Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) stated that the occupation government is expanding its colonial approach by increasing its settlements, killing Palestinians and legislating laws to revoke citizenship and cancel residency permits of Palestinians in Jerusalem, as well as passing laws for re-settlement in the West Bank and building thousands of settlements.
The right to life has been systematically violated by the occupation, bringing the number of victims to more than 100,000 since 1948. In 2022, 230 victims were killed, including children and women, and since the beginning of 2023, 49 were killed so far and the death toll will continue to increase as long as Palestine remains occupied.
The occupation government not only used lethal force, sentenced Palestinians to long imprisonment, demolished their homes and displaced their families, but it also enacted laws to diminish their presence in their homeland.
On February 15, 2023, the Knesset enacted a law to revoke the citizenship and permanent residency permits for Palestinian residents in Jerusalem, whom the occupation accuses of carrying out operations against them.
Despite wide rage and criticism of the bill revoking citizenship and residency permits, the occupation still approved it, leaving Palestinians to face either being killed or exiled.
On the same date, the Knesset approved, the draft law to cancel the disengagement plan between the northern West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2005. The new law approves the return of settlers to four settlements in the northern West Bank (Ganim, Kadim, Sanur and Homesh).
AOHR UK emphasised that the ongoing killing of Palestinians and the enactment of these laws that are part of a bigger plan targeting the diminishing of Palestinian presence, in particular in the city of Jerusalem, is an ethnic cleansing crime.
The orgsanisation criticised the huge support received by this permanent colonialism based on ethnic cleansing, which was further encouraged by the normalisation led by the UAE to further oppress the Palestinians and eliminate their presence from their lands.
While the international community is preoccupied with an academic debate about the nature of the occupation and failing to take any measures to protect the Palestinians or imposing serious sanctions on the occupation, a major crisis would end the existence of the Palestinian people.
AOHR UK condemns the slowness of the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in taking practical steps to prosecute the leaders of the occupation, which hinders achieving justice for which this court was made.
