The report, Occupation, Inc.: How Settlement Businesses Contribute to Israel’s Violations of Palestinian Rights, also calls on third-party states such as the U.S.to “ensure that any import of settlement goods into their territory is consistent with their duty under global humanitarian law not to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories”.
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The land, in an area fully under Israeli civilian and military control and already used by Jewish settlers to farm dates, is situated near the northern tip of the Dead Sea. About 350,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem and 2.7 million in West Bank.
“Israel’s confiscation of land, water, and other natural resources for the benefit of settlements and residents of Israel also violate the Hague Regulations of 1907, which prohibit an occupying power from expropriating the resources of occupied territory for its own benefit”, it says.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced the move and Palestinian officials said they would push for a resolution at the United Nations against Israel’s settlement policies.
The Human Rights Watch report argues plainly that trading with the settlements entrenches Israel in the West Bank and makes businesses a partner in the oppression of the Palestinians.
Ambassador Daniel Shapiro’s unusually critical comments drew harsh criticism from ministers in Israel’s rightwing government – including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We are being subjected to a terrorist onslaught that is simply unfamiliar to the USA, and to pass judgment on us in such a one-sided manner is wrong”.
Netanyahu said it would be important to “resist Iranian aggression in the region, which continues and might even accelerate given the amount of funds that they’re going to get with the lifting of sanctions”.
The arrests took place near the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Tulkarem in Samaria (the West Bank). ‘The destruction of property in this manner and the denial of donor-funded assistance to vulnerable Palestinian communities is unacceptable, ‘ Piper said. The Palestinians are adamantly opposed. “And at times there seem to be two standards of adherence to the rule of law-one for Israelis and another for Palestinians”. He is close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 80, who has become increasingly isolated within the Palestinian hierarchy and has little support on the Palestinian street.
Earlier on Thursday, Israel said it revoked the residency rights of four Palestinians living in Jerusalem and said to have carried out deadly attacks against Israelis.
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It was thought that Obama had given up on forcing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, after his past efforts merely drove Palestinians to more extreme demands, and after the Iran deal caused a significant policy rift between the two governments.
