A UN committee responsible for monitoring Israel’s conduct in the occupied territories urged member states on Monday to impose sanctions and an arms embargo on the country, warning that Israel’s expanding military and territorial reach was destabilising the region.
Presenting its annual report to the General Assembly, the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories described an alarming escalation over the past year across Gaza, the occupied West Bank, the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and southern Lebanon.
In particular, senior Israeli officials have increasingly invoked a borderless or historical “Land of Israel” to justify military actions and settlement expansion well outside the country's internationally recognised territory.
Such language, the committee warned, suggests a deliberate strategy to establish “Greater Israel”, a maximalist territorial vision extending across modern Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, the Golan Heights, parts of southern Lebanon and even the region between the Nile and the Euphrates.
“Israel’s constant claims to a border
Continue Reading on The National UAE
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.