The international community should respond with effective measures to compel Israel to end its occupation practices in the Palestinian Territory, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a press release on Wednesday
UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th October, 2019) The international community should respond with effective measures to compel Israel to end its occupation practices in the Palestinian Territory, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a press release on Wednesday.
"A UN human rights expert said that the international community has a responsibility and a legal obligation to compel Israel to completely end its illegal occupation and remove its barriers to the fulfillment of Palestinian self-determination," the release said.
The UN human rights agency said that the world community should collectively establish a list of countermeasures that would help to end the 52-year-old Israeli occupation, the longest in modern history.
UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Michael Lynk, pointed out in the release that countries, mainly, developed Western states, are reluctant to call on Israel's illegal practice, therefore, enabling the state to continue the occupation.
"Israel has rightly assessed that the international community - particularly the Western industrial nations - has lacked the political will to compel a complete end to the occupation," Lynk said. "As a result, Israel has rarely faced meaningful consequences for its defiant behavior."
For decades, Israel has been in conflict with Palestinians who have been seeking diplomatic recognition for their independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli government has refused to recognize Palestine as an independent political and diplomatic entity and continues to build settlements in the occupied areas despite objections from the United Nations.
