UAE voices concern about Israel's continued confiscation of Palestinian territories

GENEVA, 24th September, 2016 (WAM) -- The UAE has expressed concern about Israel, the Occupying Power, and its continuous confiscation of occupied Palestinian territories and encouraging the illegal settlement, systematically and deliberately, which aborts and undermines any peaceful initiatives in the future.

This came in the UAE's speech before the 33rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, delivered by Obaid Salem Al Za'abi, UAE Permanent Representative to United Nations and Other International Organisations in Geneva, within the framework of a general dialogue regarding the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1967.

Al Za'abi said the UAE joins with the Islamic and Arab Group, and the GCC statements, to express its grave concerns about the continuation of the Israeli occupying power to confiscate Palestinian territories and building the illegal settlement, systematically and deliberately, which undermines and aborts any peaceful initiative in the future.

He added that the settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories are still continuing, as the recent report of the Quartet noted in June 2016, with the Occupying Power announcing its plans to build more than 1,000 housing units in occupied East Jerusalem and 735 housing units in the occupied West Bank. It also unveiled several schemes to build and expand settlements in East Jerusalem, although this represents a war crime under international law.

According to the report, bulldozers of the Occupying Power continue its operations, in which 79 houses have been demolished, along with 22 facilities in the occupied West Bank, during June and August of this year, making 2016 the year that witnessed the largest demolition of homes since 2006, with a total of 188 homes being destroyed.

In this regard, Al Za'abi also added that the report has failed to note that Israeli settlements were built on the ruins of demolished Palestinian homes for the benefit of entire families brought from other countries and continents to rebuild the usurped land.

He also renewed the UAE's stance, which deems Israeli settlements on the occupied Arab territories as illegal and constitute a major obstacle in the way of achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace in the region. He also called on all countries to claim the need to end the current settlement of Palestinian territories.

At the end of his speech, Al Za'abi reaffirmed that that a comprehensive, lasting and just peace cannot be achieved without ending the occupation of Palestinian territories and the full withdrawal of Israel from all Arab territories occupied in 1967, as well as returning to serious negotiations without preconditions, as they are the only way for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, in accordance with the related international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative backed by the United Arab Emirates that it deems worthy of support and encouragement by all peace-loving countries.