More than a month before Israel launched an air-assault against Hamas targets, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon accused Israel of acting illegally and in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention by continuing to build settlements in the West Bank.

Ban, who discussed the findings of two new reports he prepared about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, told the U.N. General Assembly last November that Israel was responsible for human rights abuses against Palestinians.

The report, Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan, says U.N. resolutions and a 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) both reflect how – “in effect, the transfer by an occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” – is a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Ban said Israel’s land requisition and the destruction of houses and orchards in the West Bank are “illegal.”

“The advisory opinion and a number of United Nations resolutions have all affirmed that Israel’s practice of constructing settlements – in effect, the transfer by an occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies -constitutes a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” the Secretary General’s report says. “In addition to the construction of the settlements, other activities related to settlements are also illegal.

“These include the requisition of land, the destruction of houses and orchards, the construction of roads meant for the use of settlers only, the exploitation of natural resources within the occupied territory and the alteration of the character and status of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  The international community has also raised concerns regarding the depletion of natural resources as a result of settlements.”

A second report prepared by Ban, Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, covered the first eight months of 2008, and says that the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory has become dire.

Ban said that Israel’s border closures have had serious economic consequences on Palestinians that appear to be worsening each day.

“During the period under review, the Government of Israel continued to impose on Palestinian residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territory the comprehensive closure system, which Israel claims is necessary for its security,” the report says. “The system consists of a complex array of physical and administrative obstacles that have a severe and detrimental impact on the rights of Palestinians as guaranteed in article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and more specifically the individual’s right to freedom of movement, to choose a residence and to leave and re-enter the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  

“The restrictions continue to undermine the enjoyment of other rights guaranteed under international human rights law by effectively impeding access to health care, education and employment.”

In the West Bank, restrictions have blocked access to services such as health and education, while “approximately 1.4 million Palestinians are forcibly confined in the Gaza Strip, where social and economic conditions are deteriorating rapidly,” says Ban’s second report covering human rights issues.

The wall erected in June 2002 by Israel to separate it from the West Bank further impedes access for Palestinians, the report says.

“In addition to its immediate impact on freedom of movement, the wall and the associated restrictions of movement significantly undermine the enjoyment of a host of other fundamental human rights,” the report says. “In areas where the wall has already been built, extensive violations of human rights of Palestinians living nearby are frequently reported. In areas located between the barrier and the Green Line, which represent 9.8 per cent of the West Bank, access by Palestinian farmers to their lands and water resources is severely limited and can be achieved only through restrictive permit and gate regimes.

“Farmers need “visitor” permits to cross the wall to reach their farms and wells and, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, fewer than 20 per
cent of farmers who used to work on their land in those areas prior to the completion of the barrier are now granted access to them.”

Ban called on the Assembly and the international community to take measures to force Israel to implement resolutions and recommendations of the Security Council, ICJ and UN human rights mechanisms.

The Secretary-General also says the U.N. General Assembly should ask for the Council’s help to implement the ICJ’s 2004 advisory opinion that said that the building of a barrier in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal, and demand an end to its construction and require Israel to make reparations for any damage caused.

Between 1967 and the end of 2007, Israel set up 120 settlements in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, and as of this August, over 1,000 new buildings were being erected in the settlements, the report says.

“The existence of settlements restricts the freedom of movement of Palestinians resident in the West Bank in several ways,” the Secretary-General said, with Palestinians barred from entering settlement areas without a special permit.

“Despite the claim of the Government of Israel that the internal closure system within the West Bank is imposed on Palestinian residents there for security purposes, most of those internal restrictions on movement are largely premised on the protection of Israeli settlers and settlements and are designed to provide settlers with unobstructed travel capacity between settlements and to Israel itself,” the report says.

Further, the report, covering the period between January and August of last year, said that one-third of settlements and land incorporated into these areas is private Palestinian-owned land, much of which was expropriated by Israel on the grounds of military necessity.

“According to recent reports, as of August 2008, more than 1,000 new buildings were in the process of being constructed in the settlements, of which approximately 2,600 were housing units,” the report covering Israeli settlements says.

“Approximately 55 per cent of these new structures are located to the east of the separation wall. The number of tenders for construction in the settlements has increased by 540 per cent in 2008 (417 housing units, compared with just 65 in 2007). The number of tenders in East Jerusalem has increased by 3,728 per cent (1,761 housing units, compared with 46 in 2007). Furthermore, 125 new structures have been added to existing outposts, including 30 permanent houses.”

“”The seizure of land in such circumstances or the declaration of a closed military zone necessarily has an impact on the freedom of movement of Palestinians and restricts their freedom to choose a residence by preventing access to homes and land. The Government of Israel claims that such settlements do not violate international humanitarian law since they are constructed on public lands and do not displace the inhabitants of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Ban said the Israeli Government should abide by its commitments to dismantle outposts built after March 2001 and freeze settlement activity called for in the so-called Road Map, which foresees a two-State solution with Israel and the Palestinians living side by side in peace, as well as the Annapolis Joint Statement of 27 November 2007, which was intended to reinvigorate the peace process.