Presenting his final report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, this independent expert considered that “the Israeli occupation, now in its 55th year, and of which we are far from seeing an end, has become increasingly entrenched and repressive”.
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“It’s apartheid”. The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Michael Lynk, reproached the international community on Friday March 25 for having allowed Israel to have established there for decades occupation a political system which he described as“apartheid”.
Presenting his final report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, this independent expert estimated that “The Israeli occupation, now in its 55th year, and with no end in sight, has become increasingly entrenched and repressive”.
He listed “the incessant land confiscations, the constantly expanding Jewish-only settlements, a dual legal system, the huge gap between the living conditions of the Israeli settlers and the Palestinians who live among them, the wide gap in political rights”.
He denounced “ruthless characteristics of the separation regime” set up by Israel, “which were not enforced in South Africa, such as separate roads, high walls and ubiquitous checkpoints”. “Before the eyes of the international community, Israel imposed in Palestine the reality of apartheid in a post-apartheid world”he added.
Israel has controlled the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967. Some 700,000 Jewish settlers currently live in these two areas, in settlements considered illegal under international law.