Credit: By Gary Raynaldo /    S. Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, briefs reporters at UN world headquarters in New York Oct. 24, 2019.

By Gary Raynaldo      /    DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –  NEW YORK  – A UN independent human rights expert Thursday called on the international community to take decisive action to finally end Israel’s 52-year “Illegal  occu-annexation” of the Palestinian territory.   Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, gave his latest report to the UN General Assembly on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territory: the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. 

“My report calls upon Israel to completely end its illegal occupation  and its unlawful annexation of east Jerusalem, and unwind its illegal settlement enterprise.  But I acknowledge that these kinds of requests  to Israel by myself and others have gone almost entirely unheeded for decades now. Therefore my report directs the bulk of its attention on the legal and the political responsibilities of the international community to decisively intervene to end the occupation and remove the barriers to the fulfillment of self determination for the  Palestinians.”

-Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967.

UN Expert Calls for Ban on Israeli Settlement Products

Lynk added: “Accountability is the key to opening the titanium cage that is the permanent occupation. The international community has issued countless resolutions and declarations critical of the never-ending Israeli occupation. The time has long past to match these criticisms with effective consequences.”   He called for  a ban on Israeli settlement products.

“A complete ban on all goods and services produced in whole or in part from the  illegal Israeli settlements in the west bank and East Jerusalem from entering the international market.”   Lynk also called for the release in the near future by the United Nations of  a data base of business and economic activity in the Israeli settlements that it has been working on since  2016. “This data base should be released in a fully transparent fashion with all businesses named, and would be a satisfactorily resourced and funded into the future so it can become a dynamic tool to sufficiently monitor ongoing business activity in the settlements.”

The international community has a responsibility and a legal obligation to compel #Israel to completely end its illegal occupation and remove its barriers to the fulfilment of Palestinian self-determination – UN expert says at #UNGA 👉 https://t.co/xB3nwylJyO pic.twitter.com/qMnlFnaARn

— UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) October 23, 2019

UN Expert Calls On General Assembly To Adopt Resolution To Request the International Court of Justice for advisory opinion on the legality of the continued Israeli Occupation.   “The international community has a wide range of a wide menu of counter measures at its disposal to require that deficient states end their serious violations of humanitarian and human rights laws, including travel bans.”

Lynk said the occupation is the longest in the modern world. It has been characterized by what he described as “a strong sense of impunity” by Israel.