Acting on his pledge to stand by Israel, Gov. Cuomo has placed a total of 13 companies on a blacklist for their financial boycotts of the Jewish State.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has placed four Dutch companies on a blacklist for their financial boycott of Israel, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Wednesday.

A total of 13 companies and institutions, in other countries as well, were placed on the blacklist.

New York state government agencies have refrained from doing business with these 13 firms since June because of their boycotts of Israel.

One Dutch company, HaskoningDHV engineering group, which has an office in Israel, claims it has not boycotted Israel. A Haskoning spokesman told Dutch broadcaster RTL Z that it has been working on Israeli water, environment and infrastructure projects for years.

However, Haskoning did pull out of a project frpm Jerusalem in 2013 on the advice of the Dutch foreign affairs ministry.

A second company, the Vitens water company, ended a joint venture with Israel’s Mekorot water company at the end of 2013.

In a letter to its shareholders at the time, Vitens enclosed a United Nations (UN) report in which Mekorot was accused of allegedly pumping ground water out of Palestinian territory.

Vitens said it had stopped working with Mekorot because circumstances had changed drastically.

The other two Dutch firms on the blacklist are ASN and Triodos banks.

Companies on Cuomo’s list have 90 days to prove they have not boycotted Israel.

‘New York and Israel Share an Unbreakable Bond’

This significant move on New York’s part follows Cuomo’s June executive order, the first in the US, which forces state entities to drop investments linked to boycotts of Israel.

“This order sends the message that this state will do everything in its power to end this hateful, intolerant campaign,” the governor said. “New York and Israel share an unbreakable bond, and I pray that the Israeli and Palestinian people will find a way to live side by side and find peace, prosperity and security.”

Cuomo said he wanted every governor in the nation to sign executive orders similar to his.

Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Rhode Island have passed bills fighting boycotts on Israel.

More than 20 states are considering, or have passed, legislation targeting companies that comply with the anti-Israel BDS movement, and many countries around the world have introduced and passed similar laws.

The anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement, which spearheads that international boycott campaign against the Jewish state,  promotes financial, academic and cultural boycotts against Israel, ostensibly as a nonviolent struggle against the so-called “Israeli occupation.”

Critics say BDS is a modern form of anti-Semitism and that the movement’s true objective is to destroy the State of Israel.

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel