blacklist for any other country,” Neuer said. “Human rights cannot mean one rule for Israel and another for the rest of the world.”
“Meanwhile, the council gives a free pass to its own member states that commit gross and systematic violations of human rights, including China, Qatar, Cuba and Pakistan.”
“The UN has turned a water pipe, a bus route, and a bank loan into grounds for blacklisting - provided the people they serve are Israelis. That is not a human rights standard. It is a political target.”
