UN report criticizes Israel for ‘continued occupation’ of Palestine News
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UN report criticizes Israel for ‘continued occupation’ of Palestine

The UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, Tuesday released its first official report and criticized the “continued occupation by Israel of Palestinian territory and discrimination against Palestinians.”

The commission believes that Israel has “no intention of ending the occupation” and that violence will not stop even if the occupation ends. The report cites several laws, including a controversial naturalization law, that explicitly discriminate against Palestinians. Israel’s Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs rebuked the report, calling it “nothing more than a waste of money and effort of the United Nations’ systems, part and parcel of the witch hunt being carried out by the Human Rights Council against Israel.”

The Human Rights Council created the commission after a significant spike in violence in May 2021 that left 150 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead. B’nai B’rith International, a pro-Israel non-profit organization, has repeatedly claimed that the genesis of the commission is faulty. B’nai B’rith alleges that the violence was the primarily the responsibility of Palestine and Hamas. The United States left the UN Human Rights Council in 2018 over claims of bias against Israel.

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