JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: According to a recent report, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) said that “Israeli settlements are in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention which forbids transfer of civilian population into occupied territory”. Is there anything new in this? No. The world has known this for decades, and the UNHRC just reiterated it, after its fact-finding mission on Israeli settlements completed its report.
The report goes beyond the usual condemnation of Israel — it asks other nations, agencies and companies to break ties with the settlement project. Most importantly, it concludes that the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) establishes the Court’s jurisdiction over the transfer of population in the Occupied Palestine Territory.
In my opinion, the ball is now in the Palestinians’ court — they should not expect the US or the EU to take the Israelis to the ICC on criminal charges. Only the Palestinians can decide the way forward, provided that they are ready to face the expected punitive reaction from Israel. It’s a clearcut case for the ICC given that on the eve of the Oslo Agreement in 1993, there were around 200,000 settlers in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem; and now there are half a million in the West Bank and East Jerusalem alone. There are 127 settlements in the West Bank with dozens of outposts, many of which are likely to be changed into settlements.
I will commend the UNHRC’s fact-finding mission for putting out an excellent report (the group incidentally also included human rights activist Asma Jahangir).
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, February 6th, 2013.
