UN General Assembly
UN General AssemblyReuters

The UN General Assembly approved the funding of $138,700 towards the creation of a database of companies which do business in Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem.

The sum was approved on the same day that the Security Council approved the resolution, not vetoed by the Obama government, condemning all Jewish presence over the 1949 armistice lines, the Human Right Voices NGO reported.

The database would serve as a blacklist to help BDS organizations seeking to foster boycotts of the State of Israel.

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) approved the creation of the database in March, but lacked the authority to fund the action. The General Assembly decision grants the project the necessary funding.

The US criticized the decision of the HRC in March. State Department spokesman John Kirby called the move "far outside" the authority of the HRC.

The funding for the database was part of the 2016-2017 General Assembly budget which was approved last Friday. Israel introduced an amendment to remove the clause funding the database from the budget, but the amendment was rejected by a vote of 151 countries compared to only 6 in favor.

While the US was one of the countries which voted with Israel to remove the the clause from the budget, it still voted for the budget as a whole, and that included the funding of the database.

Israel announced that it would "disassociate" itself from the General Assembly's subsequent approval of the UN budget as a whole in response to the approval of the funding for the database.

According to the UN, 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."