This is in reference to the story “UN inquiry says Israel must remove settlers.” With the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) fact-finding mission calling for sanctions against Israel over West Bank settlements, the West, especially the US, will find it difficult to deal with the issue.
Undoubtedly, this will be a huge challenge for them. As a matter of fact we have always seen the US and its allies never hesitating to slap sanctions on other weaker countries at the drop of a hat. But will they respond to the UN body’s call in this case against the Zionist state? “The mission calls upon all member states to comply with their obligations under international law and to assume their responsibilities in their relationship to a state breaching peremptory norms of international law — specifically not to recognize an unlawful situation resulting from Israel’s violation,” said the commission led by the French judge Christine Chanet.
The UN General Assembly voted for Palestine to become a non-member state with observer status on Nov. 29, 2012 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in defiance authorized the building of 3,000 new housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank on the following day.
Since 1967 about 250 settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have been built and they hold an estimated 520,000 settlers according to a UN report.
Will the US, which led slapping of crippling sanctions on dozens other countries, follow the UN call in this case? A double standard could be expected, without any doubt, of those who always preach others of human rights.
The settlements contravene the 1949 Geneva Convention, which could amount to war crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. — S.H. Moulana, Riyadh
Israel must remove settlers
