Ala Renews Syria’s Condemnation of Israel’s Settlement Expansion Plans in Occupied Syrian Golan
GENEVA, (ST)- Syria renews its condemnation of the Israeli occupation’s settlement expansion plans in the occupied Syrian Golan which included the building of 30 thousand settlement units and new settlement cities to allow the transfer of 250 thousand Israeli settlers to the Golan, Syria’s Permanent Representatives to the United Nations office in Geneva Husam Eddin Ala has affirmed.
In a statement on Monday during a debate on the situation of human rights in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories held within the framework of the 42nd Session of the Human Rights Council, Ala said “these Israeli plans aim at changing the demographic structure of the region in a flagrant violation of the international law and of the Fourth Geneva Convention which says that the occupying authority shall not transfer its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” He pointed out that such a violation amounts to a war crime and a crime against humanity.
He went on to say that Syria warns of the continuous violations committed by the Israeli occupation forces against the basic rights of the people in occupied Golan, including blocking means of securing the necessities of life, confiscating people’s lands, preventing the people from building on their own lands, displacing the locals and stealing their natural resources to help achieve the occupation’s settlement expansion schemes. In this respect, Ala referred to the occupation’s recent project to set up wind turbines in occupied Golan lands that aim at making new geographic and demographic changes that serve the settlement policies of the occupation.
The Israeli occupation authorities continue to curb the movement of the people in occupied Golan, practice arbitrary arrests and detentions against them and issue unfair imprisonment sentences in show trials, Ala said. In this regard, he called for the unconditional and immediate release of the dean of the Syrian prisoners in the Israeli jails Sidqi al-Maqt and the other arbitrarily detained Syrian prisoners as well as the more than 5000 Palestinian captives.
He asserted that Syria stresses the need to take practical steps that force the Israeli occupation to comply with its legal commitments and calls for punishing the occupation for its incessant violation of the rights of the people in occupied Palestine and the Syrian Golan.
He pointed out that the most remarkable features that have characterized the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the Syrian Golan for more than half a century are the huge systematic violations of human rights and the international humanitarian law.
The Syrian diplomat reaffirmed Syria’s condemnation of the Israeli occupation’s decision to annex Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank to the Israeli entity, pointing out that this plan is part of the occupation’s illegal decisions relating to al-Quds and the occupied Syrian Golan.
Concluding the statement, Ala said that Syria renews its call for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories, including al-Quds, and from the occupied Syrian Golan to the June 4th 1967 line. He added that Syria reiterates that it doesn’t recognize any legal status that results from the Israeli violations of the rules of the international law.
Hamda Mustafa