GENEVA – Israel must evacuate all settlers from the West Bank and make reparations for decades of illegal settlement, the UN rights chief said Tuesday, describing the policy as “a war crime”.
“The transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime,” Volker Turk said in a statement.
“Israel must immediately and completely cease all settlement activities and evacuate all settlers, stop the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, and prevent and punish attacks by its security forces and settlers.”
Violence in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, has escalated since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
“Israel’s settlement policy, its acts of annexation, and related discriminatory legislation and measures are in breach of international law, as the International Court of Justice has confirmed, and violate Palestinians’ right to self-determination,” Turk said.__The Nation
