NEW YORK: UN human rights experts on Wednesday condemned the record-high levels of violence carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories this year.
They also criticized the Israeli government for its lack of action to curb the attacks and protect Palestinians. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel, as an occupying power, has an obligation to protect the population under occupation.
Instead of intervening to halt the violence, however, Israeli security forces and private security companies “respond to settler-related violence by ordering Palestinians to leave the area, including Palestinian-owned land, or even actively support the settlers,” the experts said.
According to the UN, 410 attacks by settlers have been recorded so far this year, during which four Palestinians were killed. This compares with 358 recorded attacks last year and 335 in 2019.
“These settler attacks are primarily directed against rural Palestinian families living on small farms or in villages and towns in the occupied West Bank, located in close proximity to Israeli settlements,” the independent experts said.
“Many of these Palestinians reside in the so-called ‘Area C’ of the West Bank, which is under complete Israeli security and civil control, and where Israel’s de facto annexation stratagem is most evident.”
The experts, who include Michael Lynk, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967, said that the violence takes various forms, including “physical violence, shooting with live ammunition, torching of fields and livestock, theft and vandalization of property, trees and crops, stone-throwing and tenacious intimidation of herders and their families.”
In the fall, they added, Palestinians farmers harvesting their olive crops are often threatened and attacked by settlers armed with rocks and pipes, and their olives are stolen or destroyed.
The experts also told how settlers set their sheep and cattle grazing on private and public land confiscated from Palestinians “as an initial step to drive Palestinians away from their land. If Palestinians attempt to keep their land, they are frequently met with violence.”
The investigations into most cases involving attacks by settlers between 2005 and 2019 were closed by Israeli authorities with no charges filed, according to Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization.
The UN experts warned that the escalating violence is not simply the result of “a few bad apples” among the settler population.
“The deep-state support provided by Israel to the illegal settlement enterprise, including to the more than 140 settlement outposts established throughout the West Bank in defiance of even Israel’s own laws, has fueled this coercive environment and encouraged violence,” they said.
They appealed to the international community to accept its responsibility to address the situation by imposing measures to end the impunity with which the settlers act, and restore respect for the international rule of law.
Israeli military complicit as settler violence hits record-high, UN experts say
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Israeli military complicit as settler violence hits record-high, UN experts say
- UN figures show 410 attacks against Palestinians by settlers have been recorded so far this year, compared with 358 last year and 335 in 2019
- Experts say ‘deep-state support provided by Israel to the illegal settlement enterprise … has fueled this coercive environment and encouraged violence’
Dubai’s Iranian diaspora torn as war hammers Gulf
- The commercial and tourist hub of the UAE, Dubai is home to a large Iranian community, some of whom — like Asaadi’s father — arrived as early as the 1920s in search of better opportunities
DUBAI: From his grocery shop in Dubai, Iranian Morteza Asaadi lamented the drop in business brought on by the Middle East war.
Iranians in Dubai are torn as Tehran retaliates against countries in the Gulf — on the one hand fearful for loved ones facing US and Israeli bombardments back home, while also wary of the Iranian strikes threatening their livelihood.
With more people staying home because of the attacks, “we are fearful, you know, for a livelihood,” said Asaadi, noting the “uncomfortable” situation of thousands of Iranians living in the Emirate just across the Gulf.
“Can you imagine that if you’re a guest somewhere and, you know, your child goes and does something to the host’s son,” he added.
The commercial and tourist hub of the UAE, Dubai is home to a large Iranian community, some of whom — like Asaadi’s father — arrived as early as the 1920s in search of better opportunities.
The unwritten rule has always been to stay out of politics. “But unfortunately, politics sometimes comes to us,” Asaadi said.
The shopkeeper said he hoped the war would be over soon, because Dubai is “like my hometown.”
Despite sometimes testy relations, the Emirates have always maintained strong economic ties with Iran.
Ali Akbar’s eatery in a working-class district of Dubai has been open since 1991. But while customers have been few and far between since the war started, he remains hopeful.
“Iran has no problem with the Emirates. The problem is with the Americans,” he said in accented Arabic. “The Emiratis are our brothers.” “And God willing, it will be over soon.”
The property sector, where Soroush Helali works alongside his acting career, has also slowed down, but that has had no bearing so far on his desire to remain in Dubai.
He moved to Dubai a year ago. Now, his parents are begging him to return to Belgium, where he also holds citizenship and where his family settled more than 20 years ago. While he admits to being afraid at times, he says seeing innocent people being bombed in his home country puts things into perspective.
