Middle East Monitor / July 27, 2023
The international community must take steps to prevent Israel’s annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory or risk being seen as accepting the Israeli government’s systematic violation of international law, UN experts said on Wednesday.
“Israel’s continuous annexation of portions of the occupied Palestinian territory, now focusing on large swathes of the West Bank after unlawfully annexing east Jerusalem, suggests that a concrete effort may be underway to annex the entire occupied Palestinian territory in violation of international law,” the experts said. “In 2020, 46 UN experts urged the international community to firmly oppose Israel’s plans for annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank. Our call went unheard then and we cannot stay silent now.”
The UN group pointed out that the “tragedy” continues to unfold for both Palestinians and Israelis. “They are unequally trapped in the maze of unlawfulness and injustice. Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders, who peacefully bring public attention to these violations, keep being slandered, criminalized or labelled as terrorists.”
In February this year, Israel’s coalition government transferred most governance powers over the West Bank to far-right Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who thus became the de facto governor of the occupied Palestinian territory. The UN experts noted that the move solidified Israel’s annexation of occupied territory. Smotrich himself lives in an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank.
“Annexation or acquisition of territory by use of force or threat is categorically prohibited under international law. It constitutes an act of aggression, a crime that falls under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and poses a threat to international peace and security,” the UN experts reminded the international community. “Israel has persistently pursued annexation in many parts of the occupied Palestinian territory. Over the past five decades, Israel has confiscated or endorsed confiscation of Palestinian lands and resources, resulting in over 270 colonies housing 750,000 Jewish settlers.”
These Jewish settlers in occupied Palestinian territory enjoy civil and political rights, they pointed out. “However, Palestinians are subject to military rule. The consolidation of an apartheid regime is an unavoidable consequence of such a system.”
The experts stated that most of the UN member states “unequivocally condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its annexation of Ukraine’s eastern parts as an act of aggression,” while “Israel’s annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory is obfuscated by political rhetoric, debates and negotiations, which ultimately rest on double standards.”
They added that, “This show of à la carte enforcement of international law undermines the foundations of the UN Charter and the promise of the universality of international human rights, 75 years after the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
