There is no comparison between Russia’s actions in Ukraine and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, the US government said.
State Department spokesman Ned Price rejected an attempt by U.N. human right expert Navi Pillay to make a link between Russia and Israel in annexation.
“I think it is important to take a step back and to recognize the profound differences between those two situations,” Price stated.
The U.N. Human Rights Commission of Inquiry released its first report to the General Assembly on Israeli activities in Palestinian territories.
The words come after the U.N.’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Israel concluded that the IDF’s “occupation” of Palestinian territory over the pre-1967 lines was illegal because it had become akin to de facto annexation.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem in the immediate aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967, a move the International community has never recognized and has widely condemned.
It has maintained military rule over the West Bank since that war but withdrew from Gaza in 2005. The international community has held that Israel still occupies Gaza because it continues to control its borders.
Last week, both the United States and Israel voted in support of a resolution condemning the Russians for the annexation of Ukraine.
Palestinians and their supporters would argue that what the U.S. accuses Russia of doing in Ukraine, in terms of a war of aggression, is very similar to what is going on in the occupied West Bank.
“No country is or should be immune from criticism. That, of course, includes Israel,” Price said.
“Some of the criticism that we’ve heard – and we’ve, of course, offered our own over the course of recent months – is justified. Much of it is not. And so when you point to comparisons in criticisms, I think it is important to take a step back and to recognize the profound differences between those two situations.”
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