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Human Rights Groups Denounce Israeli Apartheid

Written by Subject: Israel

Human Rights Groups Denounce Israeli Apartheid

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

On February 3, by joint written submission to the UN Human Rights Council, over a dozen human rights groups denounced Israel's "entrenche(d) apartheid regime over the Palestinian people."

Groups submitting the letter include Addameer, Al-Haq, Al Mezan, Badil, Defense for Children International, and the Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies among others.

They denounced Israel's separate and unequal society, its discriminatory viciousness, its violence and other forms of intolerance, notably its apartheid repression of millions of Occupied Palestinians and Arab citizens.

They condemned Trump's annexation scheme as entrenching Israeli apartheid rule over long-suffering Palestinians.

UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Territories Michael Lynk called the Trump/Netanyahu scheme "a recipe (against) peace (by) endors(ing) a 21st century bantustan in the Middle East…(a) potemkin state," not the real thing, "an entirely new entity in the annals of modern political science."

The unacceptable scheme denies Palestinians contiguous territory with borders, no military for self-defense, no right of return for its refugees, no Jerusalem as its capital, no control over its resources, airspace, and offshore waters, no freedom of movement, no viable economy, and no ability to contest the scheme in international tribunals.

It violates the most basic principles of international law, perpetuating conflict, not resolving it, a scheme designed to fail, not work.

Weeks ahead of its unveiling, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) denounced Israeli consolidation of apartheid rule.

The human rights groups called on the Human Rights Council and UN member states to reject the scheme and renounce Israeli apartheid rule as unacceptable, untenable, unlawful, and criminal.

According to Israeli media, the Netanyahu regime began mapping historic Palestinian land to annex.

"This won't take a lot of time and we'll complete this," he said with no further elaboration, delaying formal annexation until after March 2 elections — likely to be inconclusive like last April and September.

Polls show main opposition party Blue and White leading Netanyahu's Likud by a 35.5 - 32.5 seat margin, 61 seats needed to form a new coalition government.

A new Channel 13 poll has Blue and White able to cobble together a 59-seat coalition, two short of what's needed.

On Sunday, Zionist ideologue Trump regime envoy to Israel David Friedman surprisingly cautioned against "unilateral" annexation.

Following the scheme's unveiling days earlier, he said "Israel does not have to wait at all" to annex settlements and the Jordan Valley.

Backtracking by him and other Trump regime officials may be because of majority world community opposition to the scheme, along with Palestinian rage against it.

Slumlord Jared Kushner tried selling it to Security Council members last week at the US mission — rejection likely if put to a vote.

Security Council Res. 476 (June 1980) said actions by Israel to alter the status of Jerusalem "have no legal validity…"

Security Council Res. 2334 (December 2016) said settlements have "no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation under international law."

The resolution recognized no territorial changes "to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations."

Security Council resolutions are binding international and US constitutional law.

Yet time and again they're breached by the US, NATO, Israel, and their imperial partners.

On February 11, Israeli installed Palestinian president/longtime collaborator with the Jewish state Mahmoud Abbas will submit a draft resolution to the Security Council opposing the Trump/Netanyahu scheme — rejection certain either by US veto or failure to get enough support.

Illegal annexation of settlements and the Jordan Valley is just a matter of time — perhaps post-March 2 elections or when a new ruling coalition regime is formed.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

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