The UN Human Rights Office has added 61 businesses to its database of companies involved in activities in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, taking the total to 214 firms from 11 countries. The update, issued on Friday, 25 September 2026, also removed five companies that the Office said were no longer involved in the activities covered by the database.
The database was ordered by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and was first published in 2020. It was subsequently updated in 2023 and 2025. The United Nations considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law.
Companies named in the latest database are based in the Israeli-occupied territories, South Africa, China, the United States, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Mexico. The Office did not identify in its update which businesses were newly listed or which five had been removed.
The latest review concentrated on companies active in agriculture, transport, storage, waste management, energy, and food and hospitality provision. The wider database covers businesses in online booking and technology, as well as banking and financial services, telecommunications, construction, transportation, energy, agriculture, food production, waste management and hospitality.
The Office said the database records the form of each company’s involvement in adverse human rights impacts using the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Those principles set out three categories of involvement: causation, contribution and direct linkage.
Of the 214 companies now listed, 200 were assessed as contributing to adverse impacts on Palestine’s right to self-determination. A further 14 were assessed as directly linked to such impacts. None was assessed at the causation level.
The latest expansion follows a public call for information in 2024, after which UN Human Rights received submissions concerning 596 businesses. In last year’s report, the Office reviewed 215 enterprises, including companies already listed.
For the new update, it reviewed 126 companies among the remaining 381 under consideration. The Office’s process has therefore continued to assess businesses submitted for possible inclusion, while also removing companies when it finds that their relevant activities have ceased.
The database itself records corporate involvement under the UN framework. The update does not set out enforcement measures arising from a listing, nor does it include responses from the companies or governments concerned. Its significance lies in the continuing UN documentation of business activity connected to settlements and in the distinction it draws between contribution, direct linkage and causation under its human rights principles.
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