United Nations: Occupied Palestinian Territory: Israeli settlements should be classified as war crimes, says UN expert

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, Michael Lynk, called on the international community to label Israeli settlements as a war crime, under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. As long as the Rome Statute was adopted in 1998, the international community designated as a war crime the practice by which Israeli settlements violate the absolute prohibition against the transfer by an occupying power of parts of its civilian population into occupied territory.

The Special Rapporteur declared that for Israel, the settlements serve two main purposes: to guarantee that occupied Palestine will remain under its control in perpetuity and to endure that there will never be a Palestinian state. He told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that the settlements are "the engine of Israel's 54-year-old occupation, the longest in the modern world". Nowadays there are close to 300 settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and West Bank, with more than 680.000 Israeli settlers.

Mr. Link described the illegality of the Israeli settlements as one of the most settled and uncontentious issues in modern international law and diplomacy. Their illegality has been confirmed by the United Nations Security Council, the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, the International Court of Justice, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and by many other regional and international human rights organizations.

The Special Rapporteur talked about a “tragic paradox” in relation to the fact that Israeli settlements are clearly prohibited by international law but the international community has been too reluctant to enforce its own laws. Former Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has said that it’s the lack of any international legal accountability which has enabled Israel to ignore the UN resolutions.

The Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council are independent human rights experts with mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective. The Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts, and members of the Working Groups are appointed by the Human Rights Council and serve in their personal capacities.

Last update

2/8/2021