(NEW YORK) In response to the so-called “database” of international corporations doing business with Israeli settlements published by The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Herut North America’s National Director Moshe Phillips released the following statement:
“The publishing of this so-called “blacklist” of companies doing business with Israeli communities in the Settlements is not designed to provide information it was only created to have a chilling effect on the ability of working Israeli families to earn a living and to support boycotters of Israel.
“While not the “stated” purpose of the list, its publication will aid those engaging in the anti- Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement,” states Jeff Dunetz editor and publisher of the The Lid, and a weekly political columnist for the Jewish Star newspaper. Dunetz is also a Herut candidate for the 2020 World Zionist Congress. [Dunetz’s full article can be found at https://lidblog.com/un-blacklist/]
Herut agrees with the assessment of Orde Kittrie of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who writes “compliance with the blacklist could be inconsistent with the U.S. anti-boycott statute (50 U.S.C 4842), which has long been used to punish compliance with boycotts (and blacklists) fostered by the Arab League.” [Source: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2020/02/13/the-un-blacklist-us-laws-and-us-policy/]
Fred Taub, author of the 2010 watershed book Boycotting Peace: Why Divestment Is Turning Truth On Its Head and a Herut candidate for the 2020 World Zionist Congress commented on the UN list saying “you can’t have peace with someone who won’t sit down with you for a cup of coffee, boycotts are meant to divide, not bring people together.”
Herut thanks former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for taking the UN to task over this move. Their comments are well worth repeating: Ambassador Haley tweeted that the UN “hit a new low today publishing its Antisemitic blacklist of companies it claims are involved in Israeli ‘settlement activity,’” and Secretary Pompeo tweeted “It is outrageous that the @UNHumanRights Commissioner @mbachelet would release the database of companies operating in Israeli-controlled territories. Its publication confirms the unrelenting anti-#Israel bias so prevalent at the @UN”
This boycott list echoes of some of the darkest periods of recent Jewish history and must be called out as hateful and dangerous.
Herut is an international movement for Zionist pride and education and is dedicated to the ideals of pre-World War Two Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky and more about Herut can be found at https://www.voteherut2020.com/
