International media silent on Israeli crimes

International media continue to keep mum on the persistent rights violations committed by the Israeli regime in Palestine and other occupied territories, despite the Western nations’ frequent claims about their concerns over Israeli crimes.

The silence remains unbroken days after the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) wrapped up its latest session in Geneva on March 27 by adopting four resolutions condemning Israel’s rights violations.

The UNHRC slammed the Israeli regime for its systematic violation of the fundamental rights of the Syrian citizens living under Israeli occupation in the Golan Heights.

The Geneva-based body also called on Israel to end its illegal settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian territories, including East al-Quds (Jerusalem), and in the occupied Golan Heights, describing the Israeli settlements an “obstacle to peace and economic and social development.”

In one of the resolutions, the UNHRC took to task the Tel Aviv regime for the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian lands, while another resolution highlighted the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

In the latter resolution, which was supported by 45 of the UNHRC’s 47 members, with 1 vote - cast by the US - against it and 1 abstention, the Council “reaffirmed the inalienable, permanent and unqualified right of the Palestinian people to self-determination,” urging “all Member States and relevant bodies of the United Nations system to support and assist the Palestinian people in the early realization of their right to self-determination.”

'Media serving Israel'

In reaction to the little media coverage that the resolutions have so far received, Joe Catron, from US-based International Solidarity Movement, told Press TV that the silence of the international community over Israeli crimes reflects the “loyalty that a large part of the international elite, the governing classes of North America and Western Europe hold for Israel, the ties that connect them and the networks that Israel has established, which ensure that these governments will continue to serve its interests, the Zionist lobby in the Unites States and elsewhere.”

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East al-Quds.

The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a 1967 war and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on the occupied lands.

The Israeli regime has also imposed a blockade on the Palestinian coastal enclave of the Gaza Strip since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standards of living and poverty in the Palestinian territory.

Gaza has been through three Israeli wars since 2008, the latest of which was waged in early July last year. The offensive ended on August 26, 2014, with a truce that took effect after indirect negotiations in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children, were killed in Israel’s 50-day onslaught. Over 11,100 others - including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people - were also injured.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli prisons for long durations without trial and access to their basic needs, including visits with family members.

MR/HJL/HMV

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