The Human Rights Council condemns Israel’s settlement policies in the occupied Golan

The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in which it renewed its condemnation of the settlement policies of the Israeli occupation in the occupied Syrian Golan and attempts to change the legal status, demographic and urban character in it.

The resolution adopted by the council at its fifty-fifth session condemned the colonial annexation and settlement policies pursued by the Israeli occupation entity, stressing the need to allow the return of displaced people from the occupied Syrian Golan to their homes and to recover their properties.

The Council called on the occupation authorities to cease all their repressive actions against the occupied Syrian Golan and to immediately release the detainees, stressing that the illegal practices and measures of the occupying Power aimed at changing the character and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan are null and void and constitute a flagrant violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention and have no legal effect.

The permanent representative of Syria to the United Nations Office and other international organizations working in Geneva, Ambassador Haider Ali Ahmed, said in a speech to the council during the voting on the resolution, “this resolution addresses some of the consequences of the Israeli occupation of the occupied Syrian Golan since 1967, and is based on a set of principles established in international law and its jus cogens norms, including those related to the duties of the occupying power, and the principle of the inadmissibility of acquiring territory by force.

Ali Ahmed pointed out that the resolution highlights the continued establishment and expansion of illegal settlements through land confiscation, other forms of illegal seizure, and the depletion of natural wealth in flagrant violation of the principle of permanent sovereignty of the people under occupation over their natural resources.

It also highlights the dangers of settlement projects, such as the “wind turbine” project, which is promoted by the occupation as an “environmental project”, while it is based on the confiscation and seizure of land, and causes serious, severe and permanent damage to the people of the targeted areas in flagrant violation of the rules and principles of international law related to the duties of the occupying power not to use the occupied territories for its own benefit, and to the detriment of the interests of the peoples under occupation.

Ali Ahmed emphasized that Western States rejecting the resolution deny their responsibility to ensure the application of the clear principles of international law and reiterate their hypocrisy and view of human rights as a tool for targeting specific States.

Amal Farhat