Number: 54/2023
Date: June 24, 2023
Time: local time
Native language: Arabic
Press Release
the Israelin settlement growth and settler violence in Palestinian-occupied territories.
The International Commission “Hashd” Sent the A humanitarian appeal to : The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,Secretary-General of the United Nations , League of Arab States, High Commissioner for Human Rights,European Union , President of the Human Rights Council and League of Arab States and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The International Commission “Hashd” confirmed that the increase in racist settlement practiced by the Israeli occupation, which coincides with the escalation of violence by settlers against Palestinian citizens in the cities of the occupied West Bank, and with the protection of the occupation forces, the Israeli occupation government ratified the decision on June 18, 2023 during its meeting and allowed the extremist minister ” Bezalel Smotrich” by issuing the initial approval for planning and building in the settlements, and shortening the procedures for expanding illegal settlements established on citizens’ lands in the occupied West Bank. While apartheid rule requires that development plans in the settlements be pushed forward without government permission, unlike the system that has been in place for 25 years.
A few days ago, the Israeli occupation government announced bids for the construction of approximately 4,560 new settlement units in many settlements in the occupied West Bank, and that the occupation government, since its formation until now, has legalized more than 60 settlement outposts and announced the construction of thousands of housing units in the settlements, which is What enhances the process of annexation, tightening control, and imposing the law of occupation in the West Bank.
In the occupied West Bank, the number of settlers will increase to about one and a half million settlers, in a step that can be described as a crime of aggression and a new war crime to deepen the policies and crimes of apartheid and the Israeli occupation state’s denial and disregard for international law, international legitimacy decisions, the rules of international humanitarian law and international criminal law, especially the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court.
The policy of growing settlement construction on Palestinian property corresponds with ongoing settlers’ violence in the context of expulsion, generating an atmosphere of fear and terror among Palestinians. Since yesterday, “310” settlers’ attacks in the areas surrounding Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank have been registered, bringing the result of the aggression. In addition to the settler attacks, which included burning houses, vehicles, and agricultural lands, and destroying property, the settlers killed civilians and injured 15, including two serious injuries, one in the chest and the other in the eye (in Turmusaya, Kafr Malik, and Beit Ummar), as the northern areas of the West Bank witnessed a wide spread of settlers on the roads.
And the areas surrounded by the settlements, the settlers have intensified their attacks on the Palestinian villages under the protection of the Zionist occupation forces, the most prominent of which were: Al-Laban Al-Sharqiya, Barqa, Jalud, Sebastia, and Qusra.
The processes of deepening and expanding settlement are regarded as deliberate Israeli acts of sabotage, a new mechanism to halt the manifestation of the State of Palestine on the land, and a contempt for all international resolutions that condemn settlement, and we demand an immediate halt to them. It is also a systematic annihilation of succeeding Palestinian generations’ possibilities of survival and steadfastness in their country, Palestine, as well as an open attack on the people. All international agreements and treaties safeguard the Palestinian people and their rights.
That all settlement measures in the Palestinian territories are legally null and void, and imply the actual annexation of the West Bank through the selection of a civilian responsible for civil administration, “Smutrush,” and allowing the transfer of civilians from the occupying state to the occupied Palestinian lands, in exchange for land confiscation and demolition of Palestinian homes in violation of international law. The nature of the occupation is temporary, and enshrines an existing reality in the occupying state’s control over the occupied territory, as well as the imposition of Israeli sovereignty and the application of Israeli law to the settlers in the West Bank, and in return, the application of military rule to the Palestinians, and the practice of the system of racial discrimination, Thus, it is a violation of international law and human rights law, the UN Security Council Resolution No. (2334) issued in 2016, which calls for an immediate halt to all settlement activities, the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907, the Rome Statute, and the regulations of the International Criminal Court. It considered land appropriation to be an international crime that requires accountability, as well as settlers’ violence and repeated and barbaric attacks being part of the Israeli occupation state’s official policy, as it allows, facilitates, and protects its implementation and also participates in it, as part of the strategy of the Israeli apartheid regime seeking to expand and complete the process The seizure of all Palestinian lands.
We hope you will give up soon since we see your humanity first and foremost as a lever to ensure that members of the international community fulfill their commitments to their populations. At the same time, we ask you to make additional efforts by taking specific measures to halt illegal settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, by putting pressure on the Occupation authorities and their obligation to respect the rules of international law and international conventions and treaties, and the need for immediate and serious action to prioritize our rights and legitimate demands in order to end Palestinian suffering through the confiscation and Judaization of their lands through the United Nations dealing with this suffering of the Palestinians and the Israeli crimes committed on the basis of international law and its established principles.
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (Hashd)
