UN’s Israeli Settlements Blacklist Names Firms With UK Public Contracts

Several companies with major British government contracts have once again been named in a UN database of firms involved in the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.

The database names 214 companies – 61 more than the previous year – that the UN human rights office has “reasonable grounds to believe” are involved in activities linked to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Earlier this month, the UK government announced new sanctions targeting the settlements, including a ban on the import of goods. 

Foreign secretary Ed Miliband said the move – which will also involve action against companies that support settlement expansion – was the “beginning of a new approach”.

The firms named in the UN list include French infrastructure giant Egis, which operates the M40 motorway for National Highways; Motorola Solutions, which owns Airwave, the radio network used by British emergency services; and Heidelberg Materials, with which the UK government agreed a major carbon capture deal in 2025. 

Egis was listed for its role in planning the construction of a new light rail network in Jerusalem, which rights groups say will connect Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem with each other. An Egis spokesperson said the firm “has formally expressed its disagreement with this inclusion” in the UN database. 

Norwegian pension fund KLP divested from Motorola in 2021 over the firm’s involvement in providing services for use in surveillance in the West Bank. 

Heidelberg directed us to a statement it issued last year where it said its Israeli subsidiary had ceased all operations at the Nahal Raba quarry – located in the  West Bank – in 2023, and that neither it nor its Israeli subsidiary operates “any facilities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem”. 

Spanish trainmaker CAF, which is involved in the Jerusalem light rail project, was also named in the UN list. The firm is in the running to build new trains for a suburban rail service in Scotland. Trade unions have urged the Scottish government to exclude CAF over its links to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, while ScotRail drivers have said they will refuse to drive CAF trains if the deal goes ahead. 

ScotRail, which has the final say on the new train deal, told Novara Media it is “committed to a thorough evaluation” to ensure the final decision on the deal is fair. 

CAF has said its “operations cannot be interpreted as contributing to, facilitating, or benefiting from settlement related practices”. 

On the publication of the most recent database, Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, said: “This report is another reminder to companies that they have human rights responsibilities and are expected to conduct due diligence to ensure that they do not become involved in human rights violations or abuses.” 

A spokesperson for the Scottish government’s transport department said its guidance holds that “firms who are exploiting assets in illegal settlements can be excluded from tender exercises for grave professional misconduct. The Scottish Government is clear that all Public Bodies should take any such evidence into account when deciding where to award public contracts.”