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Business with Occupied Territories, Orange Telecom, and the French Approach to International Law
(Washington Post) Eugene Kontorovich - Decisions of important national courts support a fully permissive approach to economic dealings by third-party states or nationals in territories under prolonged occupation. There is no obligation on states to block such activity, or to insist on particular language on product labels, or to ensure that their foreign aid funds do not cross into occupied territory. On Wednesday the CEO of the French telecom firm Orange announced that he sought to "drop" his business in Israel because the Israeli affiliate has some cellular antennae across the Green Line. Even if settlements are illegal, there is no ban on business in the territories, or with settlers. Certainly there is no tertiary obligation to not do business with businesses that have some tangential business in such territory. France's own courts in recent decisions involving Israel held the Geneva Conventions flatly inapplicable to private companies. The French oil giant Total is active in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara against the vociferous protests of the indigenous Sawahari people. (There are many other examples, like Michelin in Turkish-occupied Cyprus.) The writer is a professor at Northwestern University School of Law.