Tel Aviv: The Israeli Foreign Ministry, today, said that the country will freeze its ties with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for publishing a blacklist of companies that were doing business with Jewish settlements in West Bank.
Earlier, the UN body had published a list of 112 companies for doing business with Jews in West Bank.
This prompted the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, to order a freeze of contacts with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Foreign Minister said, “The UNHRC Commissioner’s announcement regarding the publication of a ‘blacklist’ of companies represents the ultimate surrender to the pressure exerted by countries and organizations interested in harming Israel. This announcement was made despite knowing that the majority of countries around the world declined to join this political pressure campaign.”
He also accused the UN Commissioner for continuing to pursue an anti-Israel stance at the UN Human Rights Council. He added that it is a stain on the office of the UN Commissioner and on human rights itself.
Israel Katz said that with the announcement of the blacklist, the Commissioner has become a partner and tool of the boycott movement of Israel. He added that the Commissioner went ahead with the announcement even though the blacklist has not tangible legal implication.
