UN Rapporteur Rejects Israel’s Claim to Self-Defense in West Bank
New York, MINA – The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, has slammed Israel for claiming self-defense to justify its military offensive in the occupied West Bank.
“Israel claims that what it is doing in the West Bank is justified under the law of self-defense. This claim has no validity,” Albanese said on X on Friday, as reported by Palestine Chronicle.
At least 19 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched a large-scale military offensive in the northern West Bank including the towns of Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas, described as the largest since 2002.
Albanese pointed out that “Twenty years ago the @CIJ_ICJ determined that Israel could not invoke self-defense under article 51 of the UN Charter to justify its Wall in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).”
This past July, she stressed, the Court “indicated that Israel’s very presence in the oPT is itself unlawful.”
Albanese argued that “as an ongoing unlawful use of force,” Israel’s occupation of the oPT cannot be justified by any claim of self-defense.
“Israel’s perversion of the law on self-defense must be recognized for what it is: a brazen attempt to provide an imprimatur of ‘legality’ to the maintenance of its unlawful aggression against the territorial integrity and political independence of the State of Palestine.”
Cease Its Colonization’
Albanese further emphasized that “if Israel truly wants to achieve its claimed security, the best and most obvious way to do that would be to cease its colonization of another people’s land, withdraw from all of it, and make appropriate reparation for damage caused (as requested by the ICJ), while being sure to apologize to its victims on the way out.”
On Thursday, the UN called for an immediate cessation of Israel’s military operations in the West Bank, with its humanitarian partners warning that “deadly warfare tactics (..) seem to exceed international standards for law enforcement” were taking place.
In a statement, Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, said he “strongly condemns” Israel’s actions which have resulted in “the loss of lives, including children” and damage to civilian infrastructure.
“These dangerous developments are fuelling an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank and further undermining the Palestinian Authority,” said Guterres. (T/RE1/P2)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
