Geneva: Israel’s occupation and discrimination against Palestinians are the main causes of the endless cycles of violence, UN investigators said Tuesday.
A high-level team of investigators, appointed last year by the United Nations Human Rights Council to probe “all underlying root causes” in the decades-long conflict, pointed the finger squarely at Israel.
“Ending the occupation of lands by Israel… remains essential in ending the persistent cycles of violence,” they said in a report, decrying ample evidence that Israel has “no intention” of doing so.
The 18-page report mainly focuses on evaluating a long line of past UN investigations, reports and rulings on the situation, and how and if those findings were implemented.
Recommendations in past reports were “overwhelmingly directed towards Israel,” lead investigator Navi Pillay, a former UN rights chief from South Africa, said in a statement.The investigators also determined that those recommendations “have overwhelmingly not been implemented”, she said, pointing to calls to ensure accountability for Israel’s violations of international law. “
