International Inaction Towards Israel Is Tantamount to Condoning Its Illegal Actions

Rasa - Once again, the Israeli regime is preparing to unlawfully demolish an entire neighborhood of Palestinian homes in the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank.

News ID: 434752

Date: 13 November 2017 - 22:10

RNA - The neighborhood is home to some 300 Palestinians, who will be expelled from the area after living there for generations. The Israeli Army is using the regime order meant to force the  evacuation under a falsified document.

The document was signed by Israeli Maj. Gen. Roni Numa, and was not given to any of the Palestinians to be expelled. Instead, a single copy with a vague map of the area to be demolished was left on the road nearby.

The map is believed to include the villages of Ein al-Hilweh and Umm Jamal. Lawyers for the Palestinians note that such eviction orders are explicitly not applicable to Palestinian residents, and argue that there is no legal basis to expel them or destroy their homes.

Per usual, the new Israeli practices affect the human rights of the Palestinians and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. Meaning, the UN Security Council can and should consider sanctions against Israel to halt the illegal expansion of its territory and its attempts to control the region’s natural resources.

Else, the international community’s inaction in the face of Israel’s behaviour is tantamount to condoning its illegal actions. The Israeli occupation has been a test of the international community’s commitment to upholding international human rights standards, but it is unclear what signal is being sent to the developing world when even major Western powers turn a blind eye to Israel’s human rights violations.

Moreover, Security Council’s indifference and inaction has diminished that body’s credibility and relevance in terms of the Palestinian issue.  For that reason, it is imperative that the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices continue to disseminate its reports and come up with proper actions to stop them outright.

Although Israel and the United States have prevented the Special Committee from visiting the Occupied Territories since 1968, its reports nevertheless show the depth of inhumane practices of the Israeli regime against a defenceless people.  Its most recent one had rightly depicted the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a “suffocated, open-air prison”, containing, not criminals, but innocent people.  Not only is an entire nation being punished daily, but an entire population has been deprived of its basic human rights for decades.

The ethnic cleansing undertaken by Israel to “de-Palestinize” East Jerusalem Al-Quds should be added to the list of illegal practices. It doesn’t seem to be enough for the usurper regime to take the Palestinian lands, but it is using its court system to further reduce the size of the future Palestinian State.  Also, its construction of so many illegal settlements is contrary to the road map, under which Israel is obliged to dismantle all illegal settlements built on Palestinian lands since March 2001.

As many reports by the UN and human rights groups have pointed out, such acts go against the Fourth Geneva Convention, which deals with the protection of civilians during times of war or occupation.  The same convention also bars any form of collective punishment, which is being practiced by Israel almost daily against inhabitants of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

847/940