United Nations: Israel must stop expanding illegal settlements

GENEVA- The United Nations High Commissioner for UN Human Rights, Navi Pillay, called on Israel to cease its policy of settlement expansion, considering them "illegal" in a report received Friday, where she denounced as "serious violations "during the December offensive.

•     "The government of Israel must stop expanding its settlements, which are illegal," says the report, which reviews the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories between the Israeli offensive in December-January in the Ghaza Strip and the month of April.
  
      In this document, to be presented during the next session of the Council of Human Rights in Geneva from 14 September to 2 October, Ms. Pillay also requires "an immediate halt to the evictions and demolitions of homes of Palestinians ".
  
      Denouncing the restrictions of movement imposed on Palestinians, it also requests "immediate easing of restrictive measures" restricting their movement in the West Bank and imposing a blockade of the Ghaza Strip.
  
      The situation of human rights, already critical, has continued to deteriorate between December and April, insists the UN responsible, citing "serious violations" during the Israeli offensive in Ghaza, carried out in response to Palestinian rocket attacks against the Jewish State, which has caused more than 1,400 Palestinian deaths, according to Palestinian emergency services.
  
      It lists and problems of "arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, extrajudicial executions, forced evictions and demolitions of homes and the expansion of settlements and the violence associated with the restriction of freedom of movement and expression."
  
      On the issue of detainees, the High Commissioner stressed the problem of impunity of perpetrators of violence, which constitutes the basis of their persistence."
  
      "There can be no lasting peace without respect for human rights and responsibility for violations of these rights, she said.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.