Status: 07.06.2022 6:34 p.m
A UN report for the Human Rights Council accuses Israel of creating tension with the “permanent occupation” of Palestinian territories. The Palestinians are also criticized. Israel accuses the body of one-sidedness.
Human rights experts on behalf of the United Nations (UN) have accused Israel of contributing to tensions with a never-ending occupation of Palestinian territories. In the one presented in Geneva report The commission of inquiry set up by the Human Rights Council referred to a “permanent occupation situation”. There is credible evidence that “Israel does not intend to end the occupation.” An “end of the occupation” is “essential to end the ongoing cycles of violence”.
The commission also expressed criticism of the Palestinian leadership. The Palestinian Authority often uses the occupation as justification for its own human rights abuses and cites it as the main reason why elections are not held. The militant Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip is hardly committed to human rights. According to the Commission, it pays little attention to international law.
“Witch Hunt”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry described the report as part of a “witch hunt being carried out against Israel by the Human Rights Council”. The report is one-sided and biased. The Commission ignored violence, incitement and anti-Semitism by Palestinians.
Supporters of the commission say the commission must look at injustices faced by Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
It was the first report from the commission established last year after the 11-day war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The leader of the three-person team is the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.
Israel refused access
The commission is to investigate all human rights violations in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem and in Israel. Israel refused to allow investigators access to Israel or the Palestinian territories. The Commission spoke, among others, with representatives of civil society outside the occupied territories and Israel.
Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East War. Much of the international community considers the territories occupied by Israel. Israel has built dozens of settlements in the West Bank.