UN Human Rights Council to Condemn Israel for Golan Occupation

It is one of five anti-Israel resolutions the UNHRC is set to debate on Monday and will vote on toward the end of the week.Ariana News Agency- 

The United Nations Human Rights Council is set to condemn Israel’s “occupation” of the Golan Heights next week in Geneva as it wraps up its month-long 40th session.

The resolution was submitted by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. It recalled UN Security Council Resolution 497 from 1981, which rejected Israel’s annexation of the Golan.
Israel’s decision “to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan was null and void and without international legal effect,” and the 1981 resolution “demanded that Israel rescind forthwith its decision,” the new resolution states.

It is one of five anti-Israel resolutions the UNHRC is set to debate on Monday and will vote on toward the end of the week.

The council annually condemns Israel’s annexation of the Golan, which it captured from Syria in 1967 during the Six Day War.

But this year’s vote comes in the midst of a renewed Israeli push to sway the United States to recognize that annexation. Political pundits have speculated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would like US President Donald Trump to do so in advance of the April 9 election as a way of ensuring Netanyahu’s success at the ballot box.

It’s a move that has the support of prominent US Republicans. In February, senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin) filed a Congressional bill that calls on the United States to recognize the Golan.

On Monday, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham visited the Golan with Netanyahu and vowed to push the Trump administration to recognize it as part of sovereign Israel.

On Wednesday, the US State Department stopped calling the Golan “occupied” territory and instead referred to it as Israeli “controlled.”

The linguistic change was brought to light when Washington published its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018. That report for the first time omitted the use of the word “occupied” in referencing the Golan.