Geneva, SANA – Syria’s Permanent Representative at the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Hussam Eddin Ala, said that the people of the occupied Syrian Golan continue to suffer from grave and methodical violations of their basic rights at the hands of the Israeli occupation which demolishes properties, seizes lands, and steals water and natural resources to serve its colonialist settlement projects.

In a statement delivered on Monday at the 36th session of the Human Rights Council discussing Item 7 on the “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories,” Ala said that the Israeli occupation is giving incentives for more settlers to go to the Golan, while it prevents Syrians from building in their lands, constricts their movements, prevents them from communicating with relatives in the motherland and pursuing education in Syrian universities , deprives them of means to earn a living, and carries out arbitrary arrests for opposing the occupation and documenting its crimes.

He said that as Syria demands the Council condemn these practices and work towards the immediate release of Syrian detainees in Israeli prisons, it warns against the repercussions of the occupation’s decision to hold local councils elections in the occupied Syrian Golan next year since it violates Security Council resolution no. 497 for 1981 that considers the occupation’s decision to force its laws and jurisdiction on the Golan null and void.

Ala said that the Israeli practices and violations require holding those who commit them accountable, calling for UN agencies to monitor the conditions of the Syrians in the occupied Golan as they require more aid and health and services centers, in addition to calling for opening a UN office in the Golan.

He affirmed that Syria reiterates its condemnation of the violations of human rights and international laws in occupied Palestine by the Israeli occupation, particularly the public executions, arbitrary arrests that affect even children, confiscation of lands and properties, stealing natural resources, policies of isolation and blockades, restricting the movement of citizens, and besieging Gaza Strip.

Ala also said that Syria condemns the Israeli attempts to Judaize Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and build the segregation wall and illegal settlements to hinder the Palestinians’ ability to practice their inalienable rights to self-determination and establish an independent state on the entirety of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 with Al-Quds as its capital.

The Ambassador noted that attempts to marginalize or annul Item 7 affirms that political hypocrisy of certain states in dealing with human rights, and that this encourages Israel to act as if it’s beyond reproach, adding that selectivity and double-standards are the cause of the lack of credibility in the Council.

He said that Israel must realize that UN resolutions aren’t farces; rather they are an expression of commitment to international law and the UN Charter that Israeli violates all the time.

Ala said that the fake humane notions promoted by the Israeli occupation’s Prime Minister in New York recently about the occupation treating Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists is a desperate attempt to cover up Israel’s support for terrorist groups, support which includes providing them with funds, equipment, weapons, and communication devices, in addition to attacking Syrian Army positions, all of which are documented and irrefutable facts.

The Ambassador concluded by asserting that those who think that the events in Syria can divert it from its inalienable right to restore the entirety of its occupied lands are delusional.

Hazem Sabbagh