On 3 July 2025, as part of its engagement with the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, Al-Haq delivered an oral intervention under Item 7, the interactive dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

During the interactive dialogue session, Al-Haq welcomed the important report of the Special Rapporteur, released in June 2025, and its timely and due focus on corporate and institutional complicity in the context of Israel’s settler-colonial and apartheid regime 

Al-Haq’s oral intervention highlighted the continued failure of States to act on the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) Advisory Opinion of July 2024 which found that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) is unlawful and maintained through a regime of racial segregation and apartheid. Despite this landmark ruling, nearly a year later, and more than 21 months into Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, impunity persists.

Israel’s historical lack of accountability for crimes committed against Palestinians is not only enforced through military power, but also by a global economy profiting from Palestinian dispossession and erasure. Corporations continue to service Israel’s apartheid regime, settlement enterprise, surveillance infrastructure, and war economy. Nonprofit entities, including those presenting themselves as humanitarian or environmental actors, also play a central role - in particular as regards to the construction and expansion of illegal settlements and outposts..

Al-Haq’s statement drew particular attention to the Jewish National Fund (JNF), which for over a century has facilitated land theft under the false guise of charity. Today, the JNF continues to expropriate occupied Palestinian territory, forcibly displacing Palestinians as a result, while jointly holding annexed land with the Israeli government. It is not a peripheral actor, but a key player in the maintenance of Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime.

It follows that States offering legal protection or tax benefits to such nonprofit entities are not neutral - they are complicit. Al-Haq reminds all States of their binding legal obligations - explicitly affimed by the ICJ in its July 2024 ruling - not to recognise, aid or assist unlawful acts, and to ensure that actors under their jurisdiction are not contributing to war crimes, apartheid, or genocide. 

Accountability must be pursued through national and international mechanisms, including, at a minimum, the inclusion of such entities in the UN Database of businesses operating in illegal Israeli settlements. Complicity must not be tolerated, let alone rewarded with tax exemptions.

Al-Haq’s full statement reads as follows:

We welcome the timely and important report of the Special Rapporteur, at a moment when corporate complicity continues to enable Israel’s crimes with impunity.

This month marks one year since the International Court of Justice found that Israel’s presence in the OPT is unlawful, violating the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and sustained through a regime of racial segregation and apartheid. Nearly a year later, and over 21 months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, states have yet to act in accordance with these findings.

What persists is a system of impunity, sustained not only by military force, but by a global economy that profits from Palestinian dispossession. 

Corporations continue to service Israel’s settlement enterprise, surveillance regime, and war economy. But so do nonprofit entities -some posing as humanitarian or environmental actors. The Jewish National Fund, for example, has for over a century spearheaded colonization, land theft, and demographic engineering under the false guise of charity. The JNF, while jointly holding  annexed Palestinian land with the Israeli government, is no charity – they are a settler colonial entity that continues to expropriate occupied Palestinian territory to this day.

These actors are not peripheral; they are central to Israel’s apartheid and settler colonial regime. And states that grant them legal protection or tax benefits are not neutral, they are complicit. 

We remind all states of their legal obligations: not to recognize, aid or assist unlawful acts, and to regulate all entities under their jurisdiction contributing to war crimes, apartheid and genocide. These actors must be held accountable -through national legislation and international mechanisms, including, at a minimum, listing on the UN Database – not rewarded through tax exemptions.