Thursday, January 31, 2013

BBC News: Israeli settlements in the occupied territories violate Palestinians' human rights in ways designed to drive them off the land, a UN report states.

Israel has not co-operated with the inquiry into the impact of settlements

UN: Israeli settlements 'violate Palestinian rights'

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
The report says settlements displace Palestinians, destroy their crops and property, and subject them to violence.

Israel refused to co-operate with the inquiry by three UN researchers...........

............."The magnitude of violations relating to Israel's policies of dispossessions, evictions, demolitions and displacements from land shows the widespread nature of these breaches of human rights," Unity Dow, member of the fact-finding mission from Botswana, said in a statement.

"The motivation behind violence and intimidation against the Palestinians and their properties is to drive the local populations away from their lands, allowing the settlements to expand."
'Prohibited'
 
The report comes two days after Israel failed to turn up at a UN review of its human rights record.
About 520,000 Israeli settlers reside in about 250 separate settlements in East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, the report states. Some of the settlements were built without government authorisation.

The growth in the settler population has hastened over the past decade compared to growth in Israel. The government in place since April 2009, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has "contributed to the consolidation and expansion" of settlements, the report states.

The settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prevents an occupying power from transferring its own population into occupied territory, the report states.

"The transfer of Israeli citizens into the Occupied Palestinian Territories, prohibited under international humanitarian law and international criminal law, is a central feature of Israel's practices and policies," it adds.

No comments:

Post a Comment