End settlements, urges UN

Israel must immediately begin withdrawing its settlers from the Palestinian territories, UN experts told diplomats on Monday, even as the new Israeli government appeared set to strengthen the hand of the Jewish settler lobby.Israel must act to “immediately and without preconditions cease the settlement activity and to initiate a process of withdrawal from the settlements”, Christine Chanet told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, lamenting a “rampant annexation” of Palestinian territories.Chanet, of France, was presenting a report of a fact-finding mission commissioned by the council that deemed that the settlements were leading to Palestinians’ human rights “being violated consistently and on a daily basis.”The report, published at the end of January, sparked angry reactions from Israel, which at the time slammed it and the Human Rights Council that commissioned it as “one-sided and biased.”aThe council’s decision to dispatch the fact-finding mission last March to determine what impact the settlements are having on the rights of Palestinians so enraged Israel that it immediately cut all ties with the body, and on Monday, Israel was not represented at the Geneva forum.The Palestinians are set to table a resolution calling for the implementation of the fact-finding mission’s recommendations which should be voted on by the end of the council session on Friday.