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by Peter A. Belmont / 2010-04-25
© 2010 Peter Belmont
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The USA has repeatedly requested Israel to “freeze” settlement building in the territories it occupied in 1967, to no avail.
In fact, all the settlements (and the settlers living in them) are, like the separation wall Israel continues to build in the West Bank, illegal, as the International Court of Justice advised in its July 9, 2004, advisory opinion. Therefore, a mere “freeze” was never enough anyway. And clearly, the USA needs help in this matter. It is clearly not strong enough to bring about the ending of this illegal situation for, as we’ve all seen, it is not even strong enough to bring about a mere halt to the increase in this illegal situation.
The UNGA should resolve that the settlers and wall be removed in their entirety according to a schedule with short and definite dates.
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PROPOSED UNGA RESOLUTION (DRAFT):
The UNGA views with dismay (etc. etc.) Israel’s continuing violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and of other international human rights and humanitarian law and conventions and its ignoring of the conclusions and recommendations and advice of the International Court of Justice’s July 9, 2004, advisory opinion, by, among other things, settling its citizens in settlements inside occupied territories and by continuing to build and failing to dismantle its separation or security wall inside occupied territories.
The UNGA takes notice that almost every day there is news of further building of housing (settlements) by Israelis, with the approval and permission of the State of Israel, within occupied territories, and of settler (and army) violence against Palestinian, international, and Israeli protesters, and that all this takes place in the context of repeated requests by the President of the United States of America that Israel merely halt the building of new settlements, requests also reported frequently by the media.
The UNGA believes that mere requests to Israel to “freeze settlements” as the United States of America has repeatedly done is insufficient to bring about a proper resolution of the problem of the settlers, of the wall, and of the violence connected with both of them.
Accordingly, the UNGA calls upon Israel, urgently, to remove all its settlers, believed to be approximately 550,000 in number, and all of the said wall from all territories occupied by it after June 1, 1967, including the Golan Heights of Syria and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip (if any settlers or separation wall are present there). These removals should be fully accomplished by Jan 1, 2011, and Israel should by May 31, 2010, publish a schedule for these removals which specifies how the settlers and the wall will be removed in substantially equal numbers or amounts, month by month, until the removal is completed on Jan 1, 2011.
The UNGA recalls the expulsion by Israel of as many as 750,000 Palestinians from their homes (where they had a legal right to remain) during the war of 1947-50 and recalls that Israel refused to allow peaceable refugees to return to their homes as repeatedly called for by this body (here ref resolutions).
The UNGA understands that the removal of 550,000 settlers will create some difficulties for those people, and regrets that difficulty, but points out that they are present in the occupied territories illegally and that it was Israel’s duty, since 1967, to inform them of this fact and to prevent them from entering occupied territories as settlers. It is therefore Israel’s duty to provide temporary housing for the returning settlers, and the UNGA does not propose to aid in the provision of temporary housing for them.
The UNGA reminds Israel that as occupier it has a duty to secure the safety of the people living under belligerent occupation and directs Israel to assure that the Palestinian and Syrian people living in occupied territories be protected now and for so long as these occupations continue in force from violence from Israeli settlers or from Israel’s armed forces.
The UNGA believes that all efforts at peace-making should be suspended until this removal of settlers and wall have been completed, since the pressure of the illegal settlers and wall may be expected to act as an inducement to the Palestinian people to accept an unfair peace treaty.
The UNGA asks the UNSC to take up this recommendation and enact it in a UNSC resolution and to add to the terms specified above such enforcement provisions under its powers under UN Charter Chapter VII as it may consider necessary and sufficient to effect the desired outcomes.
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