UN Rights Expert Lashes Out At ‘Israeli’ Anti-Palestinian ‘Collective Punishment’

By Staff, Agencies

United Nations [UN] Human Rights Expert Michael Lynk slammed the ‘Israeli’ regime’s “collective punishment” against Palestinians, which is “most strikingly” in its persisting siege against the Gaza Strip, stressing that this must end.

"It is an affront to justice and the rule of law to see that such methods continue to be used in the 21st century and that Palestinians collectively continue to be punished,” Lynk said on Friday.

Lynk, who is the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, also warned that ‘Israeli’ punitive actions are harming millions of innocent people on a daily basis.

“These practices entail serious violations against Palestinians, including the right to life, freedom of movement, health, adequate shelter, and an adequate standard of living,” the UN official further stressed following the submission of a report to the 44th session of the Human Rights Council this week.

Gaza has been under a Zionist siege since June 2007.

Since 2008, the occupation regime has waged three wars against Gaza, where two million Palestinians live under a 12-year Zionist blockade. Thousands of Gazans have been killed in each of these deadly wars.

The crippling blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the Gaza Strip.

“The extent of the devastating impact of ‘Israel’s’ collective punishment policy can be most strikingly seen in its ongoing 13-year-old closure of Gaza, which now suffers from a completely collapsed economy, devastated infrastructure, and a barely functioning social service system,” Lynk further said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the UN official touched on Tel Aviv’s condemned policy of demolishing Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank, stressing that such practice is in clear violation of Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

“Since 1967, ‘Israel’ has destroyed more than 2,000 Palestinian homes,” Lynk said.

Zionist occupation authorities usually demolish Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank, claiming that the structures have been built without permits. They also sometimes order the Palestinian owners to demolish their own homes or pay the demolition costs to the municipality if they do not.