Israeli violations must not go unpunished
UN official says report documents Israeli practices and their impact on Palestinians
The Israeli regime’s measures against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories since 1967 are discriminatory and violate international laws, and some of them amount to war crimes, a recent UN report said.
A peaceful resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict requires abiding by international law and not being able to evade punishment, said the report.
The report, which was prepared by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA), detailed the social and economic impact of Israeli measures against the Palestinians.
“In terms of positions, there is nothing new,” said Rabih Bashour, economic affairs officer in the Palestine Unit at Beirut-based ESCWA.
“The report reiterates the call to adhere to international law, which Israel doesn’t do,” he told Gulf News.
“Peace is not possible without full adherence to international law. At the United Nations, we believe what should be done is that Palestinians [must] get their rights, international law should be implemented and violators should be held responsible,” he added.
The report, Bashour explained, “documents the [Israeli] practices and their impact and details the violations of international laws”.
It will be submitted to the UN General Assembly in November.
The report detailed how the Palestinians are suffering due to the Israeli measures, including the confiscation of land, ban on building on their land, and the occupation regime’s use of excessive force in dealing with them.
From April 1, 2017 to March 30, 2018, 80 Palestinians were killed, including three women and 17 children, while 12,188 Palestinians were injured. In the same period, 16 Israelis were killed and 119 injured.
The report also offered details on the mistreatment and detaining of thousands of Palestinians.
The year 2017 witnessed the second highest number of Israeli demolitions of Palestinian properties in occupied East Jerusalem since 2000, the report said. Hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank became homeless due to the Israeli measures.
On the other hand, the number of Israeli colonists in the occupied West Bank has doubled since the signing of the Oslo agreements in 1993.
By the end of 2016, their number reached 600,000 living in 227 colonies, it said.