New Israeli settlements a crime – UN official — RT World News
The Commissioner for Human Rights warned that these developments pose a threat to the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has warned that new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are growing at a record rate.
A senior UN official said to caution The establishment and continued expansion of settlements amounts to Israel's transfer of its civilian population into the territories it occupies, which, as he reiterated, constitutes a war crime under international law.
He added, in his comment today, Friday, on the report that will be submitted to the Human Rights Council in Geneva at the end of next March, that the settlements threaten to eliminate any practical possibility of establishing a Palestinian state.
“The West Bank is already in crisis. However, settler violence and settlement-related abuses have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state. Turk said.
In response to the statement, the Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva said on Friday that the report should have included the deaths of 36 Israelis recorded in 2023, accusing the High Commission of ignoring the losses incurred by the country.
The 16-page report, which is based on UN oversight as well as other sources, records 24,300 new Israeli housing units in the occupied West Bank over a one-year period until the end of October 2023. This number is said to be the highest ever recorded since monitoring began in 2017.
According to the document, there has been a significant rise in the intensity, severity and regularity of Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, especially since October 7 of last year, when the armed Hamas movement attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and detaining more than 200. hostage. Israel responded by declaring war on Hamas and launching a military operation in Gaza.
In February, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington was disappointed by Israel's plan to build more than 3,300 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, adding that the potential development would be… “conflict” With international law. These comments effectively reflected the policy followed by the administration of former President Donald Trump.
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