Experts from the UN’s highest human rights body on Thursday said Israel’s occupation of areas Palestinians seek for their future state “is illegal under international law.”
The experts, members of a special commission, also appealed to the International Court of Justice to rule on the matter. The experts’ statement is part of a report to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, to be discussed next week.
The Commission of Inquiry into the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem and Israel, was established last year in the wake of an 11-day war between Israel and the militant Hamas group in Gaza. At the time, the UN said at least 261 people were killed in Gaza and 14 people in Israel.
The 28-page report highlights gaps in international humanitarian law related to the occupation and aims to increase international pressure on Israel to end settlements and other forms of control over Palestinian territories, even though there are no signs that Israel intends to do this.
The commission cited “reasonable grounds” for concluding that the occupation “is now illegal under international law because of its permanence,” as well as the Israeli government’s “de facto annexation policy.”
“By ignoring international law in establishing or facilitating the establishment of settlements, and by directly or indirectly relocating Israeli citizens to those settlements, successive Israeli governments have established facts to ensure Israel’s permanent control of the West Bank.”said Navi Pillay, a former UN human rights chief who chairs the commission.
The commission, which has been repeatedly accused by Israeli leaders of anti-Israel bias, analyzed the impact of years of Israeli “de facto occupation and annexation policies” on Palestinians’ human rights.
The destruction of homes and property, the disproportionate use of force by security forces, settler violence, mass incarceration and the impact of an air, land and naval blockade of Gaza were other topics analysed.
Israel justifies its policies, including the blockade, as necessary security measures to deter the militants. It states that the West Bank is a disputed territory and its final status is to be determined in negotiations.
But the UN commission has also faced strong criticism. One of its members, Miloon Kothari, recently apologized in a letter to the president of the Human Rights Council for using the term “Jewish lobby” in an interview published over the summer.
The Israeli diplomatic mission disputed the report, mainly because it did not allude to the May 2021 conflict, Hamas or “acts of terror”, and alluded to “blatant anti-Semitic remarks” by a committee member, in an allusion to Miloon Kothari. .
“Commissioners who have made anti-Semitic remarks and who have proactively engaged in anti-Israel activism, both before and after their appointment, have neither the legitimacy nor the credibility to address the issue.”the Israeli mission said in a statement. “They are part of the anti-Israel agenda that unfortunately still exists in the United Nations”they concluded.
Source: DN
