A/HRC/58/73: Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan – Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Advance edited version

Advanced unedited version

Human Rights Council
Fifty-eighth session
24 February–4 April 2025
Agenda items 2 and 7
Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights and reports of the Office
of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General

Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories
Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan

Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Summary
The present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 55/32, provides an update on the implementation of the provisions of the resolution during the period from 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2024.

I. Introduction
1. The present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 55/32, provides an update on the implementation of the resolution’s provisions from 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2024. It is based on direct monitoring and information-gathering conducted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and on information provided by government sources, United Nations entities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The report should be read in conjunction with the related reports of the Secretary-General and of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights submitted to the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.2

2. The report contains an update on the unlawful advancement of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and its impact on the human rights of the Palestinian people. The High Commissioner highlights that the transfer of powers that were previously under the authority of the military commander in the occupied West Bank (within what is called the Civil Administration) to civilian officials of the Government of Israel is expediting the ongoing transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population to the occupied territory and accelerating the concomitant forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, in grave breach of international law. The report also contains an update on the unlawful Israeli settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan.

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V. Conclusions

60. The establishment and continuing expansion of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan amount to the transfer by Israel of its own civilian population into the territories that it occupies, which is strictly prohibited under international law.

61. The ongoing transfer of power over the Occupied Palestinian Territory to the civilian Government of Israel is facilitating the further consolidation and expansion of Israeli settlements and the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population. Increasingly indistinguishable State-settler violence and wide-ranging and discriminatory movement restrictions, which devastated Palestinian livelihoods during the reporting period, are both causes and manifestations of the Israeli settlement advancement that continued to change the demographic composition of the occupied territory and to annex territory. This has had dire consequences for the human rights of the Palestinian people, including the denial of their right to self-determination, through an institutionalized regime of systematic discrimination, violence and oppression by Israel. This regime violates a wide range of other human rights, including those set out in article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

62. In its advisory opinion of 19 July 2024, the International Court of Justice reaffirmed that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, were established and are being maintained in violation of international law, which civil society and international institutions, including the United Nations, have monitored and reported on for decades. Israeli settlement growth nevertheless continues at an ever-increasing rate, constituting ongoing internationally wrongful acts by Israel and representing a profound failure of the international community of States and its rules-based order, including in relation to the prohibitions on annexation and discrimination and to the fulfilment of Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

VI. Recommendations

63. On the basis of findings presented in the present and previous reports, and in view of the advisory opinion rendered by the International Court of Justice on 19 July 2024 and General Assembly resolution ES-10/24, concerning the advisory opinion, the High Commissioner recommends that the Israeli authorities:

(a) Immediately and completely cease and reverse the establishment and expansion of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, and all other related activity, in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions, including Security Council resolutions 497 (1981) and 2334 (2016);

(b) Evacuate all Israeli settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory;

(c) Bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible, and in accordance with General Assembly resolution ES-10/24; and, in the meantime, uphold all obligations under international law, including the law of occupation and international human rights law;

(d) Rescind all policies and practices that contribute to a coercive environment that induces the forcible transfer of Palestinians;

(e) Cease the appropriation of land in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and return it to its previous inhabitants;

(f) Cease all forced evictions, house demolitions and the reallocation of land to Israeli settlements;

(g) Cease and rescind the policy of exploiting the natural resources of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and diverting them to the population of Israel, including settlers;

(h) Prevent and punish attacks by settlers against the life or bodily integrity of Palestinians and against their property;

(i) Cease all discriminatory practices that violate international human rights law, including breaches of article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination;

(j) Uphold the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, including by ceasing internationally wrongful acts and making reparations for such acts.

64. With respect to third States, the High Commissioner recalls the conclusion of the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 that States are under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.