Yves here. Due in large measure to lack of power and Israel barring unfriendly journalist access to Gaza (including by systematically murdering them), the reporting on conditions in that enclave has died down a bit (sick pun not intended). The coverage of abuses in the West Bank has been in the shadow, even with the dimmed-down attention to Gaza. The UN warning, and this related post, attempts to rectify that.
By Brett Wilkins. Originally published at Common Dreams
“The West Bank is already in crisis. Yet, settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state.”
The United Nations human rights chief on Friday condemned the record expansion of illegal Israeli apartheid settlements in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem and the “dramatic increase” in violence against Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces and settlers, developments that are occurring while the world’s attention is focused on the Gaza genocide.
“Reports this week that Israel plans to build a further 3,476 settler homes in Maale Adumim, Efrat, and Kedar fly in the face of international law,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement responding to the far-right Israeli government’s latest settlement expansion scheme.
Türk submitted a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council affirming that Israel is violating the Fourth Geneva Convention by “effectively transferring the civilian population of Israel to the occupied territory while displacing the Palestinian population from their land.”
“Such transfers amount to a war crime that may engage the individual criminal responsibility of those involved,” the report states.
The drastic acceleration in Israeli settlements is worsening long-standing patterns of oppression, violence & discrimination against Palestinians, says @UNHumanRights report published today
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) March 8, 2024
Both the occupation and settlements are illegal under international law. Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights in Syria in 1967 and has occupied the territories ever since. Although Israeli troops withdrew from Gaza and dismantled Jewish settlements there in 2005, Israel maintains a crippling physical and economic stranglehold that has become a total siege since October 7, when the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a genocidal war in response to Hamas-led attacks.
The U.N. report notes that approximately 24,300 new homes in existing Israeli settlements in the West Bank were advanced between November 2022 to the end of October 2023, “the highest on record since monitoring began in 2017.”
According to the publication:
The policies of the current government of Israel appear aligned, to an unprecedented extent, with the goals of the Israeli settler movement to expand long-term control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to steadily integrate this occupied territory into the state of Israel…
During the reporting period, there was a dramatic increase in the intensity, severity, and regularity of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians, which is accelerating the displacement of Palestinians from their land, in circumstances that may amount to forcible transfer. This violence further spiked following the attacks on October 7, 2023.
“The West Bank is already in crisis. Yet, settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state,” said Türk.
According to the report, Israeli occupation forces and settlers have killed at least 413 Palestinians—including 107 children—while wounding more than 4,600 others in the West Bank since October 7. Palestinians killed 15 Israelis including four soldiers in the occupied territories during the same period.
In one of the most recent incidents, Israeli troops fatally shot 10-year-old Amr Mohammad Ghaleb Najar in the head while he sat in the front seat of his father’s car with his younger brother as they drove through the village of Burin on Monday. Soldiers then opened fire on Palestinians trying to rescue the child, wounding two other people.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also heads the Civil Administration—the governing body in the occupied territories—said this week that 18,515 new housing units have been approved in the settlements over the past year.
“The enemies try to harm and weaken us, but we will continue to build and be built up in this land,” the far-right minister said on social media.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, which has sanctioned a handful of extremist settlers, last month reversed a Trump-era policy shift under which the United States no longer officially viewed Israeli settlements as illegal. The U.S. State Department first declared the settlements unlawful in 1978.
“Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken saidlast month. “And in our judgment, this only weakens—it doesn’t strengthen—Israel’s security.”
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The images coming out of Gaza is so bad that I have stop following some telegram channel it just break my heart what Israel is doing to Palestine people and with the blessing of Europeans and USA population at the same time they are saying Putin and Xi is the most evil people on earth.
I just can’t understand how someone can be that evil and talk about other countries happening what don’t come close or they are just making it up, so I have come to the conclusion that the reason many can do these things is they don’t see these people as human beings.
Think about this Syria had fake gas attack and to this day they are saying Assad is gassing his own people and he should go, let’s say it’s true it’s noting compare to what Europeans, USA and Israel us doing to other countries. The amount of children they have deleted is just mind blowing.I believe one day we will have ww3 and the west elites don’t care they have their bunkers ready. I have even heard Zuckerberg is building 200 million dollar worth Bunker. The only way I believe we can some how pull this back is china and Russia build up giant army bases in Venezuela ,nicaragua and Cuba, all have nuclear war heads, every year they should have trainings about attacking USA, put it all on news channel. Stop all business dealings with west. This is the only way we can stop world war 3.
I have just finished reading an article referring to US sales of drones, bombs, and other military equipment to provide dedicated support to Israel’s murder and torture of women, children, elderly, and others. This raises the question for me, that I have not seen elsewhere, of whether Biden is supporting the Gaza siege and torture over the Ukrainian need for more drones, bombs, and other military equipment.
Along with your comment, we could hope that Europe would realize that their future would be more secure if they would improve and expand their trade relations with Russia and China. This would raise the economic profitability of everyone involved and reduce desires for economically destructive conflict. It would also send a message the US government that the rest of the world will not continue to support their desire for war in Europe.
Will never happen, USA run EU parliament and local government have all sellout. EU have take away power from the people, its iron fist waiting for any EU country who step out of line. There is no democracy in EU, its a illusion that people have a choice. USA have a better chance of changing than EU
Yaiyen
…it just break my heart what Israel is doing to Palestine people and with the blessing of Europeans and USA population…
[ Surely and tragically so. ]
If you are able to participate in a pro-Palestinian rally, it helps
Or show up at the Democratic National Convention: Dump Biden: Chicago August 19-21-2024
And then the R candidate, who is also a genocidal Zionist, can continue long-term policy. It will take much more than “voting” to alter the status quo. Both “parties” pledge unconditional support
I share your pain and anger, but an important correction: the governments and media of USA, UK, EU etc supports the genocide (with exceptions). The population as a rule, doesn’t.
Even in the US the majority of the population wants a cease fire. A huge majority of the voters of the democrats, but even the majority of the voters of the republicans want a cease fire.
The Israeli genocidal crimes are unsustainable. No matter the damage and destruction, Hamas has won by upending the Israeli big lie of it as a victim and its right to act with impunity.
To keep the US policy for Israel intact, AIAPC has targeted a $100M to challenge Congressmen who’ve been calling for a “cease fire” in Gaza. Other Jewish lobbies are following suit. What kind of “democracy” do we have? Why are these people allowed to bring the world to WWIII? As has been noted in these pages, the IDF would like to move into Lebanon to secure the illegal settlement abounding the border. The Biden Administration has continued funds transfers in smaller tranches to ensure nonstop flow. With California’s Adam Schiff bound to become yet another Jewish senator, it gives Congress further power to impose the Netanyahu Doctrine on its own “manifest destiny”.
The Grayzone released contents of a document outlining a pr campaign of talking points that the GOP, but all other key officials should be encouraged to use to dilute Israeli’s genocidal crimes. Overall, it demonstrates the deep corruption of Israel and the diaspora and the damage they’re causing this country.
Btw, I’m reading Ben Hubbard’s bio on MBS, and the section on how the Houthis came to be is interesting and should be explored more deeply. A quick primer would be very helpful.
I agree and I would add, according to Mearsheimer and Walt, the Israel Lobby does enormous damage to Israel, as well.
One reason, for example, is that friends have disagreements. This is often beneficial because one of you might, in fact, be correct and that would be a big help to the other person.
In contrast, the Israeli Lobby has inserted themselves between the US and Israel, and they object to the slightest dissension against Israel, and thereby, prevent any constructive criticism being voiced which Israel would benefit from hearing.
Unconditional US support for Israel is a disaster for both Israel and the US.
The title of this post – UN Human Rights Chief Decries ‘War Crime’ of Rapidly Expanding Israeli Settlements – can have been written each and every year for the past several decades but somehow nobody acts against the Israelis but let them do whatever they want. And look where all that kid glove treatment got us.
I was watching a British television show which I won’t name, the point of the show is people bring memorabilia and artefacts to be repaired. One elderly woman brought her childhood shoes. She introduced herself as having been born in 1946 in Tel Aviv “and it wasn’t called Palestine” she said.
Only it most certainly was. Jews born in Tel Aviv would have been issued birth certificates, printed in English, Arabic and Hebrew, with “Palestine” across the top.
I remember thinking why would someone lie like that? About their own birth, when they have official documents saying otherwise? What kind of person do you have to be, it seems so malicious, hateful and underhanded.
Multiply that by thousands and you get these settlers.
I very much doubt she brought her birth certificate stating what country she was born in! Sad to say, they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie and,, fill in the rest!
It’s obvious that the DP leadership views Biden, to use the worn phrase, as too big to fail. Regardless if Biden stumbles or forgets what he wanted to say, or commits genocide in Gaza and precipitates a war in Ukraine, the dems have his back. Would the Dems be this supportive of Trump if he continued these policies?
Of the popular remarks on history, whether Marx or Santayana, I have to side with Eugene O’Neill who said, “There is no present or future—only the past, happening over and over again — now.”
Marx’s tragedy/farce and Santayana’s “condemned to repeat it” warnings don’t seem to apply. Nobody denies or forgot the Holocaust. Instead, Biden denies the present. He denies the genocide and can’t bring himself to condemn Israel. He treats the Palestinians as if they suffered a natural disaster like a Hurricane, rather than from the bombs he sent; he tells us, we just need to figure something out to get them some aid.
Remarkably, the NYT published a story with a photo of a 10-year old Palestinian boy who was clearly dying of starvation: The boy, Yazan Kafarneh, died a few days after the photo was taken.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/09/world/middleeast/yazan-kafarneh-gaza-starvation.html
To add to the misery, humiliation, and death of the Palestinians, and likely an escalation of the war, Israelis are building new settlements in the West Bank. While Netanyahu prefers Republicans and, no doubt, Trump, he must be confident that the Israel Lobby and his American supporters can continue to intimidate Biden and the US Congress.
The money pouring into these settlements is a key driver of their expansion, and the destabilization of Israeli/Palestinian politics and the region and world as a whole.
Cutting off the money supply by banning real estate sales and purchases of these settlements in the likes of New Jersey, New York, and London would do a lot to put the brakes on the hardcore rapture-accellerationists organizing all this deliberate irredentism. It’s an easy step to take, but the US and UK are all but lost causes at this point. There’s more chance of Ben Gvir being elected a US Governor than any serious moves at tackling this aggressive colonization. How exactly the entire anglosphere political system became so capture to such a singular interest still escapes me.
I think the US will begin to take part in active measures towards the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians soon. This Gaza port will likely be taking more bodies out than aid in.
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1766490689221902653
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
Malaysia asks for the abolition of the veto of the 5 permanent UN Security Council members, especially in the case of “situations involving mass atrocity crimes such as genocide”:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1766490689221902653
10:46 AM · Mar 9, 2024
‘Malaysia asks for the abolition of the veto of the 5 permanent UN Security Council members, especially in the case of “situations involving mass atrocity crimes such as genocide”’
At least real talk is permitted in some parts of the world.
“…The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, which has sanctioned a handful of extremist settlers, last month reversed a Trump-era policy shift under which the United States no longer officially viewed Israeli settlements as illegal. The U.S. State Department first declared the settlements unlawful in 1978.
“Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken saidlast month. “And in our judgment, this only weakens—it doesn’t strengthen—Israel’s security.”
(Common Dreams, in the end, always favor the D faction, sometimes subtly, sometimes not. This makes JB look “less evil” than DT)
Yeah right, whether legal or not, the US turns a blind eye. The law makes no difference.
The Biden regime has some cheap election-year rhetoric and hollow gestures to placate his alienated “base” yet continues to send more weapons (without Congress approval)
This article makes it sound like Israel will pay for the weapons, but I thought these amounted to gifts.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-us-quietly-approved-more-than-100-arms-sales-to-israel-since-october-7/
“Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion”. ROFLMAO
Firm as an overcooked noodle. Although the context is different, the US position on Israel “rhymes” with understanding the difficulty of clear thinking when money and power (corruption) drive policy:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary [in this case, power within the elite structure] depends on his not understanding it.” Upton Sinclair
There is logic behind Ma’ale Adumim settlement expansion project along the E-1, 7 km outside of Jerusalem, the location where 6 Israelis were shot, one killed, sitting in traffic. The perpetrator is shahid. Ok? In the past, Israel would evict the gunmen’s family to provide some sort of judicial response, although revenge cannot be the sole basis of justice.
So, instead of responding to violence with overwhelming violence, the reactionary wing of the Knesset (grown yeshiva students, benign teddy bears compared to those communist members of the Irgun from Odessa in the bad ol’ days, trust me!) can announce homes are to be built where blood was spilled as a long-term disincentive. In every neighborhood, ghosts enjoin the living to the land.
Well, in the material world, people hold title to the undeveloped property upon which homes are built. In this case, it is owned by the (quasi-) State, which is the Palestinian Authority, who collect property taxes with which a government runs, schools are built, police are paid, and so on. Somehow the immigration into the Arab councils of Israel proper is never mentioned. It is complicated.
It seems that many Jews do not know their history or understand what is being done in their name to the Palestinians. The documentary Israelism (that I have not seen but have read critiques ) is about a young Jewish woman who grew up in Israel but went to the US for university where she came in contact with people who did not agree with her uncritical admiration of her country of birth. On return to Israel she visits the West Bank and is appalled by the conditions there. She goes on to find the Israeli NGO Standing Together. A similar story from a young woman Israeli activist who is courageously protesting the war in Israel (enduring all kinds of abuse) who says that Israelis as a whole are ignorant of what is happening because of them in the West Bank/ Gaza. The Israeli military has censorship powers over the media… always has. This is no excuse.
This week there have been demonstrations outside synagogues in Toronto protesting against land sales in Israel and the occupied west bank taking place inside. Apparently this has been going on for some time..years? Check to see if illegal land sales are taking place in a synagogue near you!!Isn’t it illegal to attempt to sell things that are themselves illegal? Apparently similar sales will take place in US some US cities. Volker Turk , the UN commissioner for human rights recently reported that settlement expansion in the W Bank has expanded exponentially this last year; 23,400 units between November 2022 and November 23 constituting a transference of the Israeli population which is a war crime also that settler violence has reached shocking levels. When will the world stand up to Israel and stop being intimidated by all these false claims of anti-Semitism?
Bill Maher says there was never any Palestine and all the land rightfully belongs to Israel.
It is a disease that is spreading fast amongst the elite. Thankfully there are people with morals amongst the citizens who are taking to the streets to protest the genocide.