TEHRAN (FNA)- The latest UN report shows that Israel has increased demolitions within the occupied Palestinian territories by roughly 250 percent in the past few weeks.
61 of the 70 illegal demolitions in the early part of June were in Area C of the West Bank, a region which is not just under military occupation, but direct military rule. This has included a number of humanitarian aid sites, which Israel claims were built without permits.
This demolition spree, a classic of the occupation era, is not part of the planned annexation (read continued and growing aggression and occupation). Rather, this territory is intended to be altogether annexed into Israel directly, and demolishing a bunch of Palestinian buildings before annexation may just be the start of a plan to wipe out existing signs of Palestinian life under occupation.
As well, Israeli troops are employing excessive force to maintain access restrictions on Palestinian worshipers wishing to enter the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.
Far from listening to what the UN officials have to say in this respect, Israeli forces continue to use indiscriminate fire against protesters under new rules, including live bullets. Tel Aviv moved to toughen such measures after Benjamin Netanyahu authorized police to use live ammunition against people throwing stones.
So it’s a waste of time to call on Tel Aviv to stop disregarding international norms and principles. It won’t happen – just as it won’t happen as regards the UN’s empty calls for a total settlement and annexation freeze on occupied lands, or putting an end to the policy of forced evictions and home demolitions, or lifting the illegal blockade on Gaza.
True, the United Nations and the Global West acknowledge that excessive attacks on protesters and destroying their homes are a violation of international law. But this is never backed by conviction or deterrent action. The world never sees them move their conscience to protect the security of Palestinian people.
Simply put, these Western and UN actors always limit themselves to lip service, while the occupying forces and settler gangs continue to attack, murder, demolish and set fires in Palestinian cities without any restraint. What’s more, all this is happening under the full gaze and apathy of the same international actors, which brand the legitimate Palestinian protests as “terrorism”, illegal settlers as “Jewish settlers”, and Israeli crimes as “self defense”.
The United Nations and the Global West should take note: They should stop fooling themselves by complicity or by calling on Tel Aviv to stop using indiscriminate demolitions or fire against Palestinians. Their ridiculous - or better described as insulting - calls come on the backdrop of the regime’s “approved” violations of human rights, forced evictions, demolitions, terrorization of unarmed civilians, ethnic cleansing and genocide that have systematically remained unchallenged for over six decades.
The West and the UN can only win back the trust of the Muslim world if they abandon the culture of complicity, endorse an independent international investigation into the Israeli crimes, and help break Tel Aviv’s wall of impunity at The Hague.
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