Israeli settlements increase by document quantity, UN rights chief says

Israeli settlements within the occupied Palestinian territories have expanded by a document quantity and danger eliminating any sensible presumably of a Palestinian state, the U.N. human rights chief mentioned on Friday.

The United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk mentioned that the expansion of Israeli settlements amounted to the switch by Israel of its personal inhabitants, which he reiterated was a conflict crime. The U.S. Biden administration mentioned final month the settlements have been “inconsistent” with worldwide legislation after Israel introduced new housing plans within the occupied West Financial institution.

“Settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian State,” Turk mentioned in a press release accompanying the report which shall be offered to the Human Rights Council in Geneva in late March.

Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva mentioned that the report ought to have included the deaths of 36 Israelis in 2023. “Human rights are universal, yet Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism are ignored by the Office (of the High Commissioner) time and time again,” it mentioned in a press release.

The 16-page report, based mostly on the U.N.’s personal monitoring in addition to different sources, documented 24,300 new Israeli housing models within the occupied West Financial institution throughout a one-year interval via to end-October 2023, which it mentioned was the best on document since monitoring started in 2017.

It additionally mentioned there had been a dramatic enhance within the depth, severity and regularity of each Israeli settler and state violence towards Palestinians within the occupied West Financial institution, significantly because the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.

Since then, greater than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli safety forces or by settlers, it mentioned.

Israel, which captured the West Financial institution within the 1967 Center East conflict, claims a biblical birthright to the land the place settlements are increasing. Its army says it’s conducting counter-terrorism operations within the West Financial institution and is concentrating on suspected militants.

Turk’s report famous that the insurance policies of Israel’s authorities, which is essentially the most right-wing within the nation’s historical past and consists of spiritual nationalists with shut ties to settlers, appeared aligned to an “unprecedented extent” with the objectives of the Israeli settler motion.

It has documented circumstances of settlers carrying full or partial Israeli military uniforms and carrying military rifles whereas harassing or attacking Palestinians, in a blurring of the traces between them. Typically they have been shot at point-blank vary, it mentioned.

The five-month-old Gaza conflict has put a renewed give attention to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian battle as foreseen by the Oslo accords from the early Nineties.

However there was little progress on reaching Palestinian statehood since then, with the enlargement of settlements being one of many obstacles.