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United Nations Report Says Israel’s Settlements Violate Palestinians’ Human Rights

Jan. 31, 2013 3:38pm Madeleine Morgenstern

Israelis drive past a Palestinian protester holding a banner during a protest against the Israeli occupation on the main road 60 between the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Hebron near the Israeli settlement of Daniel on January 25, 2013. (AP)

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations’ first report on Israel’s overall settlement policy describes it as a “creeping annexation” of territory that clearly violates the human rights of Palestinians, and calls for Israel to immediately stop further such construction.

The report’s conclusions, revealed Thursday, are not legally binding, but they further inflame tensions between the U.N. Human Rights Council and Israel, and between Israel and the Palestinians. Israeli officials immediately denounced the report, while Palestinians pointed to it as “proof of Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing” and its desire to undermine the possibility of a Palestinian state.

The Palestinians also hinted that they could use the report as a basis for legal action toward a war crimes prosecution.

In its report to the 47-nation council, a panel of investigators said Israel is violating international humanitarian law under the Fourth Geneva Convention, one of the treaties that establish the ground rules for what is considered humane during wartime.

This was the first thematic report on Israel’s settlements with an historical look at the government’s policy since 1967, U.N. officials said. Previous U.N. reports have taken a look at Israeli settlement policy only through the lens of a specific event, such as the 2009 war in the Gaza Strip, when Israel launched an offensive in response to months of rocket fire by the ruling Hamas militant group.

The Israeli government persists in building settlements in occupied territories claimed by Palestinians for a future state, including east Jerusalem and the West Bank, “despite all the pertinent United Nations resolutions declaring that the existence of the settlements is illegal and calling for their cessation,” the report said.

The settlements are “a mesh of construction and infrastructure leading to a creeping annexation that prevents the establishment of a contiguous and viable Palestinian State and undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination,” the report concludes.

More than 500,000 Israelis already live in settlements that dot the West Bank and ring east Jerusalem, the Palestinians’ hoped-for capital. Israel annexed east Jerusalem, with its Palestinian population, immediately after capturing the territory from Jordan in 1967 and has built housing developments for Jews there, but the annexation has not been recognized internationally.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office released a statement saying that he “has repeatedly made his views on Israeli settlements clear. All settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, is illegal under international law. It also runs contrary to Israel’s obligations under the Road Map” for a Middle East peace settlement.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry accused the council of taking a systematically one-sided and biased approach towards Israel, with the report being merely “another unfortunate reminder” of that bias.

“The only way to resolve all pending issues between Israel and the Palestinians, including the settlements issue, is through direct negotiations without pre-conditions,” the ministry said. “Counterproductive measures – such as the report before us – will only hamper efforts to find a sustainable solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.”

French judge Christine Chanet, who led the panel, said Israel never cooperated with the probe, which the council ordered last March.

Because it was not authorized to investigate within Israel, Chanet said, the panel had to travel to Jordan to interview more than 50 people who spoke of the impact of the settlements, such as violence by Jewish settlers, confiscation of land and damage to olive trees that help support Palestinian families. The report also references legal opinions, other reports and a number of articles in the Israeli press.

Another panel member, Pakistani lawyer Asma Jahangir, said the settlements “seriously impinge on the self-determination of the Palestinian people,” an offense under international humanitarian law.

At a news conference, Chanet called the report “a kind of weapon for the Palestinians” if they want to take their grievances before The Hague-based International Criminal Court.

The Palestine Liberation Organization appeared to suggest it might seek such action, in a statement that called the report’s legal framework a clear indictment of Israeli policy and practice.

“All the Israeli settlement activities are illegal and considered to be war crimes according to the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute as well as the Fourth Geneva Convention. This means that Israel is liable to prosecution,” said PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi. The settlements, she added, are “clearly a form of forced transfer and a proof of Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing.”

In November, the U.N. General Assembly recognized a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in a vote that was largely symbolic but infuriated Israel. In December, the Palestinians accused Israel of planning more “war crimes” by expanding settlements.

The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council was set up in 2006 to replace a 60-year-old commission that was widely discredited as a forum dominated by nations with poor rights records. The United States finally joined the council in 2009, and U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said earlier this month that while all countries should appear for their review “we also consistently registered our opposition to the council’s consistent anti-Israel bias.”

Earlier this week, Israel became the first nation to skip a review of its human rights record by the council without giving a reason. Diplomats agreed to postpone their review until later this year based on Israel’s request for a deferral.

The council, which could have proceeded with the review or canceled it, said its agreement to defer would set precedent for how to deal with any future cases of “non-cooperation.”

All 193 U.N.-member nations are required to submit to such a review every four years, and council diplomats said they worried that if a nation were let off the hook that could undermine the process.

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Comments (156)

fahdie
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 4:46pm
The Pakistan You Don’t See In The News

http://tamak-toyian.pk/2013/02/06/the-pakistan-you-dont-see-in-the-news/

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vincijoey49
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 1:23pm
i believe the_jerk is a Jerk…f

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schlepnier
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:11am
The UN cites the geneva conventions on warfare? really?
In order to be applicable both nations (palestinian controlled territory is not a nation) must be signatories of the agreement and must also be in a state of declared war. niether requirement is met. additionally the land was taken from the JORDANIANS. as such any binding obligation would be betwen israel and jordan who ended hostilities decades ago and currently maintain a peace treaty.

The UN hasn’t a leg to stand on.

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AbrahamsSheepdog
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 3:06am
Go Israel! The UN is about as worthless as a fly on $hit. Didn’t 0 snub them before election?

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waspanglosaxon
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 1:18am
If you came home to find me sacked out on your living room couch, watching your TV and eating your food – in other words, you had encountered my ‘settlement’ in your living room – do you think that would be a violation of your rights? Of course jewish ‘settlements’ inside of the Palestinian Authority are violations of the Palestinians’ rights.
Many of those here believe that anything Israel does is okay. I am clearly in the opposing camp. But make no mistake that time is on the Palestinians’ side, as are demographics. Israel cannot survive indefinitely. This ‘ignoble experiment’ is doomed to failure…the only question is: how many gullible American lives will be lost before this becomes evident?

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RougeFastFingers
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 1:15am
Outsiders will never solve this issue, the only way it will ever be resolved is when ALL third parties (this means the UN, the USA and the ENTIRE arab world) stop trying to interfere.

The facts are the jews are there, they were there first and the only way they are leaving is feet first. The Arabs have to understand what they stole can be stolen also, its the way of human history.

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AZ Walt
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 1:07am
1) The UN is a very bad joke! Time for teh US to leave the UN and to kick the UN out of its NY building. NY needs the office space after some “peaceful” Muslims destroyed, killing some 3,000 people, the World Trade Center buildings.

2) There are NO Palestinians! Never have been. The so called Palestinians are Jordanians that even the Jordanians don’t want.

3) The Jews have over a 5,000 years plus claim on the area they inhabit.

The Muslims that want to live in Isreal peacefully, let them stay. Those that don’t kick them and their families out of Isreal forever!

Isreal should take over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Make it all a part of Isreal! Then all – Jews and Muslims can live in a Democratic country and ALL can prosper.

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Dkoonz
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 8:23pm
Screw the UN!

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GuruMeditation
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 6:35pm
Hahahahah!

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DougHuffman
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 6:29pm
Israel and PM Netanyahu may well say, as do I, MOLON LABE!

Get US out of UN
Get UN out of US

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jnfomo
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 6:07pm
The Israeli governments announcement of plans to go ahead with this development is nothing new. In 1994, then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin refrained from developing, as did subsequent governments, in the interest of furthering peace negotiations with the Palestinians. However, now it is clear that Palestinian politicians, terrorist leaders and the U.N. consider the West Bank as no more or less a settlement than the rest of Israel, whose existence they deny. Palestinians claim they want a two state solution, but they have refused every offer of a state by Israel and a chance to negotiate for four+ years. Now they have pushed a meaningless statehood bid at the UN to further avoid talks. The truth is Palestinians do not want to live in peace in their independent state alongside Israel. If they did, they would be negotiating with Israel, not the U.N.

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ofass
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 5:50pm
Here is the truth about the west bank and its history. Of course that this is not for cockroaches like Jerky from Gaza and the bomb engineer….who like any cockroach who looks at the mirror, think how much they are beautiful (smart)….and forgive me Jerky that I don’t really give a **** of what you think as conversation with Nazi creatures like you (with Kafiyah ,like yours, or without it) is not even legitimate. On my opinion the best use for your crappy corpse is as a target for the IDF snipers to practice, as it is the most similar to their real targets as can be….

http://israelhas.blogspot.ca/2011/07/blog-post_20.html

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quiltgal
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 5:28pm
The U.N. is a joke.

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DZ-015
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 5:25pm
When the U.N. decides to support its resolution by forcing the Israelis off the land they now possess, things will begin to get interesting. Until then, meh.

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Kaste
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 5:05pm
http://www.zimbio.com/Christianity/articles/1260/How+Much+Land+God+Give+Israel+Abraham+Land

The link above outlines the borders for Israel based on the Bible.

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ALL4FREEDOM
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 4:55pm
The “Palestinians” have a state. It’s called “Jordan”.

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SilentReader
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 4:54pm
The Nazi and Fascist-founded UN-NATO ENFORCER is the Tower of Babel! As corrupted, and definitely as evil. Erasing this blot on all of humanity will be we the people’s greatest achievement!

And Agenda 21? It’s evil spawn.

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TH30PH1LUS
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 4:39pm
The U.N. is the most corrupt collection of desk-jockeys and waste of money ever imagined on this misguided planet.

Tell your representatives to defund the U.N.

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- firman
  Posted on January 31, 2013 at 5:10pm
  Defund is not in their vocabulary. Hell, we’re sending f16s to egypt!
  
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coyote1hell
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 4:37pm
The UN is nothing but a money grab for it’s members…they care nothing about anything else..lokk at their lavish lifestyle…..

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