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

Excellency,

Despite our repeated appeals for international action to deter Israel from its criminal behavior towards the Palestinian people, the lack of serious efforts to hold the occupying Power accountable and ensure protection to the Palestinian people, as prescribed by international humanitarian law, has left our people even more vulnerable to the brutality of this occupation.

The failure to impose consequences that would reign in Israel’s unlawful actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, has propelled a vicious culture of impunity by which this colonial occupation has only become more entrenched, more destructive and more violent over time, with  home demolitions, land appropriation, settler violence and terror, extrajudicial killings, mass arrests, and de facto annexation unabated and escalating.

Such impunity, including direct attacks against civilians, among them children, have become more frequent and shockingly normalized by the occupation, even more so during the pandemic. Today, four Palestinian men were shot and injured during an Israeli military raid of the Qalandiya refugee camp, three of them reported to be in critical condition. On 25 November, Israeli soldiers shot and killed Noor Jamal Shuqeir, age 38, at a checkpoint in East Jerusalem, claiming that Mr. Shuqeir was involved in an attack. However, as details emerged, Israeli authorities revised their claims, stating that it remains unclear if Mr. Shuqeir intended to carry out an attack. According to footage released by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, Mr. Shuqeir was running away from an ambushing group of Israeli soldiers before being fatally shot. Such extrajudicial killings have become a systematic practice of the occupation, amounting to war crimes against the occupied civilian population.

In this regard, on 4 December, a 14-year-old boy, Ali Abu Alia was shot and killed by Israeli occupying forces in al-Mughayyir village near Ramallah. Ali is the fifth Palestinian child to be killed by Israeli live ammunition this year. Ali was among community members protesting Israel’s colonization policies in and around the village. There is absolutely no justification for such use of force against civilians and certainly not children.

The Palestinian people are compelled to ask; how many more Palestinian children will be robbed of their lives until Israel abides by international law? This heinous murder should remind the international community that children are protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention and other provisions of international law, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet, paradoxically, Palestinian children continue to be routinely killed and maimed by the occupying forces, while the perpetrators are routinely shielded from responsibility. We call on the international community to act to bring an end to the occupation’s state-sponsored killing of Palestinian children, for which Israel must be fully held accountable.

As the international community remains overwhelmed with the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact, Israel intention to exploit these extraordinary circumstances is glaring. Rather than respecting the law and acting in solidarity with the international community at a time of global crisis, Israel is instead challenging every international norm and the international consensus on a just solution, bringing both to a breaking point. The fact is that, absent action making such rogue behavior consequential, Israel’s policy of ‘displace and replace’ has only intensified. Such systematic ethnic cleansing and colonization constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, and must be countered by the international community in both word and deed.

The proliferation of illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in particular in areas in and around occupied East Jerusalem and Bethlehem in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibition on transferring civilian population into occupied territory, is deeply rooted in Israel’s overall annexation schemes. The so-called “suspension” of such plans should therefore neither be cause for relief, nor applause, by the international community, as more Palestinian land is actually being devoured daily as the Israel lays the groundwork for de jure annexation.

We reiterate that whether annexation is implemented partially or totally, gradually or in one fell swoop, de facto or de jure, it is illegal and requires that the international community take serious, tangible action, in accordance with the clear obligations stipulated by international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 (2016).

In this regard, it must be noted that, in the last month, there has been an alarming spike in Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes and forced eviction of families, deliberately rendering hundreds more civilians homeless in the midst of a raging pandemic. According to OCHA, Israel has demolished more than 500 Palestinian homes and structures in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since the start of 2020, with East Jerusalem a prime target. These decades-old policies, coupled with settler violence and impunity, aim to achieve demographic and territorial control of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, by driving the Palestinian people off of their land, ensuring Israel’s control of territory with as minimal Palestinian demography as possible.

The extensive territorial fragmentation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory is reflected in the growing presence of illegal Israeli settlements and settlers. As Israel, continues to cut off, isolate and wall-in Palestinian villages, towns and cities, the threat of settler violence and terror has simultaneously increased in every aspect of Palestinian daily life. On 4 December, an extremist Israeli settler attempted to burn down the Gethsemane Church in occupied East Jerusalem in this holy season for the Christian faithful. Fortunately, the attack, which burned several pews in the church, was thwarted by local Palestinian citizens who handed the perpetrator over to Israeli authorities, who would later shockingly claim that the attack by a Jewish extremist against the church was somehow not motivated by ideological beliefs.

Over past years, Israeli settlers have carried out several heinous attacks against Christian and Muslim sites, as well as priests and other religious officials, throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Such behavior has undoubtedly been fueled by Israel’s constant illegal measures, including its dangerous excavations and provocations in connection with holy sites, including its demolition last week of the stairway leading to the historic Yusufia cemetery in occupied East Jerusalem. The aim has clearly been to undermine the Palestinian people’s connection to their land and holy sites, including to Al-Haram Al-Sharif, the legal and historic status quo of which Israel continues to repeatedly violate, threatening to ignite a full-blown religious conflict.

Urgent action is required to prevent the proliferation of such provocative and hateful attacks. There must be accountability, which is a rare occurrence as Israeli settlers and fanatics, the direct beneficiaries of the two-tiered system in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, operate in a State-sponsored environment of impunity. We condemn this attack on the ancient Gethsemane Church, and call on the international community to condemn all such provocations and incitement and all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, as reaffirmed in resolution 2334.

It is high time for the international community to stand for its commitments and obligations to address these ongoing crimes. We call on the international community, including the Security Council, to use all means available to it to uphold international law and implement UN resolutions and to demonstrate to the Palestinian people that they are not alone in the struggle for their inalienable rights and self-determination, as prominently enshrined in the UN Charter.

One thing that Israel, the occupying Power, fails to see is, although it enjoys the inaction of the international system, is that it is rapidly losing its credibility in the eyes of the peoples of conscience of the world, for whom resolving this grave injustice remains a matter of urgency and priority. We appeal once more for collective action, based on the longstanding international consensus enshrined in the relevant UN resolution, to bring a halt to these crimes against the Palestinian people by holding Israel accountable for its illegal 53-year occupation. This must include, inter alia, firm respect of the obligations of non-recognition, non-assistance and non-complicity with its illegal settlement colonization enterprise in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem. Only accountability can remedy this grave situation and also finally prove opportune that international law applies to all without exception, including to the Question of Palestine.

This letter is in follow-up to our 697 letters regarding the ongoing crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which constitutes the territory of the State of Palestine.  These letters, dated from 29 September 2000 (A/55/432-S/2000/921) to 17 November 2020 (A/ES-10/xxx-S/2019/xxx) constitute a basic record of the crimes being committed by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people since September 2000. For all of these war crimes, acts of State terrorism and systematic human rights violations being committed against the Palestinian people, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. 

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,

I write to you to convey the somber letter and urgent appeal of a Palestinian father in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Khalil el Halabi, regarding the plight of his son, Mohammed el Halabi, who has been held captive by Israel, the occupying Power, since June 2016, imprisoned without any evidence of the charges brought against him and enduring forced interrogations and torture aimed at pressuring a confession from him for a crime he did not commit. Mohammed has long engaged in humanitarian work in support of his people was the recipient of a UN Humanitarian Hero award in 2014 in recognition, inter alia, for his tireless work with Palestinian children in Gaza who have been afflicted with cancer, and is recognized widely for his humanitarian efforts.

I share this letter with you at the request of his father, urgently appealing for any advocacy and action that can help to address Mohammed’s plight and facilitate his release from Israeli prison. I also take this opportunity to reiterate the Palestinian leadership’s abiding call for the release of all Palestinian children, women and men that are being unlawfully detained and imprisoned by Israel, the occupying Power, including administrative detainees, and for urgent attention in particular to the most vulnerable of the prisoners, including children, the sick and elderly and especially in this time of global pandemic, and urge the international community’s mobilization in this regard.

I would be grateful if you could bring my letter and the annexed letter of Dr. el Halabi to the attention of the Members of the Security Council for their urgent consideration.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration

                                                    Dr. Riyad Mansour

                                                    Minister, Permanent Observer Mission of the

                                                    State of Palestine to the United Nations

To:  Members of the UN General Assembly

Members of the UN Security Council,

By way of Dr. Riyad Mansour

Permanent representative of the State of Palestine to the UN

I am writing to you in regards to the case of my son, the engineer Mohammad Khalil Al Halabi who has been unjustly held in Israeli jails since June 15th 2016. He has been presented at 152 sessions of Israeli courts in one of the longest courts known without any proof being presented publicly against him.  Even his lawyer is not allowed to see what they claim is the reason for his arrest.  What the Israelis say publicly that he diverted money from the organization he was working for World Vision has been refuted by reputable governmental agencies of the Australian government who was the main donor and by the world’s leading audit companies.

My son was tortured for two months as the Israeli interrogators tried to extract a confession from him and as a result, he has lost 40% of his ability to hear. The torture included putting a dirty bag over his head and forcing him to sit for a long time while preventing him from food and sleep. He was held in an isolated room 25cmx25cm with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He was threatened with rape and he was subject to loud music. All to force him to confess to a crime he has never committed.

World Vision and the Australian government conducted intensive investigations of the alleged crime and found no proof of any irregularity in his work and both have condemned his continued arrest as has most international organizations including the OCHA which produced a very strong statement calling for his immediate release.

His lawyer has told the media that the Israelis know he is innocent but they are not willing to climb down the tree that they had ascended to so as not to be embarrassed and the result is this prolonged never-ending court delays. My son could have been released a long time if he plead guilty but he refuses to plead guilty to a crime he never committed.

Mohammad Al Halabi has been honored for his work by President Arafat and has received your own UN’s Humanitarian Hero Award in 2014 for his tireless work with cancer children in Gaza and his relentless effort to try and ease the humanitarian disaster to the people of Gaza.

I hope that this letter can be distributed to all member states and that my son’s name is publicly mentioned by all including His Excellency the Secretary General, perhaps that could force the Israeli government to agree to release him and end this long and unjust detention of an innocent man.

Finally, my message to the Israeli government: this is not the way to make a just peace. A peace that will allow our children to live in peace. We are seekers of a just peace and a just solution to our cause which requires that the issue of prisoners is addressed.

Dr. Khalil el Halabi

Gaza

November 25th 2020

Excellency,

I write in follow-up of our recent letters regarding the crimes and violations that continue to be perpetrated by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people. The occupation’s cruelty and brutality have persisted, even in this time of global pandemic. This includes relentless colonization and annexation measures that are destroying the viability of the two-State solution and violating the independence and sovereignty of the State of Palestine, depriving the Palestinian people of their inalienable right to self-determination and freedom.

Impunity for such gross violations has alarmingly become normalized when it comes to the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as accountability remains absent. This has been exacerbated by the current US administration, which has created a wholly permissive environment for the occupation and moreover acted in complicity in a manner undermining international law and the international consensus on a just solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As a result, Israel has been hyper-emboldened, escalating its crime spree with zero fear of consequences, forcing the Palestinian people to grapple not only with the same challenges being faced by the entirety of the international community due to the spread of COVID-19, but also with constant violations of their rights, well-being and security and threats to their very existence.

As the world focuses on mitigating the pandemic’s impact and aiding the most vulnerable, Israel carries on shamelessly with its violations, accelerating its illegal settlement colonization and annexation schemes. As our countries intensify cooperation to advance multilateralism, Israel instead exploits the pandemic to advance its policy of unilateralism. As healthcare workers and medical supplies are dispatched throughout the globe to contain the spread of the virus, Palestinian medical facilities are being shut down by the occupying Power.

As countries around the world work to protect their citizenry and infrastructure from the ravages of natural disasters like hurricanes, typhoons and earthquakes, Palestinian homes and properties are being punitively destroyed by Israel as it continues its settlement march. This has included the demolition of humanitarian development projects, particularly those provided as support by EU States, including schools and shelters. As a result, hundreds more Palestinians have been rendered homeless and deprived of their property and livelihoods by this illegal occupation, creating even more need and endangering the lives of the most vulnerable, including children.

In this regard, the occupying Power is yet again flaunting plans to construct more settlements in Occupied Palestine in flagrant breach of international law and UN resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 (2016). Ignoring the global appeals to cease this illegal practice, and following its announcement of plans last month to construct nearly 5,000 settlement units, the Israeli “Housing Ministry” opened the bidding process for the construction of more than 1,200 settlement units in the illegal settlement of “Givat Hamatos”. If implemented, this nefarious plan will seal off the city of Bethlehem, disconnecting it from Jerusalem, and gravely undermine whatever potential remains for realizing the two-State solution on the pre-1967 borders as this illegal occupation cements its separation and isolation of millions of Palestinians into fragmented Bantustans, oppressed under a two-tiered system of law centered on institutionalized discrimination akin only to apartheid.

As underscored by the UN Special Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov in his statement on 16 November, “If built, it would further consolidate a ring of settlements between Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. It would significantly damage prospects for a future contiguous Palestinian State and for achieving a negotiated two-State solution based on the 1967 lines, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.”

It is patently clear that the Israeli government is attempting to impose a fait accompli on the ground before the Trump administration leaves office, acting as though international law and the will of the rest of the international community mean nothing. The plans by the US Secretary of State to visit the illegal Israeli settlement of “Psagot” is the most recent glaring example of the warped relationship between the occupying Power and current US administration. We deplore all of these attempts to give legitimacy to Israeli settlements illegally established on stolen Palestinian land.

Such actions flagrantly violate international law and UN resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) and all relevant resolutions that preceded it, which affirmed the illegality of Israel’s settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and called upon all States not to recognize them as legitimate and not to render any assistance to the occupying Power in their maintenance. Moreover, Security Council resolution 2334 unequivocally called upon States “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”. We urge all States to uphold their legal obligations in this regard, stressing that such distinction will truly make a difference in advancing not only accountability but ultimately a just solution.

Another matter that requires urgent attention is Israel’s ongoing practice of necro-violence, by which the occupying Power seizes and withholds the bodies of Palestinians it has murdered. This inhumane practice is directly linked to Israel’s wider policy of repression of the millions of Palestinians living under its occupation, tantamount to collective punishment as they are prohibited from burying their loved ones in accordance with cultural and religious rituals.

In this regard, we highlight today the plight of Kamal Abu Waar, age 46, who died in an Israeli jail last week as a result of medical negligence despite repeated calls for his release due to his deteriorating health. Israeli prison authorities prevented Abu Waar’s family from seeing him in the last few months before his death and continue withholding Abu Waar’s body, ignoring numerous requests by family members and human rights organizations to return his body for proper burial.

As occupying Power, Israel is responsible for the lives and well-being of prisoners, whether held in Israeli prisons in the Occupied Palestinian Territory or in Israel in violation of the 4^th Geneva Convention. Israel is currently holding nearly 5,000 Palestinians in its military prisons, including hundreds of children and men and women held without charge or trial through the unlawful practice of administrative detention, whose release has been continually called by governments, human rights groups, and other international organizations. The Palestinian leadership reiterates these calls and calls again for the necessary medical treatment of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and immediate release of all vulnerable prisoners, particularly women, children, older persons and those with pre-existing medical conditions, especially in this time of pandemic.

In spite of these continuous and escalating violations, the Palestinian people remain steadfast in their legitimate struggle against the occupation. Here, we recall that this week marked 32 years since the Palestinian leadership declared the independence of the State of Palestine on the basis of the 4 June 1967 lines and the relevant UN resolutions. That Declaration, made on 15 November in Algiers, constituted a very painful and historic compromise meant to pave the way to peace. While Israel has never reciprocated and never compromised, that Declaration brought universal recognition of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and widespread global recognition of the State of Palestine, which now numbers 139 countries. These are facts that cannot be ignored.

Yet, despite the fact that Palestine’s acceptance of the two-State solution and engagement in good faith negotiations across decades has been responded to with constant attacks by Israel on their rights and on the two-State solution, the international community has regrettably not been compelled to act on legal obligations and responsibilities to bring an end to this injustice. Despite Israel’s absolute contempt for international law and complete departure from the two-State solution, the lack of concrete action to hold it accountable has only emboldened its rogue behavior, prolonging this illegal, colonial foreign occupation to the detriment of the Palestinian people, the region and international community as a whole.

Continued lack of accountability wrongly conveys acceptance of the unjust status quo whereby the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to freedom, sovereignty, and peace, as enshrined in the UN Charter and relevant UN resolutions, are ignored in an era where international law applies to some, but not all. This absence of real consequences for Israeli crimes raises questions of complicity and liability among States as continued inaction only enables Israel to further manipulate international law and entrench its colonial occupation at the direct expense of inalienable Palestinian rights and international peace and security. As stressed by the UN Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, “The international rule of law matters and, if we are to avoid the rule of the jungle, it must be obeyed. And if the rule of law matters, then so must accountability”.

The international community, including the Security Council, have a role to play in correcting the wrongs of history and promoting justice and peace. Since the UN’s founding, the question of Palestine has been a crucial test of the very meaning, applicability and efficacy of international law. The international community bears a legal, humanitarian, and moral responsibility to end the longest military occupation in modern history and to assist the Palestinian people to achieve self-determination and independence, a promise pledged long ago and at the core of the international consensus on a just solution. We thus appeal again to all States to act responsibly and urgently, individually and collectively, to uphold international law in regards to the Palestine question and to implement all relevant UN resolutions. This is as imperative for ending this injustice as it is for preserving a rules-based international order.

This letter is in follow-up to our 696 letters regarding the ongoing crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which constitutes the territory of the State of Palestine.  These letters, dated from 29 September 2000 (A/55/432-S/2000/921) to 9 November 2020 (A/ES-10/xxx-S/2019/xxx) constitute a basic record of the crimes being committed by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people since September 2000. For all of these war crimes, acts of State terrorism and systematic human rights violations being committed against the Palestinian people, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. 

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,

I write to once again draw attention to the critical situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, due to the illegal policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power, being perpetrated relentlessly and mercilessly against the Palestinian people.

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic and its vast short and long-term effects, the Palestinian people have neither been spared nor been given a reprieve from Israel’s oppression. On the contrary, the occupying Power has persisted with its attacks and violations with zero regard for international law or for the pandemic’s severe impact on all, only worsening their plight. The escalation of these attacks and violations is clearly deliberate as the Israel openly exploits the international community’s immersion in the fight against the pandemic as a chance to further entrench its illegal 53-year occupation and colonial settlement regime.

Home demolitions, land appropriations, ethnic cleansing, arrests and detentions, and killing of civilians have not stopped. One might think such policies would cease during a pandemic. However, judging by the historical record, one should not be surprised as Israel has repeatedly demonstrated its complete disregard for international law, for the humanity of the Palestinian people, and for the serious humanitarian impact of COVID-19. The failure to ensure accountability for such gross violations has only bolstered the Israeli Government’s sense of impunity, allowing it to believe it can continue getting away with its crimes even as a pandemic rages across the globe and highlights the many vulnerabilities of our human family and the need to uphold human rights in all circumstances.

On 25 October, a Palestinian boy died of injuries after being beaten by Israeli occupying forces near Ramallah. Amer Abdul-Rahim Snobar, age 18, was taken to a local hospital suffering from severe neck injuries sustained from the butts of the soldiers’ rifles and died thereafter. Like most killings committed by Israeli soldiers, we fear that the perpetrators of this murder will not be held accountable, perpetuating the sense of impunity and the degradation of Palestinian life. International humanitarian law places Israel under the legal obligation to provide for the welfare of the population living under its military occupation, and it is imperative that the international community remind Israel of its legal obligations and hold it to account.

Accountability is equally urgent in regards to Israel’s illegal settlement regime and the violations committed by the hundreds of thousands of settlers it has illegal transferred to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Settler violence has sharply risen during the pandemic, harming Palestinian civilians, damaging properties and crops, and hampering their livelihoods, making even more coercive and dangerous this situation of occupation. As autumn marked the start of the olive harvest season in Palestine, fierce settler attacks have intensified, targeting communities whose well-being and sustenance are dependent on the harvest season. In this regard, we welcome the 5 November statement by UN agencies and international NGOs in Occupied Palestine calling for the protection of Palestinian civilians from the violence, damage and theft being perpetrated by Israeli settlers and for Israel to abide by its international law obligations and to hold the perpetrators of these crimes accountable.

In recent weeks, settler attacks against Palestinian farmers have included burning of fields, uprooting trees, stealing harvests, assaults on harvesters, including children, and vandalizing properties. All of this has been done under Israeli army protection. While millions of Palestinians are subject to the law of Israel’s military rule, illegal settlers enjoy near-absolute impunity. Israel’s desire to protect its illegal settlers under the pretext of security does not and should not justify its discriminatory, apartheid policies against Palestinians living under its occupation.

Equally rampant is Israel’s proliferation of illegal settlements throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in breach of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, as unequivocally reaffirmed in Security Council resolution 2334 (2016). On the heels of its announcement of the construction of nearly 5,000 more settlement units, on 2 November, Israel approved the destruction and confiscation of approximately 200 Palestinian businesses and buildings in occupied East Jerusalem as part of a plan to expand illegal settlement projects disguised as so-called ‘technology parks’. The occupying Power has served dozens of eviction, informing of the deadline of December 30 to leave before the demolitions are carried out. 

Such policies endanger the lives and livelihoods of many families who are now threatened with home demolition and forced displacement. Moreover, the advancement of such illegal policies will alter East Jerusalem’s landscape and demographic composition through the inevitable transfer of Israeli settler population and appropriation of Palestinian land, resources, structures, assets, and more, all in grave breach of the law and the rights of our people.

The occupying Power’s policy of demolition of Palestinian homes and structures cannot be divorced from its ongoing attempts and plans to annex our land. Disregarding international law, and the added sensitivity of the pandemic, Israel has intensified its inhumane practice of home demolitions and forced evictions, rendering hundreds more Palestinians homeless and violating countless of their human rights.

On 3 November, Israel demolished an entire community’s residences in Khirbet Humsa Al Bqai’a, leaving more than 70 people, among them 41 children, homeless and even more vulnerable in this time of pandemic. According to OCHA, Israeli authorities demolished 76 structures, including homes, animal shelters, latrines, and solar panels, making this the largest forced displacement operation in over four years, adding to the thousands of properties destroyed and thousands of families displaced from their rightful homes.

Israel must immediately end its unlawful policy of demolitions and abide by its obligations as an occupying Power. The extensive destruction of property and forced transfer of protected people in an occupied territory are grave breaches of international law. Moreover, such cruel policies further impede the socioeconomic development of the Palestinian people, directly impacting their rights to shelter, healthcare, education, livelihoods, movement, safety, and wellbeing. Although international condemnations have been issued, they will not be enough to stop Israel from continue to carry out such inhumane policies. As long as accountability remains absent, Israel will persist with such demolitions and every other colonization measure as its objective is clearly to devour more Palestinian land without Palestinian inhabitants. As OCHA has reported, demolitions are a key means of creating an environment designed to coerce Palestinians to leave their homes.

It is time for the international community to act. This dangerous level of impunity by the Israeli Government is enabled by a lack of accountability. Israel’s systematic violations are widely documented and reported, however, inaction has permitted the occupation to entrench, compounded by looming threats of annexation, ongoing settlement colonization, territorial expansion, ethnic cleansing, and other heinous crimes, with grave impact on the Palestinian people and the prospects for a just peace and security.

Israel’s failure to comply with international law and relevant UN resolutions undermines the two-State solution on the 1967 lines, constitutes a threat to regional and international peace and security, and goes against the core principles of the UN Charter. The international community cannot remain silent or indifferent in the face of these crimes. We therefore once again appeal for responsible and decisive action to be taken, including the Security Council and General Assembly, in order to align Israel’s behavior with international law and all relevant UN resolutions, including resolution 2334.

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