Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism – Ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, and discrimination against Palestinians, is essential to stopping the decades-long conflict between the two sides, a new UN independent human rights body said.
The finding comes in the first report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, established last May by the UN Human Rights Council.
The Commission said occupation and discrimination are the key root causes of the recurrent tensions, instability, and drawn out nature of the conflict in the region.
Furthermore, impunity is feeding increased resentment among the Palestinian people, with forced displacement, demolitions, settlement construction and the blockade of Gaza, some of the main contributing factors to recurring cycles of violence.
“The findings and recommendations relevant to the underlying root causes were overwhelmingly directed towards Israel, which we have taken as an indicator of the asymmetrical nature of the conflict and the reality of one State occupying the other,” said Navanethem Pillay, the Commission’s chair, who also served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2008-2014.
