Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank violate international law, and the country must “immediately” withdraw all settlers from such areas, United Nations human rights investigators have said.
“Israel must … cease all settlement activities without preconditions [and] must immediately initiate a process of withdrawal of all settlers” from the occupied territories, a UN fact-finding mission concluded in a report released on Thursday. The inquiry was led by French judge Christine Chanet, and included members Asma Jehangir of Pakistan and Unity Dow of Botswana. The settlements contravene the 1949 Geneva Conventions forbidding the transfer of civilian populations into the occupied territory, which could amount to war crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it said.
In December, the Palestinians accused Israel in a letter to the United Nations of planning to commit further “war crimes” by expanding Jewish settlements after the Palestinians won de facto UN recognition of statehood and warned that Jerusalem must be held accountable. Israel has not co-operated with the probe set up by the Human Rights Council last March to examine the impact of settlements in the territory, including East Jerusalem.
Israel says the forum has an inherent bias against it and defends its settlement policy by citing historical and Biblical links to the West Bank.
On Thursday, the Israeli foreign ministry again said that the council was “systematically one-sided and biased”.
“Counterproductive measures, such as the report before us, will only hamper efforts to find a sustainable solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict,” said Yigal Palmor, a ministry spokesperson.
Unprecedented boycott: The independent UN investigators interviewed more than 50 people who came to Jordan in November to testify about confiscated land, damage to their livelihoods including olive trees, and violence by Jewish settlers, according to the report.
“The mission believes that the motivation behind this violence and the intimidation against the Palestinians as well as their properties is to drive the local populations away from their lands and allow the settlements to expand,” it said.
Because of the settlements, Palestinians’ human rights “are being violated consistently and on a daily basis”, the three independent experts said. Asma Jahangir, a panel member, said the settlements “seriously impinge on the self-determination of the Palestinian people”, which she said is an offence under international humanitarian law. The experts, who will present their findings to the 47-member state rights council on March 18, also called on the Jewish state to “ensure adequate, effective and prompt remedy to all Palestinian victims […] of human rights violations that are a result of the settlements”.
‘Creeping annexation’: About 250 settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have been established since 1967 and they hold an estimated 520,000 settlers, according to the UN report. The settlements impede Palestinian access to water resources and agricultural lands, the report said. They were also “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,” it said.
