Israel slams UN report claiming conflict can end if Israel stops occupying Palestine lands

United Nations (UN) investigators on Tuesday blamed the continued occupation of Israel and discrimination against Palestinians for the illimitable violence in one of the longest conflicts in the region. A high-level team of investigators, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to probe “all underlying root causes” in the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict, placed most responsibility on Israel in the 18-page report. However, it prompted angry responses from Israel who lambasted the report as “biased”.

"Ending the occupation of lands by Israel...remains essential in ending the persistent cycles of violence," the report said.

It is to mention here that the report mainly focussed on evaluating the long line of past UN investigations, reports and rulings on the situation, along with how and if those findings were ultimately implemented. Navanethem Pillay, the Commission’s chair, who also served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2008-2014 said, “The findings and recommendations relevant to the underlying root causes were overwhelmingly directed towards Israel, which we have taken as an indicator of the asymmetrical nature of the conflict and the reality of one State occupying the other”.

Pillay noted that the members of the team found that previous recommendations “have overwhelmingly not been implemented”, including calls to ensure accountability for Israel’s violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and the indiscriminate firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israel, stated the official release. 

“It is this lack of implementation coupled with a sense of impunity, clear evidence that Israel has no intention of ending the occupation, and the persistent discrimination against Palestinians that lies at the heart of the systematic recurrence of violations in both the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel,” she said. 

Israel slams UN's ‘witch-hunt’ and ‘biased’ report

After the report was published, Israel’s Foreign Ministry lashed out at the Geneva-headquartered body for a “witch hunt” and called the report “biased”. It said, “The biased COI report is part and parcel of the witch hunt being carried out by the UN Human Rights Council against Israel; from its mandate to its flawed methodology and false claims, it disregards years of murderous Palestinian terrorism while demonizing Israel.”

Image: AP