New UN report accuses Israel of ‘persecution’ of Palestinians
The UN Special Rapporteur denounces “Israel’s colonial occupation and […] its apartheid practices”
In a report released Tuesday, October 18, 2022, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), said that Israel’s actions against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are akin to “persecution”.
“The realization of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination requires the definitive dismantling of Israel’s colonial occupation and apartheid practices,” writes UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
Dated September 21, 2022, the report details Israeli efforts to annihilate Palestinian collective identity and sovereignty. She refers in particular to the May 13, 2022 attack by Israeli forces during the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. This attack targeted the pallbearers of the coffin carrying their national flag.
Francesca Albanese discusses the use of lethal force against journalists and aid workers who criticize Israel, as well as the pretrial detention of Palestinian political leaders. The report discusses the recent case of Salah Hammouri, a Franco-Palestinian lawyer from Jerusalem, detained without charge or trial since March 7, 2022 on terrorism allegations.
According to the report, nearly 4,500 Palestinians are currently detained, 730 of them without any charge and largely on the basis of secret evidence, while children as young as 12 have been subjected to arbitrary arrests and detentions – 500 to 700 minors are detained each year by the Israeli government.
In August, Israeli forces closed the offices of seven Palestinian civil society rights groups in the occupied West Bank. The report called the measure an abuse of anti-terrorism legislation.
“This appears to be an effort to further reduce or even completely prohibit the space for human rights monitoring and legal opposition to the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories.”
Francesca Albanese says it’s time for a ‘paradigm shift’ in Israel’s relationship with the international community.
She criticized efforts by regional states to normalize ties with Israel, calling attempts to restore peace “ineffective” because “they have not focused their approaches on human rights. . . in particular the right to self-determination, and neglected the colonial foundations of the Israeli occupation”.
The report calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to publish an updated database of companies involved in the settlements. Economic activities in the occupied West Bank have recently come under the spotlight via the legal action by ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s over the sale of its business in the occupied West Bank to its parent company Unilever.
The report calls on states to demand an immediate end to Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and the return of all lands and resources from which the Palestinian people have been displaced and dispossessed, regardless of negotiations between Israel and Palestine, to resolve the dispute.
Source : UN
