News / Palestine

Israeli companies leave settlements in West Bank: Israeli group

Monday, 28 March 2016 10:22 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 28 March 2016 10:28 AM ]

A view of the Israeli settlement of Har Homa in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) (file photo)

A growing number of Israeli companies based in settlements in the occupied West Bank have moved to the territories occupied in 1948 following pressure by international boycotts of their products, an Israeli group says.

The anti-occupation Israeli organization “Peace Bloc” made a list of the companies operating in the West Bank settlements 20 years ago, about 20 to 30 percent of which have been shut down or moved from the West Bank.

Delta Galil Industries, Teva, SodaStream and Ahava companies are among the companies that left the settlements of the occupied West Bank.

Yigal Dilmony, a spokesman for an umbrella organization representing the settlements in the occupied West Bank, acknowledged that several companies had left the West Bank settlements due to the international pressure.

On March 24, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution that calls for setting up a database of businesses involved in activities in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The move irked the Tel Aviv regime and its major ally Washington.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank including East Jerusalem (al-Quds). The Israeli settlements are regarded as unlawful by the United Nations and most countries.

The Boycott-Divestment-Sanction movement, based on the campaign against the former Apartheid regime in South Africa, grew from a 2005 international call from Palestinian groups, and aims to increase pressure on Israel to bring to a halt its expansionist policies including building settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

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