Alwaght- If Palestinians could take Western leaders for their word, then Palestine would have long been liberated. But since international figures never translate their words into action, Palestinians have to waive the possibility of receiving their rights from those who always side with the Israeli regime.
One example of how organizations that are supposed to be watching over human rights are failing the Palestinians is UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon who, earlier this week, slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his support for the Tel Aviv regime’s expropriation of Palestinian territories and expansion of illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank.
On Thursday, Ban during the Security Council’s meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict called on the Tel Aviv to halt illegal settlement construction.
"Let me be absolutely clear: settlements are illegal under international law. The occupation, stifling and oppressive, must end," he said.
He also said that the policy stands as hindrance to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Yet what Ban says fails to materialize into action. Neither the UN nor the West have done anything more than to verbally chastise the Israelis for their crimes, statements that hardly amount to a slap on the wrist.
Occasional condemnation of the Israeli settlement expansion policy make up a PR stunt to save face before human rights organizations which call for an end to the building of Israeli housing units on Palestinian land. In order for Tel Aviv to even consider backing out on its project, punitive measures have to be taken against it. This is something that is not going to happen, not under current Western policy and Zionist lobbying.
In fact, a settlement was probably being built as Ban gave his reprimanding speech. Settlement construction persists daily in the occupied territories.
According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, Israeli authorities increased settlement construction by 40 percent in the first half of 2016.
In response to the statistics, human rights watchdog Peace Now outlined the data, exhibiting that authorities had initiated construction on 1,195 units in Israeli settlements across the West Bank.
More recently, Israel’s Civil Administration approved tenders for 463 new illegal housing units at the end of August.
Earlier this month, the Israeli Housing Minister vowed that Tel Aviv would speed up construction in east of al-Quds (Jerusalem) in the occupied West Bank.
On 29 August, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process listed 735 units in Ma’ale Adumim as among those advanced by the Israeli government just since 1 July this year.
Furthermore, more than half a million Israelis are scattered across 230 settlements that have been built since the 1967 Zionist occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
In brief, settlement construction is continuing despite international calls to stop it, mainly because these calls have just been echoing against the walls, because they are not allowed to pass the threshold of action.
Similarly, the US has disappointed Palestinians despite Washington’s verbal condemnation of Israeli settlements. Having said that it was the time for settlements to stop in a speech he gave seven years ago, President Barack Obama has failed to fulfil the hope of ending these constructions.
The Associated Press has obtained official Israeli data proving that Netanyahu pressed more settlement construction during Obama’s presidency than he did under Bush’s administration.
This surge demonstrates the ineffectiveness of White House condemnations and Obama’s public disapprovals of ongoing settlement construction. Not only does it show that words are not met with actions but also that in spite of these criticisms, Washington continues to grant the Israeli regime military and financial aid packages, thereby indirectly encouraging further settlement construction.
Just last week, Washington signed a new 10-year military-assistance deal with Tel Aviv, representing the largest pledge of its kind in American history. The pact will be worth $38 billion over the course of a decade, an increase of roughly 27 percent on the money pledged in the last agreement, which was signed in 2007.
Comparing what the US says and what it does, we find a discrepancy. American officials speak against Israeli settlements, then they proceed to further fund their activities. This leads us to believe that instead of preventing the Israelis from advancing their illegal construction, the US gift is meant to accelerate it.
The same applies to other states and bodies that are aware of the illegality of Israeli settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land.
Since the territories where settlements are built were captured during the 1967 war, they are subject to the Geneva Conventions that prohibit construction on occupied lands. The international community acknowledges this, yet falls short of taking action against Tel Aviv. Most conform to empty words they think will soothe the Palestinian community, while anger brews in the occupied lands and the Israelis push with their illegal settlement construction.
