Published today (updated) 26/03/2012 14:57 Maan News Agency
JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Israel said on Monday it has severed contacts with the UN Human Rights Council after its launch last week of an international investigation into settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The decision, announced by a Foreign Ministry spokesman, meant that the fact-finding team the council planned to send to the West Bank will not be allowed to enter the territory or Israel, said the spokesman, Yigal Palmor.
“We are not working with them any more,” Palmor said about the Geneva-based forum. “We had been participating in meetings, discussions, arranging visits to Israel. All that is over.”
The ministry told Israel’s ambassador to Geneva to ignore all phone calls from the body’s chief commissioner Navi Pillay, Haaretz quoted an Israeli official as saying.
A fact-finding team will also be barred from entering the occupied West Bank and Israel to investigate illegal settlement activity, the official added.
The international investigation was launched on Thursday, with the United States isolated in voting against the initiative brought by the Palestinian Authority.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the Geneva forum as “hypocritical” and having an “automatic majority against Israel.”
“They systematically and serially make all kinds of decisions and condemnations against Israel without even symbolically considering our positions,” Palmor said.
He said Israel would continue to cooperate with other UN bodies.
On Friday, PLO official Saeb Erekat said the UN decision was a victory for international law and called on the Israeli government to stop all settlement activity in order to give the peace process a chance.
The UN Human Rights Council condemned Israel’s planned construction of new housing units for settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying they undermined the peace process and posed a threat to the two-state solution and the creation of a contiguous and independent Palestinian state.
About 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Israel has occupied since 1967.
Palestinian officials say settlements undermine a viable Palestinian state. They are considered illegal by the International Court of Justice, the highest UN legal body for disputes, while Israel wants their status to be decided in peace talks.
Ma’an staff in Bethlehem contributed to this report
Watch Caught on Camera: Ethnic Cleansing
- Israel is NOT looking for Peace but for this: “Greater Israel” Published by Radical Settler Movement
- On Aug 30,2010 Before previous peacetalks Netanyahu VOWED NO CONCESSIONS: “Eretz Israel” stretches from the med 2 river jordan INCL West Bank & Gaza
- With his OP-ED in #NYT anny Danon confirmed Netanyahu as well: “Making the Land of Israel Whole“
- Recently: Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said: “The land of Israel is ours in its entirety“
- Knesset to vote on full Israeli annexation of the West Bank
- Read what Israel thinks about US: Netanyahu: ‘America is a thing you can move very easily
- Netanyahu: ‘We won’t renew settlement freeze to lure PA to talks’
- Israel plans 1000’s more settlement units as legislators call for FULL ANNEXATION of the WEST BANK
- Ayalon: Settlement in Jerusalem not for discussion | October 16, 2011
- Occupation planning to build 1.000.000 housing unites in next 10 years | October 26, 2011
- Read, what Leaders of Zionism spoke about the Endlösung for Palestine
- Israel’s Endlösung is going on for 63 years. List of All massacres
- The massacre which is NOT covered by your local media: 2011
- What is being ignored: Gaza Under Attack – in pictures
- Save yourself time, Forget all details. It is only about this : Ethnic Cleansing
- MK Danon intros bill to annex West Bank: “The tree that Abbas climbed up cld produce the fruit of the Zionist endeavor”/a>
- Israeli cabinet may respond to UNESCO vote with ‘punitive’ settlement construction | Ynet Nov 1, 2011
- Likud MK: “Delete” Gaza neighborhood for each rocket fired – Nov 10, 2011
- Israeli Jews brainwashed for final ethnic cleansing
- >Netanyahu: “I will sign a permanent agreement only if it includes Israel’s remaining in the Jordan Valley.” | Jan 30, 2012
Netanyahu’s Likud on it’s website: “The Jordan River as a Permanent Border”
The Jordan Valley and the territories that dominate it shall be under Israeli sovereignty. The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel. The Kingdom of Jordan is a desirable partner in the permanent status arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians in matters that will be agreed upon.
and:
“The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.”
Source: Likud platform
Latest Reports of the United Nations
- New UN Report Shows Sharp Rise In Palestinians Uprooted By Israeli Demolitions – IMEMC – Jan 27, 2012
- Report OCHA – Demolitions & Forced Displacement – Year 2011 – Report | PDF
Israel’s Jerusalem municipality plans to build more than 50,000 (updated Dec 3, 2011: 85.000) new homes in the city’s occupied eastern sector over two decades:
- 23,628 homes have already been approved, 20,263 in East Jerusalem and 3,365 in the west.
- 13,824 are pending review, 12,819 in East Jerusalem and 1,005 in the west.
- 23,266 housing units are still in planning stages, 19,281 in the east and 3,985 in the west.
Of these, the municipality plans:
- 10,366 homes in northern East Jerusalem, including illegal Israeli settlement Pisgat Zeev and Palestinian town Beit Hanina.
- 5,239 homes in southern East Jerusalem, including Gilo settlement and Palestinian district Beit Safafa.
- 4,886 new units in central eastern Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan and Jerusalem’s Old City.
Read More
Besides this, Israel approved plans to ethnic cleanse 57.000 bedouin from Palestine
- Report B’Tselem
- The Unrecognized – video
Save yourself time. It is only about this : Ethnic Cleansing