Palestine urges international action against Israeli crimes, illegal settlements

Palestine has called on the United Nations to take immediate and firm action against Israel’s escalating campaign of forced displacement and settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Palestine’s permanent representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, made the appeal in a letter to the current President of the Security Council, Jerome Bonnafont, on Wednesday, warning that recent Israeli statements indicate plans to forcibly remove Palestinians from their land.

Mansour cited remarks by Israeli war minister Israel Katz about displacing Palestinians from Gaza “by sea and air and by every possible means,” as well as his threats to launch an all-out war in the occupied West Bank and evacuate residents from Palestinian cities and villages.

Mansour also cited Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims that Israel would not withdraw from Gaza.

He further referred to remarks by the Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir about a plan to displace around 1.86 million Palestinians from Gaza over seven years.

Mansour also highlighted remarks by the regime’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, about establishing a new settlement near Bethlehem, his call for the arrival of 1 million settlers, and his threats against the Palestinian Authority.

He also pointed to the demolition of Khirbet al-Taban in the Masafer Yatta area and the displacement of more than 70 Palestinians, saying the incident was part of a wider campaign that has seen more than 47 Palestinian communities displaced and erased since October 2023.

Mansour called on the Security Council and the international community to take firm and immediate action to halt the regime’s crimes and ethnic cleansing, end the occupation and dismantle the settlement project.

UK to 'reset' relations with Israel, impose ban on trade with West Bank settlements

The UK government is to "reset" its relations with the Israeli regime by imposing a ban on trade with illegal West Bank settlements.

He welcomed measures announced by the UK, France, Canada and other countries restricting trade with Israeli settlements, but said such steps must be turned into binding measures.

The UN representative called for a complete ban on settlement products, sanctions, asset freeze and travel bans against those involved in the regime’s illegal settlement activity, as well as an end to the transfer of weapons that could be used in the occupied Palestinian territories.

On Tuesday, the UK announced sanctions targeting illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the move marked the “beginning of a new approach” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which “not only calls out injustice and suffering but acts.”

The sanctions were launched alongside France and Canada, which in a joint statement with the UK said the action "marks a further turning point in our approach to protecting the two-state solution."

Palestinians regard the West Bank, together with Gaza and East al-Quds, as integral parts of a future independent Palestinian state.

Most countries and the United Nations consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibition on transferring an occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory.

The UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council have adopted numerous resolutions declaring Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory illegal under international law.

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