Prioritise Palestine, new UN human rights chief told by 65 organisations

Dozens of Palestinian and international organisations have called on the new UN human rights chief to prioritise the human rights situation in Palestine.

The call was made in a letter on Monday welcoming new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, who officially began his new role that day.

Among the 65 signatories were the Palestinian prisoners' rights group Addameer and legal NGO Al-Haq, in addition to Jewish Voice for Peace and the British Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

"The Palestinian people [have been] denied their right to self-determination, they have been enduring over seven decades of Israel's settler-colonialism and apartheid, and 55 years of belligerent occupation," the organisations wrote.

"Gaza residents [have been] surviving in near-unliveable circumstances for 15 years, and Palestinian refugees [are] unable to exercise their right of return."

The groups said they want the human rights situation in Palestine to be at the top of Türk's agenda.

"For far too long, the Question of Palestine has been treated as an exception to the implementation of international law," they added.

The letter raised Israel's use of administrative detention against Palestinians, which allows it to jail detainees indefinitely without charge.

Also addressed were the 5,330 Palestinians killed by Israel's "five full-scale military offensives" on besieged Gaza between 2008 and 2022 and the recent increase in its military incursions into occupied West Bank cities.

The 65 organisations told Türk they are personally aware of the external pressure on his office for his stance on Palestine.

"With the eyes of the international community wide open, Israel has imposed upon Palestine an apartheid reality in a post-apartheid world," wrote @MichaelLynk5 the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. https://t.co/caqGBf8c6M

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) March 23, 2022

They said Israel had retaliated over the office's efforts on Palestine and also highlighted the country's banning last year of six Palestinian NGOs, including Addameer and Al-Haq.

"We trust that such pressure will not derail your Office from its commitment to human rights, justice, and accountability," the groups' letter said.

The organisations made five requests of Türk.

These include calling on him to prioritise annual updates of the UN Database on Settlement Business Activities, which contains companies believed to be linked to Israel's illegal settlements in the West Bank.

The register has not been updated since its initial 2020 publication, the 65 groups said.

Türk was also asked to address the institutionalised and systematic targeting of the Palestinian people which includes the siege on the Gaza Strip and Israel's 'shoot-to-kill' policy.

The new UN rights chief was urged to investigate attacks on human rights defenders working on Palestinian issues.