Archives for February 2021

Excellency,

I must again draw attention to the critical situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, due to escalating violations by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people.

Just over a week has passed since our last letter, and not a day has gone by where Israel has not exploited the COVID-19 crisis to intensify its violations as the world remains consumed by the pandemic. These manifestations of belligerent occupation are designed to inflict severe suffering through acts of violence, dispossession, displacement, dehumanization, and other forms of calibrated oppression, part and parcel of a blatant colonization and annexation drive in grave breach of the law.

We must recall that today marks the 27^th anniversary of the massacre perpetrated by a terrorist Israeli settler at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Khalil (Hebron), who killed 29 Palestinians worshipping at dawn prayers, among them children and elderly, and wounded dozens of others. That terrorist settlers’ presence and lawlessness was aided and abetted by the occupying Power, as it continues to do to this day with the hundreds of thousands of settlers it continues to transfer to Occupied Palestine in grave breach of the 4^th Geneva Convention and in violation of obligations under Security Council resolutions, including resolution 904 (1994), which called, inter alia, for the disarming of Israeli settlers and militias and for measures to be taken to guarantee the safety and protection of Palestinian civilians.

The Ibrahimi Mosque massacre was a turning point fully exploited by Israel to close off parts of the Old City of Al-Khalil to Palestinians, including Al-Shuhada Street, where hundreds of shops were closed by military order and remain so to this day, choking socio-economic life and movement in the city; to divide the city and to divide the Mosque itself, all for the protection and privilege of the extremist group of fanatical Jewish settlers illegally transferred there. Such methodical and brutal colonization continues to this day all over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as Israel further entrenches its nearly 54-year, illegal occupation.

For decades now, Israel has tried to normalize its illegal policies of home demolitions and forced displacement and its construction of colonial settlements in Palestine under countless pretexts ranging from “security concerns”, to settler “claims” to properties, to the absence of construction permits, to Biblical claims as justifications for these crimes. Yet nothing can be considered normal about such abnormal, immoral and illegal acts and the grave impact on the people targeted, children, women and men alike.

In this regard, we must draw attention to the situation in occupied East Jerusalem, where countless Palestinian families face forced eviction from their homes to make way for Israeli settlers. These illegal actions are proceeding apace with the support of Israeli occupation courts, who continue to render “judicial” decisions reinforcing such crimes against Palestinian families, claiming that the evictions are necessary to enable Jews to “recover” properties since Israel’s establishment. However, the same law does not apply to Palestinians who were and remain uprooted and dispossessed from their homes.

Israeli courts rejected appeals by Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods against forced eviction from their homes in favor of the state-backed Nahalat Shimon and Ateret Cohanim settler groups. The families, who have lived in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan long before Israel’s establishment and the start of the occupation, are facing decades-old campaigns by settler groups that enjoy automatic support of the occupation’s so-called legal system.

The impending mass displacement campaigns in occupied East Jerusalem order that Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah must abandon their homes by 2 May 2021, and families in Silwan by August 2021. According to the Israeli NGO Ir Amim, if the evictions are not halted, over a thousand of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan could be uprooted from their homes and communities, and supplanted by settlers, amounting to a form of forcible transfer. These illegal campaigns aim to replicate the situation in Al-Khalil, where settler enclaves are encroaching on Palestinians inside the city itself, imposing an unbearable reality of oppression, segregation, and discrimination and facilitating annexation plans.

Such practices, which promote and perpetuate the supremacy and privilege of one group over another, a blatantly discriminatory and apartheid practice, constitute grave breaches of the 4^th Geneva Convention, and serious violations of Security Council and General Assembly resolutions which prohibit any attempts to alter the character, demographic composition and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem. We recall Security Council resolution 2334 (2016), which, inter alia, condemned “all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions”.

In addition to the ongoing and repeated displacement and trauma inflicted on Palestinian families in Humsa Al-Baqia in the Jordan Valley and the destruction of humanitarian to these families, the occupying Power persists with home demolitions and evictions in other parts of Palestine. On 15 February, another two Palestinian families in Jerusalem were forced to self-demolish their homes to avoid the heavy demolition fees imposed by the occupation. This includes the Awadallah family, who had to self-demolish their two-story home built in Shufat over 20 years ago after numerous unsuccessful attempts to obtain an occupation-issued permit. On the same day, Israeli authorities issued demolition orders against more Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, and ordered a construction halt for three homes in Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, again under the pretext that they were built without permits, preparing to demolish those homes yet again. According to the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, Israel has rejected nearly 99 percent of Palestinian building permit applications over the years, making it impossible for Palestinians to build and develop their communities in their own land.

These systematic violations are clearly part of Israel’s land grab and settlement expansion schemes, which continue unabated, accompanied by the transfer of more settlers and their increasing violence and extremism against the Palestinian population. These crimes are officially supported by the Israeli government and numerous organizations, including those claiming to be “charities”, such as the Jewish National Fund (JNF), which recently decided to “officially authorize” the purchase of occupied Palestinian land to accelerate settlement expansion. As stated by the US-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, “Notwithstanding the significant controversy this “new” policy has provoked, the reality is that the JNF has long worked in support of settlements. What is different now is that, where in the past the JNF preferred to leave its settlement-related activities deliberately obscured, under the new policy the JNF would openly claim and promote its support for settlements.”

Israel’s annexation agenda is further exposed by its construction of hundreds of roads, tunnels, and overpasses designed to serve settlers across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. For instance, one of Israel’s ongoing annexation projects includes the construction of the segregated and so-called “Sovereignty Road”, which aims to connect the illegal “Ma’ale Adumim” settlement to nearby settlement blocs and outposts. Another aim of this scheme is clearly to advance the construction of settlements in the so-called “E-1” area, where Israel seeks to entrench settler presence in order to cause irreversible damage the contiguity of the Palestinian State. As cautioned by the Israeli NGO Peace Now in regard to this illegal move: “The Israeli government is de facto annexing the West Bank by investing billions of shekels into roads designed to double the number of settlers to a million and even more.”

We recall once again Security Council resolution 2334, by which the Council, inter alia:

• Reiterated “its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard”;

• Underlined “that it will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations”;
• Called upon States “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”.

Yet, Israel persists in defying the Security Council, carrying on with all of these illegal measures, which have also been accompanied by a sharp uptick in settler violence against Palestinians, with Israeli soldiers either joining in settler-related attacks or refusing to intervene. In an urgent appeal to several UN Special Rapporteurs on the escalation of settler violence, Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq has urgently requested the UN’s “immediate intervention to protect the Palestinian protected population from systematic and ongoing settler attacks, which are conducted with institutionalized impunity.”

It is undeniable that such settler violence and aggression is directly incited by Israeli government, military and religious officials and the culture of hate that continues to be fueled extremist rhetoric. According to a recent study by the Hebrew University, dubbed the ‘Map of Hatred’, Palestinians are the group most feared and hated by Israeli Jews, with polls suggesting the high rates of hatred and rejection indicate that anti-Palestinian incitement is tolerated and acceptable. As Israel enters yet another round of elections, the cynical connection between anti-Palestinian rhetoric and incitement continues at fever-pitch.

This dehumanization of the Palestinian people also continues to be manifested in Israel’s ongoing arrest and detention of civilians and its abuse of the nearly 5,000 held captive in its jails. In recent weeks, dozens of Palestinians, including children, have been rounded-up and detained. This shockingly included two young boys, ages 8 and 6, in the town of Hizma. Also, on 16 February, a Palestinian woman, Rahmeh Abu Ahour, 67, suffered a fatal heart attack after Israeli soldiers ransacked her home during a raid in Abu Njeim, east of Bethlehem. Israeli occupation forces routinely carry out such violent arrest raids with utter disregard for the state of emergency declared in the West Bank due to the pandemic and for the well-being of the Palestinian civilian population, in grave violation of international humanitarian law.

The occupying Power also persists with its use of administrative detention, holding Palestinians indefinitely, without charge or trial. Among the hundreds being held is Mohammad Al-Halabi, a Palestinian aid worker from the Gaza Strip, who has been administratively detained for four years. According to his lawyer, Al-Halabi has attended more than 140 military court hearings since his arrest. UN Human rights experts have called on Israel to release Al-Halabi or to immediately grant him a fair trial, stating: “The international rule of law requires that an individual who is arrested must only be detained if there are reasonable suspicions that she or he has committed a recognized crime, and the charges and the evidence must be clearly laid out so defendants know what they have to answer.” Another military court hearing is scheduled for Al-Halabi on 3 March 2021. We call for his release and the release of all Palestinian civilians illegally imprisoned by the occupying Power.

Israel also persists with its immoral policy of withholding bodies of dead Palestinians, collectively punishing and traumatizing their families, who are prohibited from burying their loved ones in accordance with religious and cultural rituals. On 20 February, Israel finally returned the body of Daoud Al-Khatib, who died in September of last year due to ill-treatment and medical negligence by the prison authorities. Yet at least 70 Palestinian bodies continue to be held by the occupying Power, in addition to the hundreds withheld and buried in secret in cemeteries controlled by the occupation. We call for an end to this cruel and illegal practice and the return of the bodies to their families for burial.

As we near 54 years since the onset occupation and observe numerous other tragic anniversaries once again this year, conventional wisdom holds that the only viable response to Israeli impunity is through preventive measures, including serious measures of accountability. Without consequence these crimes and this inhumanity will clearly not end.

The Security Council must uphold its Charter duty for the maintenance of international peace and security. Israel cannot continue to be the exception to every rule; this privileged treatment has only emboldened its impunity and undermined international law, with disastrous effect on our people and the rules-based system as a whole. It is high-time for accountability, for only halting violations and de-escalating the situation can create trust and open a credible horizon for making peace, a peace sought worldwide by all supporting the longstanding international consensus based on the relevant UN resolutions.

 As stated by Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh at the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting earlier this week: “While we remain committed to peace based on the two-State solution to achieve the legitimate national rights of our people to live in their independent sovereign contiguous State of Palestine on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a just solution to the refugees’ question based on UN resolution 194, the reality on the ground after 30 years of peace process, is a systematic destruction of the Palestinian State and the two-State solution.” We urge the international community to act forthwith to uphold international law, to protect the Palestinian people, to stop the destruction of two-State solution, and to exert the needed efforts to advance the realization of a just peace, a Palestinian-Israeli peace that will not only transform the Middle East region but the prospects for global peace and security.

I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of the present letter made available to the members of the Security Council for their immediate, valuable consideration and also distributed as an official document of the Security Council.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Dr. Riyad Mansour

Minister, Permanent Observer

Excellency,

The critical situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, continues to worsen due to the escalating illegal policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people.

The month of January witnessed grave Israeli violations of international law, with February regrettably following the same trajectory of unabated, systematic colonization and human rights abuses, entrenching the occupation and further damaging the prospects for a just solution. As illegal settlement and annexation activities escalate, so do the oppression and collective punishment of the Palestinian people, with at least 456 Palestinians, including at least 93 children and 8 women, arrested and detained in January alone.

Home demolitions have also continued to rise. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the year 2020 witnessed the highest number of demolitions of Palestinian homes and structures by Israeli occupation forces since the documentation of this inhumane practice began. Considering the levels of demolition and dispossession in January, it is clear that Israel is insistent on its path of impunity, portending a new violation’s record in 2021. Since the start of 2021, Israeli occupation forces have already demolished, seized or forced Palestinians to demolish at least 178 structures, displacing over 259 people, including at least 140 children.

As highlighted in previous letters, in two major demolition campaigns on 1 and 3 February, Israeli occupation forces demolished over 45 structures in Khirbet Humsa (also known as Humsa al-Bqai’a) in the Jordan Valley, repeatedly displacing and rendering homeless the 60 people, including 35 children, that comprise the nine families in that part of the community, who are now threatened with the risk of forcible transfer. This vulnerable Bedouin community has now been subject to four mass demolitions by Israeli occupation forces, including the destruction of homes, livestock shelters and water facilities, many of which had been funded by the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Despite Israeli movement restrictions, the Palestinian Government and international organizations mobilized to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the displaced families. However, according to OCHA and the Norwegian Refugee Council, Israeli occupation forces have confiscated a significant proportion of the assistance, including tents, leaving the displaced families to the mercy of the harsh elements of winter and violating innumerable human rights, including the right to education, with over 50 schools indiscriminately targeted with demolition orders. We refer in this regard to the 5 February joint statement by UN agencies (OCHA, OHCHR, and UNICEF) drawing the international community’s attention to the Israeli demolition campaign against Humsa al-Bqai’a and deeming such actions by the occupying Power to constitute direct breaches of international law.

The impact of these illegal and immoral actions on children is especially severe. According to documentation by Save the Children, in 2020 over 840 structures were demolished by the occupation, displacing more than 500 children, leaving them and their families homeless, devastating their communities, and disrupting every aspect of their lives. As stressed by Jason Lee, Save the Children’s country director, “Children are paying the highest price. Tearing down a house, a school or other vital infrastructure, especially during a pandemic, destroys their right to an education, to have a home. It targets their future, their health, their safety and well-being”.

Simultaneous to the uprooting and traumatizing of our people, Israel also continues to raze and confiscate Palestinian land and uproot trees, thieving Palestinian property and destroying livelihoods. In the period between 19 January and 1 February, Israeli occupation forces uprooted thousands of trees near the city of Tubas that had been planted eight years ago as part of a project supervised by the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture. In a separate assault, Israeli forces bulldozed nearly 1,000 trees in Bethlehem. Both incidents took place on the grounds that the land had been declared ‘state land,’ which is a baseless claim used to justify Israel’s annexationist intentions.

Israel’s demolition campaign is designed to uproot Palestinians from their land through state-sponsored dispossession. The objective is clear: maximal territory minus the presence of Palestinians, i.e. ethnic cleansing. The methodical implementation of this plan has been especially intense in and around areas critical to realization of the two-State solution and preservation of the contiguity of the State of Palestine, both of which the occupying Power seeks to destroy.

Although the international community has explicitly called for the cessation of home demolitions, forced evictions, land confiscation and all settlement activities, as reflected in relevant UN resolutions, and while governments, parliamentarians, human rights groups, and other international organizations have equally called for an end to these illegal actions, Israel continues to violate international law with absolute impunity. The consequences for the Palestinian people have been dire and the prospects for a just peace have been suffocated.

As of today, hundreds of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem are in danger of being dispossessed of their homes and properties following baseless legal battles waged by settler organizations closely linked to the Israeli government. Adding to the misery of the vulnerable families, who have lived in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan long before Israel’s establishment and the start of the occupation, Israeli courts, where no justice can be found, actually aim to handover their homes and properties to settlers.

Given the urgency of the matter, over 80 British parliamentarians recently sent a letter to the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Raab, writing that Israel’s looming dispossession of Palestinian families in Jerusalem must be prevented, and that such dispossession and forcible transfer is a grave violation of the 4^th Geneva Convention. Moreover, the parliamentarians called for the necessary legal and political measures to address Israel’s mass dispossession of the Palestinian people and settlement campaign. They stressed that: “All measures should be on the table, including reducing diplomatic engagement and banning trade in settlement products in full conformity with international law obligations in order to challenge the settler economy that profits from the occupation.”

Similarly, humanitarian organizations have raised concerns and issued warnings over Israel’s dispossession campaign against the Palestinian people. On 9 February, the Norwegian Refugee Council underscored the urgency of the matter, warning that the international community “has once again witnessed attacks on some of the poorest families on occupied Palestinian land. Empty words of ‘concern’ are not enough for these families who find themselves homeless and deprived of the most basic needs. The international community, including European governments, must do more to stop forced displacement and demand that Israel provide reparations to Palestinian victims.”

Regrettably, the failure to hold Israel accountable thus far has greatly emboldened these crimes, including acts of violence, destruction and terror by Israeli settlers across Occupied Palestine. Under the protection of Israeli soldiers, extremist settlers continue to kill, assault and abduct Palestinian civilians and to damage homes, uproot trees, desecrate houses of worship, and routinely incite against, harass and intimidate the Palestinian population, including children.

On 5 February, Israeli settlers shot and killed a Palestinian man in Ras Karkar, north of Ramallah. Khaled Nofal, 34, was killed by settlers near the illegal outpost of “Sde Efraim”, which was erected on privately-owned Palestinian land seized for settlement expansion. Israeli occupation forces prevented Palestinian medics from accessing the site, and have yet to bring the perpetrators to justice.

On 10 February, an Israeli settler from the infamous settlement of “Ariel” ran over a Palestinian man near Salfit, killing him instantly. On 12 February, another settler car attack took place near Tubas, killing one Palestinian and injuring two others. While on a hike, Bilal Bawatneh, 52, was killed instantly as the criminal settler escaped using settler-only roads leading to nearby settlements. Had the perpetrators been Palestinian, it is well known that Israeli forces would have demolished their families’ homes and restricted movement across the West Bank, imposing collective punishment on the entire civilian population, in order to punish the perpetrator and in complete disregard for international law.

Also last week, video footage emerged showing an Israeli settler carrying out an attack against the Romanian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, causing damage to the church property. A statement by the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem warned that “Israeli extremists’ attacks against churches and mosques in Jerusalem are alarmingly on the rise, and the failure of Israeli official authorities to deal with them and their tolerance towards such terrorist acts will definitely lead to more fueling of the conflict in the Holy City, and will keep it further away from achieving peace and stability.”

On 10 February, the mayor of Al-Khalil (Hebron), Mr. Taysir Abu Senineh, received numerous death threats from the leader of the so-called “Kiryat Arba” settlement, along with threats from Israeli parliamentarian Moshe Abutbul. Both the settler leader and politician have intensified their collaborative campaign of anti-Palestinian incitement aimed at intimidating the population and consolidating Israel’s “eternal occupation” of Al-Khalil, including in the southern hills of the area where Palestinian communities, including in Masafer Yatta, are under grave threat of displacement.

Even in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Israeli attacks and military raids have escalated. During an overnight raid on 10 February, Israeli occupation forces launched multiple incursions across the occupied West Bank and detained over 30 Palestinians, most of them children, adding to the thousands of Palestinian civilians being illegally held captive by the occupation.

It is beyond disturbing to imagine the experience and trauma endured by Palestinian children as they are detained, blindfolded, and taken away from their parents and homes in the middle of the night only to be victims of Israel’s systematic practices of arbitrary detention and torture. We reiterate the call for the immediate release of all Palestinian children being held by the occupying Power and for Israel’s respect for its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Turning to the situation in the Gaza Strip, we again sound the alarm about the deplorable humanitarian and socioeconomic conditions there due to the illegal Israeli blockade that has caused such severe deprivation, hunger and misery on its two million inhabitants, the majority Palestine refugees, who continue to bear the hardships of the original dispossession and displacement inflicted on them by Israel. Today, in yet another act of inhumanity, the occupying Power blocked the entry to Gaza of 2,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines intended for frontline health workers, including personnel in ICU units treating patients with the virus. This constitutes yet another grave breach of Israel’s obligations under the 4^th Geneva Convention.

Israeli occupation forces continue to infiltrate Gaza’s shores and agricultural lands with military boats and earth-moving machinery, indiscriminately attacking civilians and causing significant damage to Gaza’s already devastated economy and infrastructure. Just two days ago, occupation forces opened on fire at Palestinian farmers working in their land near the border, depriving them of their source of sustenance and livelihood. This was preceded by yet another attack on Palestinian fishermen, who were fired at with live ammunition and water cannons on 7 February.

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) recent decision affirming jurisdiction as to the situation Palestine brings hope that long-overdue accountability and justice are possible. The deterrent capacity of the Court is also undoubted as the perpetrators of war crimes against the Palestinian people have been put on notice. Despite Israel’s threats and false accusations of anti-Semitism against the ICC, the Court has recognized that the legitimacy and necessity of impartially investigating the situation in Palestine for the cause of justice, a central element for the realization of peace.

Since the onset of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory in 1967, Israel has yet to bear an ounce of accountability for decades of impunity and oppression. The result has been devastating for the Palestinian people and for the goal of a just and lasting peace and security between Palestine and Israel, making the applicability of international law, including UN resolutions, more imperative than ever. The Security Council in particular must uphold its Charter duty for the maintenance of international peace and security. This too surely requires preventive measures, including measures of accountability. We therefore again appeal for action by the Council to uphold the law and implement its resolutions on the Palestine question. The Council must overcome its paralysis and act forthwith towards ending the Israeli occupation in all its manifestations, including the colonial settlement regime, and supporting the realization of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.

In closing, we recall, when asked about the Israeli occupation in late 2016, then Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, stated: “The lack of any significant movement towards a political resolution and ongoing violations of international human rights and humanitarian law are exacerbated by the lack of accountability for previous violations… Tackling impunity must be the highest priority.” Nearly five years later, the occupation is entrenching by the minute while accountability remains absent. We must seize this opportunity to prevent the passing of yet another year of inaction and raging impunity at the expense of more Palestinian suffering and yet another lost generation.

I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of the present letter made available to the members of the Security Council for their immediate, valuable consideration and also distributed as an official document of the Security Council.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Dr. Riyad Mansour

Minister, Permanent Observer

Excellency,

The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, continues to deteriorate due to the escalating illegal policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power.

Every day Israel proves it hasn’t abandoned its annexation plans. In every action, annexation is the driving force and ultimate goal. This is blatantly apparent in the illegal plans for the so-called “Givat Hamatos” settlement, yet another installment in Israel’s creeping annexation scheme, implemented across the nearly 54 years of this illegal occupation, by which it has swallowed up more and more Palestinian land, step by step, artificially dividing and fragmenting our land.

Israel’s colonial settlement drive in Jabal Abu Ghneim, around the Mar Elias Monastery and between Beit Safafa and Bethlehem, referred to by Israel as “Har Homa” and “Giv’at Hamatos”, in addition to the ongoing expansion of settlement infrastructure, including Jewish-only bypass roads, threatening the Cremisan Valley and Al Slayeb in Beit Jala, referred to by the occupying Power as “Gilo”, deprive Palestine of some of its most important lands, including natural resources, as part of the ongoing process of annexation aimed at surrounding Palestinian cities, towns and villages with a ring of settlements and severing the natural connection and contiguity between these areas and particularly between the sister cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

As cautioned by the Mayor of Bethlehem, Mr. Anton Salman, “such continued colonial-settlement expansion does not only separate the geography between the holy cities, it also contributes to the sabotage of our Palestinian practices and traditions, whether religious or cultural, inherited from our ancestors”. The impact is real, far-reaching and dangerous.

The illegal “Givat Hamatos” settlement will destroy the Palestinian State’s contiguity and deal a devastating blow to the two-State solution. Ask the residents of Beit Safafa and Sharafat, who have witnessed widespread dispossession and displacement due to Israel’s frenzied colonization and have lost faith in the two-State solution and the possibility of peace. Once “Givat Hamatos” is completed, towns like Beit Safafa and Sharafat will be completely isolated and surrounded by the Wall and illegal settlements, frighteningly resembling the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa. This is the reality that they, like millions of Palestinians under this illegal occupation, are living.

Back in 1997 we urged the Security Council to take action to stop the illegal settlement of Jabal Abu Ghneim/Har Homa. This was met with broad international condemnation of Israel’s plans and led to the convening by the General Assembly of its tenth emergency special session. Yet no decisive action was taken to stop the occupying Power, bringing us to the brink we are at today. Will the international community allow Israel carry on with these colonial plans between Bethlehem and Jerusalem to make a new “Jabal Abu Ghneim” without consequence, or will it act to uphold the law and salvage peace prospects? 

It is no secret why such impunity prevails. Israel persists with this illegal colonization and annexation campaign because it is cost-free, because it has never been held responsible for its flagrant violations of international law and UN resolutions. This is epitomized in the events of recent weeks where, even after Israel revealed plans for the construction of thousands more settlement units in “Givat Hammatos” and other settlements across the West Bank, the international community has been unable to move beyond condemnation and appeals for cessation to concrete action to hold the occupying Power accountable and compel a halt to these crimes.

We reiterate: whether annexation is implemented partially or totally, de facto or de jure, the international community is obliged to take serious, tangible action, as per international law and the relevant UN resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 (2016).

The false Israeli narrative that these settlements are a part of Israel must be firmly rejected. We recall Security Council resolution 2334, by which the Council not only demanded that Israel cease all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, but directly called upon States “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.”

Lack of respect for resolution 2334 and the absence of accountability has led to further Israeli colonization and annexation measures in our land, resulting in further dispossession, displacement and other violations of the rights of the Palestinian people. Even in this time of pandemic, the Israeli occupation has failed to demonstrate an ounce of humanity as Palestinian homes, structures, and properties continue to be demolished.

Yesterday, Israeli occupying forces demolished Khirbet Humsa in the northern Jordan Valley for the second time in the past 48 hours and for the third time in less than three months. Thirteen residential structures – home to 11 Palestinian families consisting of 74 people, 41 of them children – and five structures and tents for livestock were dismantled and confiscated and the families were forced to relocate to another area. This is forced transfer, a blatant violation of the 4^th Geneva Convention, amounting to yet another war crime by Israel against the Palestinian people.

This was preceded on 24 January by the demolition of agricultural structures, including water wells, in the village of Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, and, on 26 January, the issuance of a demolition order against a medical clinic in Zanouta, south of Al-Khalil (Hebron), again at a time of raging pandemic. The following day, Israeli occupation forces stormed Masafer Yatta, south of Al-Khalil, demolishing a mosque. That demolition was carried out less than two weeks since our last letter, which warned against the occupation’s intentions to destroy many buildings in Masafer Yatta, including the mosque and a school funded by the European Union. On 2 February, clearly not coincidentally, the area of Masafer Yatta was declared by Israel as a “firing zone” for a large-scale military training maneuver, forcing the residents from their homes and exposing the plans to seize this area.

Similarly, on 27 January, Israeli occupation forces once again stormed Khan al-Ahmar, which has been routinely targeted over the years by the Israeli military, and faces imminent destruction to clear the way for the expansion of the illegal settlements of “Ma’ale Adumim” and “Kfar Adumim”. According to OCHA, Khan al-Ahmar is “one of the 46 Bedouin communities in the central West Bank that the UN views as at risk of forcible transfer, including due to a coercive environment generated by Israeli practices and policies, including plans to move the communities from their current locations.”

All of this has been accompanied by constant settler rampages. Under the protection of Israeli soldiers, along with the backing of the Israeli government, Israeli settlers, including extremist militias, enjoy near absolute impunity. Since our last letter, settlers have caused damage to Palestinian homes, vehicles and uprooted hundreds of more trees, depriving Palestinians of their livelihoods and inflicting daily harassment, intimidation and violence on Palestinian civilians, including children, including the attempted kidnapping of an 11-year old Palestinian girl that was fortunately averted.

The fact is that the violence and criminality of the Israeli settlers is part and parcel of the illegal settlement drive. The settlers and the government work hand in glove, two sides of the same operation, aimed at colonizing and annexing our land. As Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has pointed out: “Israel benefits from the repercussions, as settler violence has gradually dispossessed Palestinians of more and more areas in the West Bank, paving the way for a state takeover of land and resources.” This is the engine for what B’tselem has rightly identified as Israel’s aim of “geographically and demographically engineering space” to ensure its control and “Jewish supremacy” in all of the land.

This policy has clearly also fueled continued oppression of the occupied population, with total disregard for Palestinian lives. Young Palestinian males continue to be disproportionately affected. On 26 January, Atallah Mohammad Rayan, 17, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers near Salfit, after occupation forces claimed he carried a knife. Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli soldiers made no attempt to provide first aid, and the child was left to bleed until succumbing to his wounds. On 31 January, a young Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces south of Bethlehem. Eyewitnesses also reported that the young man was left to die as occupation forces prevented him from receiving emergency aid following the incident.

Here, we must again draw urgent attention to the plight of Palestinian children being held captive in Israeli jails along with thousands of other Palestinians. We highlight today the case of Amal Nakhleh, a 17 year old-boy, who was sentenced by Israeli military court to 6 months of administrative detention without charge or trial. The EU and several human rights organizations have called for release of Amal, who suffers from myasthenia gravis, a rare chronic autoimmune disease that causes muscle weakness, including in the muscles used for breathing and swallowing. We reiterate the call for his immediate release and that of all Palestinian children being held by the occupying Power and for Israel’s respect for its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

It is impossible in one letter to convey how pervasive, insidious and destructive this illegal occupation’s policies and practices are to our people, how severe the impact is on every aspect of life, sparing no one. Whether imposing in its illegal colonization and annexation plans or its illegal and immoral blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israel is perpetrating countless violations causing widespread Palestinian suffering and destroying the viability of the two-State solution and the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace and security. The absence of accountability undoubtedly encourages these crimes as Israel continues to evade consequences, distracting the international community with its lip service to peace, while actually making it impossible to realize. Only accountability can alter this dismal equation. We thus appeal today, as we have for years, for tangible international action, including by the Security Council, to uphold the rule of law, protect civilians and salvage the prospects for a just, lasting and peaceful solution, in accordance with the relevant resolutions, before it is too late.

I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of the present letter made available to the members of the Security Council for their immediate, valuable consideration and also distributed as an official document of the Security Council.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Dr. Riyad Mansour

Minister, Permanent Observer