- Title: Israel is ramping up annexation of West Bank, UN rights chief says
- Date: 18th March 2025
- Summary: COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (MARCH 18, 2025)(REUTERS) EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT, URSULA VON DER LEYEN, WALKING UP TO MICROPHONE WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE)(English) EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT, URSULA VON DER LEYEN, SAYING: “To all the people of Greenland – and of Denmark as a whole – I want to be very clear that Europe will always stand for sovereignty and territorial integrity
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Israel United Nations West Bank human rights settlements
- Location: JORDAN VALLEY, WEST BANK / GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / AMMAN, JORDAN
- City: JORDAN VALLEY, WEST BANK / GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / AMMAN, JORDAN
- Country: Palestinian Occupied Territory
- Topics: Fundamental Rights/Civil Liberties,Middle East,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001970818032025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Israel has expanded and consolidated settlements in the occupied West Bank as part of the steady integration of these territories into the State of Israel, in breach of international law, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday (March 18).
The report, based on research between November 1, 2023, and October 31, 2024, said there had been a "significant" expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and cited reports by Israeli non-governmental organizations of tens of thousands of planned housing units in new or existing settlements.
“In the West Bank, settlements are expanding at an alarming rate,” the head of the U.N. human rights office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Sunghay, told reporters in Geneva.
“The rampant forcible displacement of Palestinians from their homes and lands in the West Bank further exacerbates the situation,” he added.
The findings will be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council this month and come amid growing fears of annexation among Palestinians, as U.S. policy shifts under President Donald Trump and new settler outposts are put down in areas of the West Bank seen as part of a future Palestinian state.
Israel disengaged from the U.N. Human Rights Council earlier this year, alleging a chronic anti-Israeli bias. Its diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land Israel captured in 1967. Most countries consider Israel's settlements on territory seized in war to be illegal. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.
Israel's opposition to ceding control of the West Bank has been deepened by its fears of a repeat of the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas-led militants. Its military says it is conducting counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank and targeting suspected militants.
Plans for the further provision of Israeli government services in these settlements "further institutionalize long-standing patterns of systematic discrimination, segregation, oppression, domination, violence and other inhumane acts against the Palestinian people," the report said.
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