UN concerned over Gaza blockade, blames Israel for violations in West Bank

The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has expressed her “deep concerns” over Israel’s continued siege of the Gaza Strip, imposed since 2006. She also blamed Israeli settlers for most of the human rights violations in the occupied West Bank.

Pillay delivered her remarks in Geneva at a special meeting of the Human Rights Council to debate Palestinian rights. She told the UN council that, “The High Commissioner remained deeply concerned by the situation in Gaza where violence was on the increase, and where the continuing Israeli blockade, coupled with the recent destruction of most of the tunnel network with Egypt, had led to a significant deterioration of economic and social rights in Gaza.”

In addition, Reuters quoted Pillay as saying: “Israeli settlement-related activities and settler violence are at the core of many of the violations of human rights in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” adding that the settlement activities not only have a significant impact on Palestinians’ right to self-determination, but “also violate the entire spectrum of Palestinians’ social, cultural, civil and political rights”.

Furthermore, Pillay stressed that: “Despite repeated calls for Israel to cease settlement activity, on-going settlement construction and [other] acts of settler violence continue with devastating consequences for Palestinian civilians.”

She also noted that UN monitors in the occupied West Bank had documented “a dramatic increase in fatalities and injuries in incidents of use of force by Israeli security forces” in 2013.

Israel’s foreign ministry has been on strike since Sunday and was thus unable to comment on Pillay’s remarks.