A senior UN rights official has described the US president Donald Trump’s peace plan on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as “a lopsided proposal entirely in favour of one side to the conflict and a one and a half state solution that will entrench occupation.”
“This is not a recipe for a just and durable peace but rather endorses the creation of a 21st century Bantustan in the Middle East” Michael Lynk the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory stated on Friday referring to the areas established for black South Africans during the apartheid era.
“The Palestinian statelet envisioned by the American plan would be scattered archipelagos of non-contiguous territory completely surrounded by Israel with no external borders no control over its airspace no right to a military to defend its security no geographic basis for a viable economy no freedom of movement and with no ability to complain to international judicial forums against Israel or the United States” the UN official said.
Lynk also deplored the proposal to legalize Israeli settlements and he urged countries to condemn any call to annex Palestinian territory which is prohibited under international law.
“This unilateral act undermines the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and it threatens to drag the world back to darker times when conquest was acceptable borders could be redrawn and territorial integrity was regularly undermined” he said.
Under the Trump plan Jerusalem would remain Israel’s undivided capital which Lynk called “distressing” as it “recognizes the conquest and illegal annexation of East Jerusalem which remains occupied territory under international law as embedded in scores of United Nations resolutions”.
The rights expert also took issue with proposals that would prevent Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes in Israel.
“Nothing in the Trump plan alters the continuing prevalence of the laws of occupation the human rights of the Palestinians under occupation and the absolute obligation on the international community to redouble its efforts to achieve a just equitable and durable solution on the basis of equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis alike” Lynk underlined.
“International law remains the Northern Star the only guide to a sustainable peace” he affirmed.
