UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Michael Lynk, published his annual report on Wednesday, addressing Israel’s illegal policies of collective punishment, which the Palestinian people.
Emphasizing Israel’s reliance on collective punishment as a “prominent instrument in its coercive toolbox of population control,” Lynk called on Israel to “[e]nd all measures amounting to collective punishment”.
#Israeli Bulldozers Demolish Two #Palestinian Houses in #WestBank https://t.co/DOUPccUaVK via @PalestineChron pic.twitter.com/9gQktynAC2
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The report highlighted Israeli policies and practices amounting to illegal collective punishment, including the 13-year-long closure on the Gaza Strip, punitive house demolitions, withholding of bodies, and restrictions of freedom of movement.
In his report, Lynk presented a list of recommendations, calling on Israel to comply with international law and the international consensus by bringing a full and speedy end to its 53-year-old occupation of the Palestinian territory.
He also asked the Israeli government to end all measures amounting to collective punishment.
While the report is mainly focused on the issue of collective punishment, it also addresses “a number of other issues including the continued expansion of Israeli settlements; the increase in settlers’ violence; the detention of Palestinians; use of settlement products; Israel’s planned annexation of parts of the Palestinian West Bank and its potential impact; the situation of Human Rights Defenders and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Shahd Qaddoura, Legal Research and Advocacy Assistant at Al-Haq welcomed the report stating,
“Professor Lynk’s report examines one of Israel’s well-worn policies of imposing collective punishment measures as a tool of repression, control and domination against the Palestinian people to maintain its settler-colonial and apartheid regime. As Palestinians continue to suffer from the absence of international justice and accountability, including at the International Criminal Court, Israel continued to benefit from an unlawfully created culture of impunity.”
(Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)
