7/27/2019 'Colonialism, Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing' UN Rapporteur on Palestine Blasts Israel

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7/27/2019 'Colonialism, Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing' UN Rapporteur on Palestine Blasts Israel

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deadlock, the acceleration of Israeli settlement construction in the occupied territoriesis causing Palestinians to lose their faith that a state of their own could ever becreated.

“ Every increment of enlarging the settlements, or every incident of house demolition isa way of worsening the situation confronting the Palestinian people and reducing what

prospects they might have as the outcome of supposed peace negotiations,” the UNSpecial Rapporteur said.

Speaking about Israel de facto annexing parts of the Palestinian territory, Falk was

actually citing areport on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinianterritories, prepared by his group and presented in January.The report maintains that Israeli policies in the West Bank are effectively denying thePalestinian right to self-determination by means of “apartheid and segregation.”

“ To sustain indefinitely an oppressive occupation containing many punitive elementsalso seems designed to encourage residents to leave Palestine, which is consistent

with the apparent annexationist, colonialist and ethnic-cleansing goals of Israel,especially in relation to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” the report said.For that purpose, the Israelis use bureaucratic processes, such as “revocation ofresidency permits, demolitions of residential structures built without Israeli permits(often virtually impossible to obtain), and forced evictions of Palestinian

families,” which is a definite violation of the International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights, said the report.

In Jerusalem alone, over 11,000 Palestinians had lost their right to live in the city since

ard Falk (AFP Photo / Cem Turkel)

7/27/2019 'Colonialism, Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing' UN Rapporteur on Palestine Blasts Israel

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1996, only because Israel has been imposing residency laws in favor of Jews, makingit possible to revoke Palestinian residence permits, Falk reported.

“ The 11,000 is just the tip of the iceberg because many more are faced with possiblechallenges to their residency rights,” he said.

Along with the eviction of the Arab population from Jerusalem, Israel is activelyconstructing new settlements to "change the ethnic composition" of East Jerusalem,

Falk said.Israel captured both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a result of the so-called Six-Day War in the Middle East in 1967. Captured East Jerusalem was later annexed aspart of Israel’s indivisible capital, though this move has never been recognizedinternationally.

At the same time Palestinians are trying to establish a state of their own in the WestBank and Gaza Strip, the only land left to them as of now. The capital of their statethey plan to put in occupied East Jerusalem.

Palestinians refuse to recognize the state of Israel in its present borders, whereasIsrael says Palestinian refusal serves the main obstacle to the creation of Palestinianstatehood.

ane is seen next to homes in a Jewish settlement near Jerusalem (Reuters / Ammar Awad)

7/27/2019 'Colonialism, Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing' UN Rapporteur on Palestine Blasts Israel

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Israel has consistently denied any allegations of persecuting Palestinians, shifting theblame on their Palestinian opponents, they accuse of anti-Israeli violence that ispermanently disturbing the peace in the Jewish state.

This week US President Barack Obama addressed Palestinian President Mahmoud

Abbas, pointing out the necessity to break the stalemate with Israel before thedeadline for a framework deal, initiated by the US Secretary of State John Kerry,

expires on April 29.

According to Professor Richard Falk, any peace negotiations between Israel andPalestinians are usually undermined by the sharp rise of Israeli settlement activities. At

the same time the general attitude of the Israeli political establishment towards direct

peace negotiations with Palestinians has suffered a serious change, Falk noted, asmany Israelis are now seeing even entering such negotiations as betrayal of theirnational interests.

"A few years ago it would be hard to imagine that there was something to the right of[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Falk said, pointing out that as of today agradual shift to the right has taken place. "And there is a strong internal Israeliopposition to any sense that the Palestinian people, in any diminished way, deserve astate of their own,” he concluded.

ulldozer demolishes a house in Jabel Mukaber a Palestinian !illa"e in the suburbs o# $ast Jerusalem

uar% & '*+ (Reuters / Ammar Awad)

7/27/2019 'Colonialism, Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing' UN Rapporteur on Palestine Blasts Israel

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In the face of the end of his six-year term as the United Nations Special Rapporteur onPalestinian human rights, Richard Falk is expected to address the UN Human RightsCouncil on Monday, before the body names his successor.