up step to the EU's decision last year to insist that products produced in Israeli settlements are labelled as settlement products, not as Israeli, Human Rights Watch now says that companies operating in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank contribute to "an inherently unlawful and abusive system" violating Palestinian rights and should halt activity there. The message is the same. Both underline that there is a huge difference between the state of Israel and illegal settlements in the West Bank. The new report from the US-based rights group describes Israeli policies in the West Bank that lead to government support of settlements, the "unlawful confiscation" of Palestinian land and denial of permits to Palestinians. It says that Israel's privileged treatment of settlers extends to virtually every aspect of life in the West Bank and that settlement businesses unavoidably contribute to Israeli policies that dispossess and harshly discriminate against Palestinians, while profiting from Israel's theft of Palestinian land and other resources. Israel apparently has two standards for law on the West Bank – one for Israelis and one for Palestinians. Israel unlawfully transfers its citizens to an occupied territory, the West Bank, and in doing so displaces members of the existing population there. It unlawfully takes resources from the West Bank for its settlements, and discriminates against Palestinians living in areas under Israeli rule. By operating in Israeli settlements or by engaging with settlement businesses, companies are therefore contributing to human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch cannot be accused of bias because it is a non-profit, non-governmental organization. It cannot be charged with haphazard accusations because in its overview of how businesses play into Israel's infringement of international rules of occupation, it cites the Fourth Geneva Convention and the 1970 Hague Regulations when invoking Israel's violation of international human rights law. The report increases pressure on the right-wing coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. It comes as the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which urges consumers to stay away from companies and products that support or are involved in the violation of Palestinian rights, is growing worldwide. It is also the latest diplomatic setback for an increasingly isolated Israel after Netanyahu's failure to derail the Iran nuclear deal, which has just come into force. There is mounting frustration from a number of European governments over the moribund state of the peace process which has partly led to the fresh wave of Palestinian gun, knife and car-ramming attacks on Israelis which erupted in October. Israel has so far been unable to stop this latest uprising. Now, it is facing yet another concern: an EU policy that might introduce further punitive European measures against Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and Golan Heights. Settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible. The viability of the two-state solution is being constantly eroded by these new facts on the ground. Any moves that accelerate settlement expansion are fundamentally incompatible with a two-state solution and call into question the Israeli government's commitment to it. Israel and the world must make a distinction between Israel and all the territories it occupied in 1967. Agreements between Israel and other governments are applicable solely to Israel proper, and not its settlements. The HRW report suggests that the companies involved with Israel's West Bank settlements leave their operations behind. Indeed, the only way for businesses to comply with their own human rights responsibilities is to stop working with and in Israeli settlements. In other words, the only option that companies have to maintain their human rights responsibilities is to pull out.
