UN: ‘Alarming’ Israeli settlement expansion flies in face of international law
The UN Human Rights Office says the alarming Israeli settlement expansion and legal changes in the occupied West Bank fly in the face of international law.
In a press release on Monday, the UN body said such measures violate a landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice in July.
In its Advisory Opinion of July 19, the ICJ held that Israel’s policies and practices amount to annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It called for the evacuation of all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
According to the press release, illegal settlements, settler violence and the presence of settlers are the root causes of the majority of human rights violations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
It emphasized that the recently-announced construction of new settlement plans in Nahal Heletz west of Bethlehem all remain unlawful under international law.
“In the case of Nahal Heletz, the building of a new settlement in this strategic area severely compromises the livelihoods, safety and movement of Palestinians living in five surrounding villages, while posing a significant threat to the contiguity and viability of a Palestinian state,” it pointed out.
Israel on Wednesday approved the construction of a new settlement on a UNESCO World Heritage Site near the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem as the regime’s forces continue to raid areas across the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said that his office had "completed its work and published a plan for the new Nahal Heletz settlement in Gush Etzion.”
Most United Nations member states consider settlements built in the West Bank and other territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war to be illegal under international law.
The latest approval comes at a time of heightened tensions in the West Bank and east al-Quds over the regime’s hostilities that have killed over 40,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023.
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