UN report urges plan to 'end Israeli settler-colonial occupation, apartheid regime'

A report released on Tuesday by the UN's Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories has recommended that UN member states develop "a plan to end the Israeli settler- colonial occupation and apartheid regime".

The 23-page report by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese urged that the General Assembly also called on states to condemn Israel's violations of human rights.

My first report to the UNGA is out. Available in the six official languages of the UN.
https://t.co/J13GfYVnBe pic.twitter.com/lWtTpnusCs

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) October 18, 2022

"The violations described in the present report expose the nature of the Israeli occupation: that of an intentionally acquisitive, segregationist and repressive regime designed to prevent the realization of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination," Albanese wrote in the report's concluding remarks.

She also recommended that an international "protective presence" be deployed to prevent further violations against the Palestinians, and urged that countries prepare to resort to "diplomatic, economic and political" measures if Israel does not comply with human rights conventions.

The report comes amid an intensification of raids by Israel on the West Bank in recent months. More than 120 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest year in the occupied territory since 2015.

Israel has occupied the West Bank in 1967 and later annexed it, in violation of international law. Some 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank.

Tel Aviv has also imposed a crushing siege on the Gaza Strip since 2007.