UN experts issue stark warning on annexation

Israel’s plan to annex nearly a third of the West Bank is a vision of “21st-century apartheid,” a large group of independent United Nations experts are warning.

The letter is signed by more than 40 independent special rapporteurs. along with a range of UN working groups on various rights issues. They do not speak for the UN, but report their findings to it.

The experts say the annexation would be a “serious violation” of the United Nations charter and the Geneva Conventions, and would only intensify human rights violations in the West Bank.

“What would be left of the West Bank would be a Palestinian Bantustan, islands of disconnected land completely surrounded by Israel and with no territorial connection to the outside world,” they say.

The experts say that Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem in 1980 and the Golan Heights in 1981 saw condemnation but no meaningful response from the international immunity.

“This time must be different,” they say. “The lessons from the past are clear: Criticism without consequences will neither forestall annexation nor end the occupation.”