Qatar Lashes Out at Israel's Settlement Activity

Geneva, July 02 (QNA) -The State of Qatar has expressed profound concern over Israel's intensive settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories and its increasing pace over the past months as the Jewish state sought to legitimize existing settlements precluding the establishment of a viable, unified Palestinian state. Qatar's position was spelled out by HE Sheikha Alia Ahmed Bin Saif Al Thani, Qatar's permanent representative at the UN in Geneva during the 20th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The address delivered by Sheikha Alia also referred to Israel's administrative detention (which allows for detaining Palestinians without conviction for renewable six-month periods) , destruction of Palestinian homes and erasing of their lands, Judaizing and changing the demographic and architectural nature of Jerusalem and continuing the blockade of the Gaza Strip which amounts to mass punishment, infringing upon the basic human rights as enshrined in international laws. Sheikha Alia said that both reports of the UN Secretary General relevant to the implementation of the Human Rights Council's resolution 17/19 and of the UN special rapporteur Richard Falk on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories were yet another evidence of Israel's determination to pursue its violation of human rights in the occupied territories, in a stark violation of international legitimacy and a flagrant infringement of international conventions and the rules of international and humanitarian laws. The reports also served as a manifestation that Israel was not serious in reaching a permanent solution to the Palestinian cause that would lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, seeking to drown the area in a cycle of violence and to destroy all chances for peace. Qatar reiterated its support for the Palestinian people and their just struggle to regain their legitimate rights and condemned Israeli troops and settlers violations. Sheikha Alia recalled that HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani had proposed at the International Conference in Defence of Al Quds in February 2012 asking the UN Security Council to issue a resolution setting up an international commission to investigate the steps taken by Israel since 1967 to obliterate the Islamic and Arab nature of Jerusalem. She also noted that Qatar has always supported calls for an international conference on the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails, as per the resolutions of the Arab summits of Sirte 2010 and of Baghdad of 2012. Qatar urged the international community to support the Palestinian people in regaining all their legitimate rights, foremost the right to self-determination and establishing an independent state within the pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, to take immediately the necessary measures to protect Islamic sanctuaries and to exercise pressure to bear upon Israel to stop its settlement activities and to remove the Israeli discriminate wall in the West Bank and end the inequitable blockade of the Gaza Strip, in implementation of international legitimacy resolutions. (QNA)