GENEVA: The international community must take measures to end Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank or risk being seen as accepting the Israeli’s systematic violation of international law, United Nations (UN) experts have said in a report.
They said that Israel’s continuous annexation of parts of the occupied Palestinian territory, now focusing on large areas of the West Bank after illegally annexing East Jerusalem, shows that a concrete policy may be underway to annex the whole occupied Palestinian territory in violation of international law.
In February, Israel’s government transferred most of the ruling powers over the West Bank to the additional Minister of Defense, designating racist minister Bezalel Smotrich as the occupied West Bank’s de facto governor. The experts said that the decision solidified the annexation of occupied territory by Israel.
Israel’s Confiscation of Palestinian Territories
They said that the acquisition of territory by force or threat is categorically banned under international law. It amounts to an act of aggression, a crime that comes under the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction and poses a risk to international peace and security. Israel has continuously pursued acquisition in many areas of the occupied Palestinian territory. Over the last 5 decades, it has seized or endorsed confiscation of Palestinian resources and lands, leading to more than 270 colonies housing 750,000 Israeli settlers.
The experts added that while the Israeli settlers in occupied territory enjoy political and civil rights, Palestinians are subject to army rule. The strengthening of an apartheid regime is an unavoidable result of such a system.
They said that the large majority of the UN members unequivocally condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and its annexation of the eastern parts of Ukraine as an act of aggression. They imposed bans on Russia to encourage a reduction of this violation of international law. But, debates and negotiations obfuscate Israel’s annexation of the occupied territories of Palestine, and political rhetoric, which surely rests on double standards.
