Ambassador Ala: Israeli occupation plan to set up large wind turbines in occupied Syrian Golan constitutes a flagrant violation of the international law

Damascus (ST): Syria’s permanent representative to the UN office and international organizations in Geneva, Hussam El-Din Ala, said that the Israeli occupation plan to set up large wind turbines on the lands of occupied Syrian Golan citizens affirms its determination to implement settlement expansionist policies. He called for denouncing these violations of the basic rights of Golan citizens.

In a message he sent to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on the practices of the Israeli occupation entity and the grave violations of human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan, Ambassador Ala said ” The Syrian Arab Republic has recurrently warned against the dangers of the Israeli occupation authorities’ plans which constitute a flagrant violation of the international law  apart from their health and environmental hazards on the people of Golan.”

He added that the occupation entity’s decision to press ahead with this plan reflects its insistence to implement its expansionist settlement activities ignoring health and environmental hazards on the people of Golan and their agricultural activity which is the only income source for them.

  The Syrian diplomat continued that our  “citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan and in response to the Israeli escalating measure and the occupation ignorance of the warnings of the  families  about the impact of the project that will be set up on a hundreds of dunams of agricultural lands near the Syrian villages,  the Golan citizens decided to stage a general and comprehensive strike and headed for the lands intended for setting up giant wind turbines to confront the Israeli occupation authorities and prevent them from implementing their expansionist plan, noting that  Israeli occupation forces faced the citizens with oppression and intimidation, injuring many protesters by live  bullets and  gas bombs and detained several citizens”.

Ambassador Ala referred that the UN Human Rights Council which demanded in a decision taken last June 22nd the occupation entity to immediately cancel its decision to impose its authority and jurisdiction on the occupied Syrian Golan according to the UN Resolution No. 497 for the year 1981. The Council also demanded the occupation entity to immediately halt its settlement activities in the occupied Golan and considered the occupation authorities’ decision to set up giant wind turbines on the occupied Golan as a flagrant violation of the international law and the UN relevant resolutions.

Syria’s representative to the UN went on to say that the Israeli intention to press ahead with this project despite its disastrous impact and the use of force and repression to implement it prove, that the Israeli occupation forces are working to displace people of Golan to perpetuate occupation, change the demographic and geographic status of occupied Golan and impose the illegal annexation policy, stressing that those illegal practices constitute a violation of the principles of international law and its rules related to the duties of the occupation authorities not to exploit the lands under occupation for their own interests.

The ambassador  clarified that despite international condemnations, the occupation authorities continue to encourage the establishment and expansion of settlements, continue to bring settlers from the occupation entity to the occupied Syrian Golan in  a systematic policy prohibited by international humanitarian law and imposed by the occupation authorities on all Arab lands occupied since 1967 to create status-quo and terminate any future opportunities to establish a just and comprehensive peace, based on the end of occupation and a complete withdrawal from the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, and from the occupied Syrian Golan till June 4th 1967 borderlines  in implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions,  particularly  Resolutions No. 242/1967 / and 337/1973 / Resolution No. 497/1981, according to Security Council which states that the declaration of Israel regarding the imposition of its laws and its administrative jurisdiction on the occupied Syrian Golan is null and void and has no international legal impact.

Concluding his message, ambassador Ala said ” The Syrian Arab Republic calls on the UN Human Rights Commission to denounce the Israeli settlement practices and urges it to trace the catastrophic consequences of this settlement project, halt all illegal settlement activities and repressive measures against Syrian citizens in occupied Syrian Golan.”

K.Q.