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December 23, 2016

UN Approves $138,700 for Database Blacklisting Businesses With Ties to Israel

The UN General Assembly
On December 23, 2016, the UN General Assembly approved spending $138,700 to create a "database" of all companies that conduct business - directly or indirectly - relating to Israeli "settlements" in Arab-claimed territories. The idea of a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) blacklist came from a March 2016 resolution of the UN Human Rights Council. According to UN documentation, the $138,700 will be used "to pay for one staff member to create the database over a period of 8 months and present a report" to the Human Rights Council in March 2017. In other words, the December authorization backdated approval of an expenditure for an operation already underway.

When the General Assembly's Budget Committee met to approve the UN budget, Israel proposed to delete approval specifically for funding the blacklist.The Committee rejected the Israeli amendment 6 in favor (Australia, Canada, Guatemala Israel, Palau and the United States), 151 against, with 6 abstentions (Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Central African Republic, Georgia, Honduras and Ghana).

After Israel lost the vote on funding the BDS item, it declared it was "disassociating" from the General Assembly's subsequent approval of the UN budget as a whole. Despite the U.S. voting against funding the blacklist initially, it voted in favor of the UN budget, and made no mention of any problem funding BDS.

Date
December 23, 2016
Title
Fifth Committee Vote on Israeli Proposed Oral Amendment to Resolution on Programme Budget Appropriations for 2016-2017 Biennium, UN Meeting Coverage
Original Source
https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/gaab4224.doc.htm
Attachment
Click here to view this document in MS Word/PDF format
Note
Israel's oral amendment was rejected by a vote of 6 in favor (Australia, Canada, Guatemala Israel, Palau and the United States), 151 against, with 6 abstentions (Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Central African Republic, Georgia, Honduras and Ghana)

Related Articles

Date Title
1/3/2017 UN Follows Up Settlement Vote with ‘Blacklist’ Plan for Israeli Companies

Related Documents

Date Title
12/23/2016 Voting record on oral amendment by Israel to UN General Assembly resolution on funding for Human Rights Council database
12/13/2016 Revised estimates resulting from resolutions and decisions adopted by Human Rights Council at 31st, 32nd and 33rd sessions and 24th special session, Report of Advisory Commmittee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, A/71/688
11/18/2016 Revised estimates resulting from resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council at its thirty-first, thirty-second and thirty-third sessions and twenty-fourth special session, Report of the Secretary-General, A/71/623
3/24/2016 UN Human Rights Council Resolution “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan,” A/HRC/RES/31/36
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Source: https://hrvoices.org/site/developments/?d=16368&view=print