Israeli occupation and discrimination against Palestinians are the main causes of successive cycles of violence in the region, United Nations investigators said Tuesday, prompting angry protests from Israelis.
A team of high-level investigators, appointed last year by the UN Human Rights Council to probe "the root causes" of decades-old conflicts in the region, pointed to Israel's side.
"The lifting of Israel's occupation of territory ... remains essential to ending persistent cycles of violence," they said in their report, citing plenty of evidence to suggest that Israel has "no intention" of moving in that direction.
As reported by the French News Agency, the 18-page report focuses primarily on assessing a long series of previous UN investigations, reports and resolutions on the situation in the region as to whether their findings have been implemented.
The head of the investigations, Navi Pillay, said in a statement that the recommendations in previous reports were "overwhelmingly about Israel", adding that this is "an indicator of the asymmetrical nature of the conflict and the reality of the occupation of one state at the expense of another".
The investigators found that the previous recommendations "have not been overwhelmingly implemented," she says, highlighting the call for ensuring accountability from Israel, for violations of international law, and for the "indiscriminate firing of rockets" by Palestinian armed groups into Israel.
"The lack of implementation of the recommendations, coupled with impunity, which is a clear indication that Israel has no intention of ending the occupation, as well as continued discrimination against Palestinians, are at the heart of the systematic recurrence of violations, both in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel."
Israel, as reported by Agence France-Presse, has refused to cooperate with the Commission of Inquiry set up last year after the eleven-day war in May 2021 between Israel and Hamas in which 260 Palestinians and 13 people on the Israeli side were killed.
In the past, Israel has criticized Pillay for "promoting an anti-Israel agenda" and today the country's foreign minister called it a "witch hunt" in reference to the UN investigation.
Source: CNA
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