GENEVA, Switzerland — The United Nations has recently expanded its list by adding nearly 70 companies from 11 countries, accusing them of being involved in the infringement of Palestinian human rights due to their business connections with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

This updated list highlights enterprises engaged in activities deemed supportive of the settlements, widely regarded by many as illegal under international law. Among these are companies dealing with construction materials and earth-moving equipment, alongside firms providing security, travel, and financial services.

Known as the “database of companies,” this list now comprises 158 companies, predominantly Israeli. The rest originate from the United States, Canada, China, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

New entries include the German company Heidelberg Materials, Portuguese rail systems specialist Steconfer, and the Spanish firm Ineco specializing in transportation engineering. Continuing on the list are U.S.-based companies within the travel sector, such as Expedia Group, Booking Holdings Inc., and Airbnb, Inc.

While the list saw the addition of 68 companies on Friday, seven were removed. This review evaluated a total of 215 businesses, with the potential for examining many more in the future.

“Businesses operating in conflict zones have a responsibility to conduct due diligence to ensure their operations do not contribute to human rights violations,” stated Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson of the U.N. human rights office. “We urge businesses to take necessary measures to mitigate the harmful human rights impacts resulting from their operations.”

She said countries also have a responsibility to make sure that companies operating in such areas aren’t contributing to rights abuses.

The companies in the updated list are active mainly in sectors like construction, real estate, mining and quarrying. The U.N. human rights office, which compiled the list, has advised the companies of their listing and given them a right of reply.

Among the seven companies taken off the list were transportation company Alstom of France, and travel service providers eDreams of Spain and Opodo of Britain.

The U.N.’s main human rights body passed a resolution nearly a decade ago to create the list, and Israel has sharply criticized it since. The revision could further isolate Israel at a time when some of its European allies have recognized an independent Palestinian state over Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Months in the making, the revised list comes as Israel has made veiled threats to annex parts or all of the West Bank and has approved plans to build thousands of new settlement homes there.

The government approved a controversial settlement project last month that would effectively split the West Bank in two, a step that would all but bury hopes for establishing a Palestinian state in the territory. Gaza is not covered by the list, because Israel no longer has settlements there.

The international community says dividing the territory as part of a two-state solution would leave Israel as a country with a solid Jewish majority and allow the Palestinians to realize their dreams of self determination.

The alternative, many say, is an apartheid-like country divided roughly evenly between Israelis and Palestinians in which Jews would rule over the Palestinians.

This is the first revision to the list since 2023, when 97 companies were listed — down from 112 in the original list published in 2020. Among those 15 taken off last time were U.S.-based food and cereal giant General Mills.

The blacklist was born of a vote by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, which has no legal authority or ability to force companies to act: Its main goal is to name and shame businesses with ties to the settlements. It is not clear what impact inclusion on the blacklist has had on the companies’ bottom lines.

The council decided that 10 business activities in the settlements could merit inclusion of a company in the list, such as dumping pollution in Palestinian areas; supplying bulldozing equipment, surveillance gear, and even helping people book travel or lodging in the settlements.

The U.N. has budgeted enough funding for a single full-time staffer to handle the painstaking, sensitive work of gathering and assessing claims and communicating with companies in question. Claims about hundreds of other companies are awaiting assessment.

With broad international backing, the Palestinians claim the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza for a future independent state.

Israel, which captured all three areas in the 1967 Mideast war, has annexed east Jerusalem — a step that is not internationally recognized — and today claims the entire city as its united and eternal capital. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem, home to the city’s most important holy sites, as their capital. These competing claims are at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel has said it has no intention of dismantling any of its West Bank settlements.

Over 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, in addition to more than 200,000 in east Jerusalem. The postwar future of Gaza, which has suffered massive destruction, remains unclear, though Netanyahu has ruled out an independent Palestinian state.

Israel and the U.S. regularly accuse the Human Rights Council of anti-Israel bias, and the Trump administration withdrew the United States in 2018 — faulting the U.N. for accepting autocratic governments that the administration said have repeatedly violated human rights.

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