Israeli settlement expansion in Palestinian areas amounts to war crime: UN
Al Jazeera
UN rights chief says Israeli settler violence risks eliminating any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state.
Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have expanded by a record amount and risk eliminating any practical possibility of a Palestinian state, the United Nations rights chief warns.
The growth of Israeli settlements amounts to the transfer by Israel of its own civilian population into occupied territories, which is a war crime, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Friday.
The international community has long viewed Israeli settlements as a violation of international law and a hindrance to Palestinian statehood.
The United States said last month that the settlements were “inconsistent” with international law after Israel announced new housing plans in the occupied West Bank.
Turk’s report found that the Israeli government’s policies “appear aligned, to an unprecedented extent, with the goals of the Israeli settler movement to expand long-term control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to steadily integrate this occupied territory into the State of Israel”.
