The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has warned of escalating crimes by illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers against Palestinians and their property, especially during the olive harvest season.
These attacks include stealing olives, burning and cutting down hundreds of olive trees, and preventing Palestinians from accessing their lands and orchards in various areas of the occupied West Bank. The Ministry described these actions as “organized state terrorism” and part of a broader campaign of genocide and displacement aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Ministry highlighted that the colonizers’ exploitation of the West Bank and seizure of Palestinian lands are deepening ethnic cleansing, particularly in Area C, which constitutes the majority of the West Bank. This is seen as an effort to entrench annexation and intensify the apartheid system, undermining the olive harvest season, which is crucial for the struggling local economy.
The Ministry emphasized that the international community’s failure to halt the genocide and displacement has effectively provided cover for the colonizers, allowing them to escalate their crimes with impunity. This threatens the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to return, freedom, and independence.
The Ministry stated that it continues to expose the violations and crimes of the occupation and colonizers’ militias at all international and UN levels, particularly the hardships faced by Palestinians in Gaza, Jerusalem, and the olive harvesters in the West Bank.
It called for the activation of the international protection system for Palestinians and the immediate implementation of the UN General Assembly resolution adopting the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, which calls for ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine within 12 months and imposing international sanctions to stop the genocide and crimes committed by the colonizers.
On Friday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers attacked many Palestinian homes and cut olive trees near Bethlehem and Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
