UN Human Rights chief: Israeli settlements, violence reach record high
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The 16-page report demonstrates the plans for 24,300 new Israeli housing units in the occupied West Bank during one year through to the end of October 2023, which was the highest record since UN monitoring began in 2017.
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Israeli forces stand in the way of a Palestinian woman in an illegal settlement on Aug. 30, 2023. (AP)
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk confirmed that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have increased by a record amount and they risk eliminating any practical possibility of a Palestinian state.
He said that the growth of Israeli settlements amounted to "Israel's" transfer of its own population, which he said constituted a war crime, which echoes the Biden administration's statement last month that the settlements were "inconsistent" with international law after the occupation announced new building plans.
Accompanying the report due to be presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva later this month, Turk said: "Settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian State".
In a related statement, "Israel's" diplomatic mission in Geneva argued that the deaths of 36 Israelis in 2023 should have been included in the report.
"Human rights are universal, yet Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism are ignored by the Office (of the High Commissioner) time and time again".
Read next: Israeli authorities, settlers carried out 12,000+ attacks in 2023
The 16-page report demonstrates the plans for 24,300 new Israeli housing units in the occupied West Bank from one year through to the end of October 2023, which was the highest record since UN monitoring began in 2017.
According to the report, a sharp increase in the intensity, severity, and regularity of both Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has been evident, especially since October 7.
Since October 7, over 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces or by settlers, it noted.
Turk's report noted that the Israeli policies appeared to match an "unprecedented extent" with the goals of the extremism of the Israeli settler movement, whereby cases of settlers donning full or partial IOF uniforms and harassing or attacking Palestinians blur the line between them.
Sometimes the Palestinians were shot at point-blank range, it added.
Back in January, an Israeli organization reported that an analysis of Israeli police investigations into violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank reveals that between 2005 and September 2023, approximately 94% of scrutinized investigations were concluded without an indictment, with only three percent resulting in a conviction.
More than 80% of the examined investigations were closed because the police either couldn't "identify the perpetrators" or failed to gather the "necessary evidence" for prosecution.
