UNSC to ask Israel to ‘immediately’ stop all settlement activities in Palestine, calls it ‘flagrant violation'

A draft resolution that condemns all annexation attempts in Palestinian territory by Israel, including the latter’s settlement decisions and actions, is being debated by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The United Arab Emirates and the Palestinians collaborated to create the text, which the 15-member council is expected to vote on on February 20.

The draft resolution, seen by Reuters on February 15, demands Israel to "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory".

The article reiterates that Israel's construction of settlements in the Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, which it has controlled since 1967 is illegal and a "‘flagrant violation under international law”.

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Israel has routinely violated the human rights of Palestinian residents of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip over the past 50 years, says Amnesty International.

Israel's brutal practises of land theft, illegal settlement, and dispossession, together with widespread discrimination, have caused Palestinians great hardship and deprived them of their fundamental rights ever since the occupation initially started in June 1967, the international organisation on human rights, emphasises.

“For the last 50 years, Israel has been forcing thousands of Palestinians off their land, occupying and illegally using it to create settlements that exclusively house Jewish Israeli settlers,” Amnesty International earlier said.

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UNSC’s move comes as the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorised nine Jewish settler outposts in the occupied West Bank on February 12 and announced the massive building of additional homes in established settlements. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed he was "deeply troubled" by Netanyahu's choice.

The UNSC, in December 2016, demanded that Israel halt constructing colonies. It changed its policy of shielding Israel from UN action and adopted a resolution when US President Barack Obama's administration chose to abstain.

The colonies Israel has erected on land it took from Palestine in a war in 1967 are viewed as “illegal” by the majority of foreign powers. Israel denies that and argues that it has security interests in the West Bank in addition to biblical, historical, and political ties to the region.

(With Reuters inputs)