The Head Of UN Human Rights Values Israel's Settlement Developments In The West Bank At Risk To The Establishment Of A Palestinian State

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk. (Twitter/@volker_turk)

JAKARTA - The UN human rights chief said on Friday Israeli settlements in the Palestinian occupied territories had grown rapidly and were at risk of eliminating all forms of the Palestinian state.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said the growth of Israeli settlements was the same as relocating its own population by Israel, which he reiterated was a war crime.

"Violences committed by settlers and settlement-related violations have reached a surprising new level, and risk eliminating any practical possibilities to establish a viable Palestinian State," Turk said in a statement accompanying a report to be submitted to the Human Rights Council in Geneva at the end of March.

On the other hand, Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva said the report should include the deaths of 36 Israelis by 2023.

"Human rights are universal, but Palestinian terrorism victims in Israel have repeatedly been ignored by the Office (High Commissioner)," he said in a statement.

The 16-page report, based on UN monitoring and other sources, documented 24,300 units of Israel's new home in the West Bank occupied over a period of one year until the end of October 2023, which the report said was the highest number since monitoring began in 2017.

Israel's traditional ally, the United States through President Joe Biden's Administration said last month the settlement was "incompatible" with international law after Israel announced plans to build new housing in the occupied West Bank.

The report also said there had been a dramatic increase in the intensity, severity and regularity of Israeli settlers' violence and the state against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, especially since Hamas' deadly attack on Israel on October 7.

Since then, more than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces or settlers, he said.

The Turk report also notes that the Israeli government's policy, which is the far-rightest group in the country's history of having close ties to settlers, appears to be "unprecedented" in line with the goals of the Israeli settlers' movement.

They have documented cases of settlers wearing full or partially Israeli army uniforms, carrying army rifles while harassing or attacking Palestinians, thereby blurring boundaries between them. Sometimes they are shot from close range, he said.

Israel, which controls the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, claims the self-sufficiency rights to land that is the site for settlement expansion. The Israeli military said it was carrying out counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank and targeting militant suspects.