- Joined
- Jun 2, 2006
- Messages
- 3,216
- Reaction score
- 1,021
- Location
- Houston, TX
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Centrist
BBC News - Israeli presence on Palestinian land 'irreversible'
The best part is when Israel accuses Mr. Falk of being biased, like they do with anything that puts Israel in a negative light:
Israel said the report was utterly biased and served a political agenda, criticising its author for making no mention of what it called Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Mr Falk told journalists that his mandate was to report on the Israeli occupation, not on the rights and wrongs of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Here's some summarized information of Israeli settlements on occupied land:
- ~500,000 Israelis live in these settlements
- Settlements take up roughly 40% of the West Bank.
- Over a hundred settlements "not authorized" by Israel (although Israel funded them up until 2008)
- Continued construction is a direct violation of Article 31, Clause 7 of the Oslo Accords (Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations)
- Many settlements were created through the confiscation of private Palestinian property
- Many of the settlers have hard-right ideologies and believe attacking Palestinians is acceptable.
A UN human rights rapporteur has said continued settlement construction will probably make Israel's occupation of Palestinian land irreversible.
Richard Falk said the peace process aimed at creating an independent, sovereign Palestinian state therefore appeared to be based on an illusion.
He said the UN, the US and Israel had failed to uphold Palestinians' rights.
...
In a report for the UN General Assembly, Mr Falk said Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem had become so extensive it amounted to de-facto annexation of Palestinian land.
He said this undercut assumptions behind UN Security Council resolutions which said Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory in 1967 was temporary and reversible.
Such assumptions are the basis for the current peace process aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The best part is when Israel accuses Mr. Falk of being biased, like they do with anything that puts Israel in a negative light:
Israel said the report was utterly biased and served a political agenda, criticising its author for making no mention of what it called Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Mr Falk told journalists that his mandate was to report on the Israeli occupation, not on the rights and wrongs of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Here's some summarized information of Israeli settlements on occupied land:
- ~500,000 Israelis live in these settlements
- Settlements take up roughly 40% of the West Bank.
- Over a hundred settlements "not authorized" by Israel (although Israel funded them up until 2008)
- Continued construction is a direct violation of Article 31, Clause 7 of the Oslo Accords (Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations)
- Many settlements were created through the confiscation of private Palestinian property
- Many of the settlers have hard-right ideologies and believe attacking Palestinians is acceptable.