Syria calls on Human Rights Council to hold Israel accountable for crimes against Golan locals

Syria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Hussam Eddin Ala has called on the Human Rights Council to condemn Israel for its land expropriation, settlement construction and plunder of natural resources in the occupied Golan Heights, saying the regime must be held to account for its systematic crimes against locals there.

Speaking at the 49th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Friday, Ala referred to the Tel Aviv regime’s grave violations of human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and Palestinian territories, including East al-Quds.

He stated that the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the two regions have their roots in the incessant Israeli acts of aggression.

“The Israeli regime continues to perpetrate flagrant violations of human rights against Palestinians and Syrian residents of the Golan Heights. It is intensifying its settlement construction activities in the occupied Syrian territories, seizing land and looting natural resources,” Ala added.

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The Syrian diplomat also reiterated the Damascus government’s rejection of illegal Israeli settlement projects in the Golan Heights, stressing that the actions are aimed at changing the legal and demographic characteristics of the strategic region.

“Syria denounces the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights as well as blatant violations of human rights there, and calls on the Human Rights Council to record such practices and hold the regime to account for them,” Ala pointed out.

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Russia censures Israel’s plans to expand its illegal settlement activity in the occupied Golan Heights, stressing that the Golan is an inalienable part of Syria.

He highlighted that the Israeli aggressions would not have taken place without the full and unstinting support of the United States and its Western allies.

“Syria underscores its inalienable right to fully restore the Golan Heights, and categorically rejects the unilateral measures taken by Israel to consolidate its occupation,” the senior Syrian diplomat noted.

Back in December last year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding that the Israeli regime fully withdraw from the Syrian Golan Heights, declaring “null” and “void” the regime’s imposition of its jurisdiction on the occupied territory.

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The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution declaring that the regime’s decision to impose its jurisdiction in Syria’s occupied Golan Heights is “null and void”.

The Assembly adopted the draft resolution titled “The Syrian Golan” by a recorded vote of 94 in favor to eight against, with 69 abstentions.

Israel was joined by the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau in voting against the draft resolution.

The draft resolution reaffirmed that settlement construction and any other Israeli activities constitute a change in the demographic nature of the occupied Syrian Golan.

Back in November 2021, the United Nations overwhelmingly adopted a resolution in condemnation of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East al-Quds, and Syria’s Golan Heights, and demanded cessation of their construction.

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It comes in the wake of an announcement by Israel’s prime minister that the number of settlers would be doubled in the Heights.

In 1967, Israel waged a full-scale war against Arab territories, during which it occupied a large swathe of Golan and annexed it four years later – a move never recognized by the international community.

In 1973, another war broke out; and a year later a UN-brokered ceasefire came into force, according to which Tel Aviv and Damascus agreed to separate their troops and create a buffer zone in the Heights. However, Israel has over the past several decades built dozens of illegal settlements in Golan in defiance of international calls for the regime to stop its illegal construction activities.

In a unilateral move rejected by the international community in 2019, former US president Donald Trump signed a decree recognizing Israeli “sovereignty” over Golan.

Nevertheless, Syria has repeatedly reaffirmed its sovereignty over Golan, saying the territory must be completely restored to its control.

The United Nations has also time and again emphasized Syria’s sovereignty over the territory.

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