UN slams Israel attacks on Palestinians
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) has called on the Israeli regime to halt its attacks on Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.
"There appears to be certainly a partial siding with the (Jewish) settlers, and perhaps not intervening strongly enough to protect the Palestinian villagers," Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UNHCHR, said in Geneva on Tuesday.
He added that Israel was legally obliged to protect Palestinian civilians and their property, the Associated Press reported.
The UN official cited some recent examples of the Tel Aviv regime’s collusion with settlers, such as the killing of a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra on September 23, the beating of two Palestinian children arrested by Israeli troops the same day, and the destroying of 200 olive trees in the village on October 6.
Colville further noted that if Palestinians attack Jewish settlers, a 'very harsh' reaction awaits them from the Israelis, but Tel Aviv has virtually given a freehand to settlers.
In recent weeks, the occupied territories have seen a rise of Israeli violence, with hundreds of Palestinian olive trees and olive harvest ruined, holy sites as well as mosques desecrated and the sanctity of Arab cemeteries dishonored by settlers.
The UNHCHR spokesman stated the upsurge of attacks since the beginning of September was "emblematic of the phenomenon of settler violence throughout the (occupied) West Bank."
A high-ranking Israeli intelligence officer also admitted recently that there has been a dramatic increase in the acts of violence and destruction committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Tel Aviv occupied and then annexed the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) -- the promised capital of any future Palestinian state -- in the Six-Day War of 1967, but the move has never been recognized by the international community.
Source: presstv.ir
