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EDITORIAL: Secure in the knowledge that the US has its back Israel continues to gobble up more and more of Arab lands it occupied in the 1967 Six Day War. Announcing his government’s decision to double the Jewish settlers’ population in Syrian Golan Heights Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet has said the plan, meant to further consolidate Israeli’s hold on the territory it captured from Syria, is prompted by “the fact that the Trump administration recognised this, and the fact that the Biden administration has made it clear that there has been no change in this policy.”

The fact though is also that the expansion of Jewish settlements’ outposts on lands it occupied through an act of war is a flagrant violation of several US Security Council resolutions and international law. The UN has repeatedly declared that construction of settlements constitute violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

And yet soon after President Joe Biden took office his Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had tried to justify the illegal settlement activity, saying there were legal questions surrounding Trump’s move. In other words, what Trump had done could not be undone.

The argument had no leg to stand. For, it did not take long for his boss, Joe Biden, to rejoin international institutions and agreements Trump had withdrawn from, such as the Paris Agreement on climate change, the World Health Organisation, deciding also to reengage with Iran on the nuclear deal. Blinken also mentioned the civil war in Syria – incited and supported by outsiders, in particular the US – as an excuse for not reversing the course. Internal strife cannot be a civilised argument for intruding upon any country’s sovereignty.

One reason behind the US’ unstinted support for Israel’s illegal and immoral actions is related to its domestic politics over which the Jewish lobby exercises an outsized influence. The other is hubris which makes it indifferent to what the intentional law says on Israeli expansionist policy and its abuse of human rights.

As pointed out by the UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk at last July’s meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, Israeli settlements violate the absolute prohibition against the transfer by an occupying power of parts of its civil population into an occupied territory, a practice designated as a war crime under the Rome Statute. Furthermore, he explained, “for Israel, the settlements serve two related purposes. One is to guarantee that the occupied territory will remain under Israeli control in perpetuity.

The second purpose is to ensure that there will never be a genuine Palestinian state”. Unfortunately, some of the Arab states have also gone on to normalise relations with the Tel Aviv disregarding the 2002 Saudi-led Arab peace proposal that called for vacation of occupation and establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital in return for normalisation of ties with Israel.

Saudi Arabia says it remains committed to that peace initiative. On current trends, however, that commitment may not hold for long. But the Palestinian people have amply demonstrated they will never give up their struggle for an end to occupation. Israel cannot seize their ancestral homes and lands and have peace, too.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022

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