Journal article by Marya Farah examining the Israeli industrial settlement of Atarot in East Jerusalem, established on unlawfully confiscated Palestinian land and surrounded by Palestinian residential communities, including al-Ram, Dahiyat al-Barid, Bayt Hanina, Bir Nabala, and Qalandiya. The settlement hosts a range of Israeli and international businesses and is the subject of Israeli plans for further residential expansion. Farah analyzes the settlement's existence under the international business and human rights framework, asking whether and how standards like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights apply in contexts of settler colonialism rather than conventional occupation. A central focus of the article is the complex position of Palestinians who hold Jerusalem ID cards and have established or work in businesses inside Atarot, examining the coercive conditions under which such decisions are made, including Israel's systematic obstruction of the Palestinian economy in East Jerusalem and the city's discriminatory planning system that severely limits Palestinian housing and economic development outside settlement-controlled zones. Farah challenges the premise that the UN business and human rights framework, designed primarily for contexts of temporary or conventional occupation, can adequately address the structural conditions of ongoing settler colonialism. This is an important resource for legal researchers, human rights practitioners, and scholars working on corporate accountability in occupied territory, Israeli settlement expansion in East Jerusalem, and the limits of international human rights frameworks under conditions of colonization.
