Raid Al-Maliki, the Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister, called the pressure that the United States is putting on the United Nations not to update its blacklist of companies that operate in Judea and Samaria "embarrassing."
In February 2020, the UN Human Rights Commission published a blacklist of businesses that operate in Jewish towns in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem, that, according to them are "involved in hurting the political, economic, social, and cultural rights of the Palestinian people."
In an interview with The Voice of Palestine radio, Al-Maliki said that the Palestinian Foreign Ministry is working to organize a meeting with the new UN Human Rights High Commissioner to "Clarify to him that his authority in the matter does not come from the Americans but from the members of the UN Human Rights Council and he must carefully stick with it.
As previously reported, the United States expressed opposition to a United Nations blacklist of companies doing business in Judea and Samaria.
A State Department spokesman said on Friday the US is pressing the United Nations not to update the blacklist, reported AFP.
The State Department confirmed that it had approached the UN human rights office with concerns about the list, which was first published in 2020.
The United States "continues to oppose any work to update it" and has raised concerns "directly with the Office of the High Commissioner" for rights, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel was quoted by AFP as having told reporters.
"Our view is that this database only serves to reinforce an anti-Israel bias that too often finds traction in UN venues," he added.