Proposed Israel law “gives green light to theft of
Palestinian land” – UN expert
GENEVA (21 November 2016) – A proposed Israeli law
enabling the confiscation of privately owned Palestinian land would deal
another severe blow to hopes of a lasting peace, a United Nations human rights
expert has warned.
Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk said he was deeply
concerned at the proposal to legalize more than 100 illegal outposts in the
occupied West Bank, which passed its first reading in the Knesset on 16
November.
“Unauthorized outposts, most of which have been
established on private Palestinian land and are located deep within the
occupied West Bank are considered illegal under Israeli domestic law. Their
retroactive ‘legalization’ will be another nail in the coffin for the two-state
solution,” said Mr. Lynk.
“These outposts undermine the Palestinian right to
self-determination, violate their rights to property, freedom of movement and
development, and continue to confine the Palestinians into smaller and smaller
cantons of non-contiguous lands within their own territory.”
The Special Rapporteur noted that the draft legislation,
if adopted, allows the Israeli state to appropriate private Palestinian lands
on which the outposts have been built, thereby regularising them for use by
Israeli settlers. Lynk emphasized that international law prohibits the
occupying power from confiscating private property. Even the Israeli Supreme
Court has ruled on a number of occasions that the confiscation of private
Palestinian lands for settlement purposes was illegal under Israeli law.
“The Knesset should not be giving the green light to
theft by changing the law,” he said.
Mr. Lynk also noted that the violation of international
law was not lessened or mitigated by the bill’s proposed measures to compensate
Palestinians whose land had been unlawfully taken.
The tabling of the draft law follows a recent Israeli
Supreme Court ruling that the Amona outpost must be evacuated by 25 December,
rejecting a request by the Israeli Government for it to be delayed. “Among the
purposes of this legislation is to regularize the legal status of Amona,” said
the Special Rapporteur.
Mr. Lynk noted with alarm that some senior Israeli
cabinet ministers had not only supported the bill, but were openly calling for
the annexation of large parts of the West Bank.
“The international community must be very clear with the
Government of Israel,” he said. “The
annexation of occupied territory likewise would be a profound breach of
international law. If Israel proceeds with either step, the international
community must be prepared not only to condemn the action, but also to adopt
appropriate measures to reverse these violations.”
Mr. Lynk, whose mandate as a Special Rapporteur covers
the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,
stressed that all Israeli settlements and outposts in occupied land were
illegal under international law.
“An occupying power is expressly prohibited from
transferring its civilian population into an occupied territory. This violates
the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949, and is contrary to numerous United Nations
Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, as well as a major advisory
opinion by the International Court of Justice in 2004,” he said.
ENDS
In 2016, the UN Human Rights Council designated Mr.
Michael Lynk (Canada) as the seventh Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. The mandate
was originally established in 1993 by the then UN Commission on Human Rights.
As a Special Rapporteur, Mr. Lynk is part of what is known as the Special
Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of
independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the
Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address
either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the
world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN
staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any
government or organization and serve in their individual capacity. Learn more,
log on to:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/CountriesMandates/PS/Pages/SRPalestine.aspx
UN Human Rights, country pages:
Occupied Palestinian Territories: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/countries/MENARegion/Pages/PSIndex.aspx
For more information and media requests, please contact
Katharine Marshall (+41 (0) 22- 917-9695 / kmarshall@ohchr.org) or Kiyohiko
Hasegawa (+41 (0) 22-928-9211 / khasegawa@ohchr.org)
Read the press release online at:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20900&LangID=E
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