Legal Expert Slams Hypocrisy of UN's "Unprecedented" Israel Blacklist

"Northwestern University Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich presented the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday with a report documenting business dealings in occupied territories around the world, underscoring the hypocrisy behind the council's decision to compile a blacklist only of companies operating in the West Bank.

In a presentation explaining the study, Kontorovich, who also heads the International Law Department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, observed that some 44 companies from countries including Sweden, Switzerland, France and Germany operate in different occupied territories around the world.

'The study reveals that international businesses play a crucial role supporting occupation and settlement enterprises around the world in places such as Western Sahara, Northern Cyprus, Nagorno-Karabakh and Crimea,' Kontorovich said, but 'the Council has never condemned any of this business activity.'...

Noting that there is no similar list of companies operating in any other occupied territory, Kontorovih asserted that 'the activity the Council treats as criminal when Israel is involved is regarded as unremarkable anywhere else.'..."