By Erdogan Cagatay Zontur
ANKARA (AA) - A UN official on Wednesday condemned Israel's expansion of settlements and deadly violation in the occupied West Bank.
“The international community must take decisive action in response to Israel’s recent intensification of settlement activities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which amounts to a clear rebuff of a two-state solution,” UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk said in a statement.
“If these further settlements steps by Israel are left unanswered by the international community, we will be driving past the last exit on the road to annexation,” he added.
Lynk stressed that the Israeli settlements are a “flagrant violation” of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.
“The settlements are also a presumptive war crime under the 1998 Statute of Rome, and as I have noted many times before, settlements are the source of a range of persistent human rights violations,” he added.
The UN expert recalled the attacks in Al-Mughayer district near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Jan. 26, where a Palestinian villager was shot dead in the presence of Israeli soldiers.
“These incidents not only violate numerous human rights such as the rights to life, security of the person, and freedom of movement of Palestinians, but also serve to expand the area of land over which Israeli settlers have control,” he said.
According to Palestinian figures, more than 700,000 Jewish settlers now live on 196 settlements (built with the Israeli government’s approval) and more than 200 settler outposts (built without its approval) across the occupied West Bank.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity on the land to be illegal.