Lynk said that Israel's "occu-annexation is endlessly sustainable" if the international community did not intervene and hold the country accountable. He claimed the ineffectiveness of "countless resolutions and declarations" serves as the go-ahead for "effective consequences.""Israel has rightly assessed that the international community – particularly the Western industrial nations – has lacked the political will to compel a complete end to the occupation. As a result, Israel has rarely faced meaningful consequences for its defiant behavior," Lynk told the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Wednesday.Lynk called for "bold measures and the determination to enforce accountability," and an international agreement on "a complete ban on the export of all products made in the illegal Israeli settlements in the world market," AP reported.“This occupation will not die of old age,” Lynk told told the OHCHR. “This 52-year-old occupation – the longest in the modern world – has been characterized by a strong sense of impunity by the occupying power.”Lynk said that more than 200 Palestinians have been killed and 33,000 were injured since March 2018 during weekly demonstrations on the Israel-Gaza border, according to AP.A UN report from March 2019 stated that "Israeli security forces killed and maimed Palestinian demonstrators who did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, nor were they directly participating in hostilities." The report went on to say that, "less lethal alternatives remained available" and therefore, "lethal force [was] neither necessary nor proportionate" and "impermissible.""Israel has demonstrated virtually no accountability to address these actions," Lynk said, the AP reported.Israel repeatedly stated that its forces were defending the country against violent infiltration, claiming the demonstrations were masking Gazan terror efforts.“Palestinians, along with Israelis of conscience, have been asking repeatedly for the international community to act decisively in support of international law to compel Israel to end the occupation and enable Palestinian self-determination. We can’t afford to ignore their call,” Lynk told UN News.The international community has a responsibility and a legal obligation to compel #Israel to completely end its illegal occupation and remove its barriers to the fulfilment of Palestinian self-determination – UN expert says at #UNGA https://t.co/xB3nwylJyO pic.twitter.com/qMnlFnaARn
— UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) October 23, 2019
U.N. expert calls for boycott of Israeli settlement products
“This occupation will not die of old age,” Michael Lynk told the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
