UN rights chief Volker Turk said Israeli settler violence risks eliminating any chance of establishing a Palestinian state.
Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have expanded at a record pace and risk eliminating any practical possibility of a Palestinian state, the United Nations human rights chief warns.
The growth of Israeli settlements amounts to Israel’s transfer of its own civilian population to occupied territories, which constitutes a war crime, » declared the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, on Friday.
The international community has long viewed Israeli settlements as a violation of international law and an obstacle to the creation of a Palestinian state.
The United States said last month that the settlements were “incompatible” with international law after Israel announced new housing projects in the occupied West Bank.
Turk’s report finds that Israeli government policy “appears aligned, to an unprecedented extent, with the goals of the Israeli settler movement to extend long-term control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to integrate gradually this territory occupied in the state. of Israel.”
“Settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state,” Turk said in a statement accompanying a 16-page report on the growth of illegal Israeli housing.
The report, based on the UN’s own monitoring as well as other sources, documented 24,300 new Israeli housing units in the occupied West Bank over a one-year period through the end of October, which it said is the highest since monitoring began in 2017.
It also indicated that there had been a dramatic increase in the intensity, severity and regularity of Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, particularly since the Hamas attacks. of October 7 against southern Israel, which sparked the current war in the Gaza Strip. .
Since then, more than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces or settlers, according to the report.
He also highlighted forced evictions, failure to issue building permits, house demolitions and movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians.
The United States, Britain and France have imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers for acts of violence and incitement against Palestinians living in the West Bank in recent weeks.
Israel approves new settlements
Israel’s settlement planning authority on Wednesday gave the green light to the construction of nearly 3,500 new housing units in the occupied Palestinian territory, the first such approval since Israel’s war on Gaza began last year. The approval drew widespread condemnation from several countries, including Israel’s allies.
Israeli plans to build settler homes in Maale Adumim, Efrat and Kedar go against international law, Turk said.
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said the settlements were unilateral and illegal measures that violate international law, while Qatar said such measures “pose a serious threat to international efforts to implement the two-way solution.” States and hinder the resumption of the peace process.
Germany called on Israel to withdraw the plan, calling it a “serious violation of international law.”
“The enemies are trying to harm and weaken us, but we will continue to build and develop on this land,” far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X.
Smotrich said the construction is in addition to the 18,515 housing units in illegal settlements approved last year.
The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, said all settlements were “illegal under international law” and were a “driver of conflict” in the West Bank.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – two Arab countries that normalized relations with Israel under the US-brokered Abraham Accords – also condemned Israel’s plans.
Israel began building settlements after capturing the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War in 1967. It is illegal under international law for Israel to establish settlements in these Palestinian territories.