UN official says Israel's settlements equal with war crimes

Michael Lynk, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, was addressing a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, boycotted by Israel which does not recognise his mandate or cooperate with him.

"In my report, I conclude that the Israeli settlements do amount to a war crime," Lynk said.

He confirmed that the settlements violate an absolute ban on an occupying power transferring part of its civilian population into an occupied territory, thereby meeting the definition of a war crime under the Rome Statute founding the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"I submit to you that this finding compels the international community ... to make it clear to Israel that its illegal occupation, and its defiance of international law and international opinion, can and will no longer be cost-free," Lynk told the Geneva rights forum.

Lynk said Israel's demolition of Bedouin tent dwellings in a village in the West Bank on Wednesday left residents without food or water in the heat of the Jordan Valley, calling it "both unlawful and heartless".

"Progressive seizure of Palestinian lands together with the protection of the settlements is a further consolidation of Israel's de facto annexation of the West Bank," he said.

There are nearly 300 Zionist settlements in East Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the occupied West Bank, with more than 680,000 illegal Zionist settlers, Lynk said.