(Foxnews/AFP) This time it is not the EU but the UN that is publicly criticizing Israel for its settlement establishment policies that are viewed as illegal according to international law when they are being built in lands that belong to Palestinians. In an article entitled, “UN slams Israel Bedouin resettlement plan,” Navi Pillay, Commissioner of UN human rights, said “I am alarmed that this bill, which seeks to legitimise forcible displacement and dispossession of indigenous Bedouin communities in the Negev, is being pushed through the Knesset.”
Israel is planning to relocate not Palestinians but Arabs who happen to also be citizens of Israel. The bill, which must undergo two more votes to become law, calls for the relocation of 30,000-40,000 Bedouin, the demolition of about 40 villages and the confiscation of more than 700,000 dunums (70,000 hectares) of land in Negev region.
Continuing in her condemnation of the bill, Pillay said “The government must recognise and respect the specific rights of its Bedouin communities, including recognition of Bedouin land ownership claims”. (Click here to read the full text.)
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| Photo:AFP |